Geforce 4 ti4600 is Overheating

[mariosoft034]

I bought a used PNY ti4600. It had the pins that hold the heatsink broken and no thermal grease, so i got it at a nice price (about $50 in Venezuela is cheap for that).
I used a pair of screws to put the heatsink to its place and some cheap thermal grease, but the core can't go over 295 MHz (300 stock) without showing obvious signals of excesive heat. I have heard that this GPU can be pushed af far as 340 MHz, so i think that something must be wrong with it. If the bad thermal grease was the problem i should have less headrom before failure (or so i think), instead, this card can't even get to stock frecuency.
Soon i will have some artic silver 5 to try (hard to find here), but if that doesn't work i will begin to feel REALLY worried about my video card.

What may have damagaed the card?
Can excesive overclocking be the origin of this problem?
How overheating may damage the card so it can't go to stock speed againd?
The temperature here is 30 ºC tops. Can ambient temperature be a factor in this matter?
I hope some of you guys can help me.

PD: Sorry for any mistakes in the writing, i am a self taugth english speaker

 

[kenji808]

any idea why it was broken or how it was broken in the first place?

 

[Fern]

Hi mariosoft034 and Welcome to the Forums!

Are you sure that the core and heatsink are making good contact?

Yes, ambient temps have an effect. Try taking the side off your PC case and have a fan blow on the card when trying to reach the correct clockspeed. If the problem goes away, it is heat/temps. If not, perhaps it's something else.

Fern

 

[mariosoft034]

I have no precise idea about how it broke. For what i can see, the tip of one holding pin was broken. I guess it broke while its previous owner was trying to remove the heatsink.
I have just tried what you say fern, and i got no visible improvement. MAYBE 1 or 2 MHz, but i can't say for sure, and it is still far from stock speed.
I think that the GPU and heatsink are making good contact with my custom installation, i can see no gap between them and the heatsink is firmly secured.
Thanks for your interest. I'm all ears (or eyes) if you have any new ideas.

PD: in a few hours i wiil have the artic silver 5 in my hands to try. I will post a message with the results

 

[mariosoft034]

No improvements with the artic silver 5, i'm stuck at 295 MHz. If anyone else has any advice i'll be grateful