8800 heatsink is not making contact

[HarshWinter]

Recently I replaced the thermal paste on my 8800gts with arctic silver and now for some reason the heatsink is only making contact on sides of the gpu. The thermal paste only is disturbed on the sides of the chip. (its runing at 79c instead of 63 while idling)

I already tried getting the screws really tight, it only help a little bit.

thanks for help. :)

[liambl]

You need to redo the paste, puting a thin layer over the GPU core. Tightening screws really tight is not recommended, it can seriously damage the card, only tighten until they are reasonably firm.

[TwoRails]

And that over tightening is most likely why you are not getting even distribution.

[HarshWinter]

ok, thanks, but the thermal paste wasn't destirbed in the middle. When it had it reasonably tight it was the same. I didn't put to much paste

Here what it looks like. (ignore the memory chips)
http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n72/BattleAxeChaz/8800paste.jpg?t=1197503402

[TwoRails]

Something is either warped, or bent. Without hands on, it's tough to tell. You can check with something like a 6 inch machinist's scale which is very flat on edge.

[liambl]

If you are redoing the paste, you need to thouroughly clean the core and heatsink and reapply the whole lot. Why did you take it of in the first place?