Holy crap, it worked! Dead video card resurrected!

After seeing the amount of successes in this thread, I decided to give it a try, as I had two graphic cards that were non-functional (6800 GT PCI-E and 8800 GTS 640).

After heating up both cards in the oven at 385 for 10 minutes, I tested them out to see if they worked. To my surprise, both cards booted into XP and both were able to run full tests of 3DMark 06, Furmark, and ATITool!

I never expected that these cards would ever run again. The OP really deserves props for sharing this video card revival technique!

gonna be doing a 360 this weekend

nice to see it works on video cards as well

Originally Posted by CKTurbo128

After seeing the amount of successes in this thread, I decided to give it a try, as I had two graphic cards that were non-functional (6800 GT PCI-E and 8800 GTS 640).

After heating up both cards in the oven at 385 for 10 minutes, I tested them out to see if they worked. To my surprise, both cards booted into XP and both were able to run full tests of 3DMark 06, Furmark, and ATITool!

I never expected that these cards would ever run again. The OP really deserves props for sharing this video card revival technique!

awesome.

dotted for future reference. If I have a card die I will definitely try it in the future.

Originally Posted by Manaknight

gonna be doing a 360 this weekend

nice to see it works on video cards as well

I spent 2 hours dissassembling a friend's 360 yesterday and putting the board in the oven and reassembling, lol. It worked! He didn't have the RRoD, just no video output. He was pretty astonished when we pulled it out of the oven and just connected the circuit board and it worked.

Who would've thought... You need to cook your video card to medium well, not medium rare!
Honestly this is kinda funny

It makes sense, just funny it took this long for people to start trying it on video-cards...

Originally Posted by Oh4Sh0

I spent 2 hours dissassembling a friend's 360 yesterday and putting the board in the oven and reassembling, lol. It worked! He didn't have the RRoD, just no video output. He was pretty astonished when we pulled it out of the oven and just connected the circuit board and it worked.

what temperature and for how long? i do use the standard technique for fixing the RRoD (letting it overheat - two ring - for 2 minutes and letting it cool), but i hadn't known this would work for the no video error as well. i could use more business.

Wow this is outstanding, I will tell to my friend who got a death Radeon 9700 PRO which only boots whenever it feels like. This is very informative and fun!!! Betty Crocker and Pillsbury must feels jelous!!!

Originally Posted by haffey

what temperature and for how long? i do use the standard technique for fixing the RRoD (letting it overheat - two ring - for 2 minutes and letting it cool), but i hadn't known this would work for the no video error as well. i could use more business.

I did 4-5 minutes at 385

Originally Posted by ALL4AMD

this was my thought too. IIRC solder takes about ~700F to flow

It all depends on the makeup of the solder.


There is nothing wrong with his method, probally a bad solder joint or 2 from thermal expansion that was reflowed using this method. But honestly this is nothing different from the manufacturing proccess these boards go to, I really don't get why everyone is so suprised.

I did SMT repairs while I was in the Navy, and underway I used a toaster oven to heat my boards. Also made great grilled chesse :P

That is awesome OP!

I will definitely try it in the future! But what about PS3's...hmm

Tried it on a 7900gt and all the caps and other components fell off.

Don't use an analogue dial oven, I think it heated too high or I left it in too long. 7 minutes or so.

Originally Posted by CleanSlate

Tried it on a 7900gt and all the caps and other components fell off.

Don't use an analogue dial oven, I think it heated too high or I left it in too long. 7 minutes or so.

doh! i used some pos dial oven here so i dunno. u can see the dial of my oven in the pics i took, but it was off at the time.

got any pics of the damage?

I had my doubts at first but I got my 7900GS agp card to work on 375 for 8min. I replaced my son's Ti4200 and let him play COD2 for about an hour while I watched and it worked perfectly. My son turned to me and asked if we were having baked chicken again lol. Thanks OP.

No loss really, the card was dead any ways. I have another dead 7900gt, I'll try it on that eventually.. Once I figure out how to not let that happen again.

Was it elevated like OP pics?

But yea, it sounds like it was too hot.

Originally Posted by CleanSlate

No loss really, the card was dead any ways. I have another dead 7900gt, I'll try it on that eventually.. Once I figure out how to not let that happen again.

What about not turning the card upside down? Instead have it right side up and elevated. This way if the solder melts a little to much the components will not fall out.

Originally Posted by CpuMan

What about not turning the card upside down? Instead have it right side up and elevated. This way if the solder melts a little to much the components will not fall out.

There are components on both sides...

Originally Posted by Mr. B

This reminds me of a similar issue. I have a half working IBM T40 with a video chip connection issue. It's very common and solder reflow fixed with a heat gun are documented online. I don't own a heat gun so I have never gotten around to it. I wonder if there is any possibility of success using an oven instead... of course a laptop motherboard has plastic bits on it like the cpu socket.

I want to chime in and report another success story. After conducting a little more 'research,' I tried this technique on my laptop motherboard. I suspended it above a cookie sheet with little balls of foil seen in previous pictures and baked it at 425 for five minutes. After letting it cool and reassembling the Thinkpad I now have a working laptop. I'm still astonished that this actually worked.

Many thanks to all the posters in this thread.