Holy crap, it worked! Dead video card resurrected!

I'm surprised that 385 degrees was hot enough - I know solder paste I use doesn't reflow till about 410-420f (unless my thermometer is rubbish and is lieing to me!).

Many components should not be at this temperature for 8-10 minutes, more like 30 seconds max, though clearly they can take more than the spec says! Great that it works; far better than throwing the card out ;-)

Originally Posted by simpsond

I just put my GTX 260 in the oven @ 500 for 20 minutes to make it a GTX280... Now it doesnt work at all! What did I do wrong and how do I turn my broken GTX280 back into the GTX260. Thanks.

Refrigerate it.

Originally Posted by david_Mc0

I'm surprised that 385 degrees was hot enough - I know solder paste I use doesn't reflow till about 410-420f (unless my thermometer is rubbish and is lieing to me!).

Many components should not be at this temperature for 8-10 minutes, more like 30 seconds max, though clearly they can take more than the spec says! Great that it works; far better than throwing the card out ;-)

Yeah, 385 seems a bit low for the reflow and the bake time is a bit long at 8 minutes. But then again, if you dont have a proper reflow oven, it might be the compromise needed.

The reflow oven i use at work does preheat for 3 minutes at 300°F and then reflows at 480°F for 2 minutes. When the reflow process starts, it builds the heat from 300 to 480°f, in less then a minute.

Just a warning, when you do this at home, have some ventilation around, the fumes from this are pretty nasty. It's also very important to let the card cool and be careful even touching the oven during heating and cooling. The smallest shake can move parts around when the solder is melted and then you're screwed.

Originally Posted by david_Mc0

I'm surprised that 385 degrees was hot enough - I know solder paste I use doesn't reflow till about 410-420f (unless my thermometer is rubbish and is lieing to me!).

Many components should not be at this temperature for 8-10 minutes, more like 30 seconds max, though clearly they can take more than the spec says! Great that it works; far better than throwing the card out ;-)

These comments and ones like them have been taken as nay Sayers. You are correct in what you say but don't assume the ovens being used are accurate. Some ovens spike in temp or are just simply not accurate. This is working more by chance than by well controlled and understood process. Given that, why not try it before throwing out a bad card. It might just do the trick.

Originally Posted by Hellbilly

Yeah, 385 seems a bit low for the reflow and the bake time is a bit long at 8 minutes. But then again, if you dont have a proper reflow oven, it might be the compromise needed.

The reflow oven i use at work does preheat for 3 minutes at 300°F and then reflows at 480°F for 2 minutes. When the reflow process starts, it builds the heat from 300 to 480°f, in less then a minute.

Just a warning, when you do this at home, have some ventilation around, the fumes from this are pretty nasty. It's also very important to let the card cool and be careful even touching the oven during heating and cooling. The smallest shake can move parts around when the solder is melted and then you're screwed.

And it's hard to know if all the parts will take the higher temperature without damage.

Broken card ebay prices have just went up after this thread...no joke.

I have a broken EVGA 8800 GTS which died on me, I could not find the proof of purchase for it so I couldnt RMA it. The card itself would not post anymore.

So SoL I decided to try this since i had absolutely nothing to lose.


It worked! I tossed it in one of my spare computers and the thing posted just fine!

Temp: 385
Time: 10min

Thanks!

I love this thread. Grats to all who ended with success.

Broken graphics card? Bake it like a cupcake!

Originally Posted by Wolfie

I have to admit I am surprised this worked, with the melting temperature of Lead free "RoHS" solder typically around 217*C (422*F) or higher -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solder
Reflowing your board at home in the oven is a very risky business, be very careful when removing the board, or better yet, turn the oven off and open the door and allow it to cool before removing the circuit board.
Remember a reflow profile will vary by board, chips, and thickness sizes, because the board will not heat evenly.
Normally you want to reflow the card with the biggest BGA chips up, so that they do not lift off the board during reflow.

** yes, We do this almost daily where I work, when reworking a circuit board we typically flood the underside of the chip with a Flux so that when the chip heats up the BGA's Balls are cleaned and resoldered.
We also remove any Through hole components, such as headers and components not designed for reflow, if they can't be removed the other trick is to cover them with Aluminum foil to avoid heat damage to them.
Most circuit board companies will immediately void your warranty when you rework the board yourself. as typically there will be some apparent damage to the board

You can also test your card, by pressing on chips individually if when you press on it the device works then you can reflow just that chip, making it a lot safer to do at home.

Originally Posted by david_Mc0

I'm surprised that 385 degrees was hot enough - I know solder paste I use doesn't reflow till about 410-420f (unless my thermometer is rubbish and is lieing to me!).

Many components should not be at this temperature for 8-10 minutes, more like 30 seconds max, though clearly they can take more than the spec says! Great that it works; far better than throwing the card out ;-)

Originally Posted by Hellbilly

Yeah, 385 seems a bit low for the reflow and the bake time is a bit long at 8 minutes. But then again, if you dont have a proper reflow oven, it might be the compromise needed.

The reflow oven i use at work does preheat for 3 minutes at 300°F and then reflows at 480°F for 2 minutes. When the reflow process starts, it builds the heat from 300 to 480°f, in less then a minute.

Just a warning, when you do this at home, have some ventilation around, the fumes from this are pretty nasty. It's also very important to let the card cool and be careful even touching the oven during heating and cooling. The smallest shake can move parts around when the solder is melted and then you're screwed.

I am glad I am not the only one....
we have some boards we ramp up to almost reflow with the preheat then less than 2 minutes at reflow, then 5 minutes cool down (to avoid moving the components and causing them to slide on the board)

I contend a hotair rework station would be a much better way to go. or even a heat gun

Originally Posted by mtrupi

And it's hard to know if all the parts will take the higher temperature without damage.

true, most plastic coated capacitors, will not take reflow temperature, but the SMT "solid" ones seem to hold up pretty well,

^


for people that dont have a reflow oven handy and have a dead video card no longer under warranty...who cares?

Originally Posted by Haste266

^


for people that dont have a reflow oven handy and have a dead video card no longer under warranty...who cares?

True enough but put "reflow oven" into an Ebay search. Looks like there are many well within the budget of many of the enthusiast here. I might just pick one up myself.

Originally Posted by CruisD64

after reading this thread I decided that I'm going to cook everything that breaks and see what happens

LOL....electronic services are going out of business, the BIG secret is revealed

Originally Posted by mtrupi

True enough but put "reflow oven" into an Ebay search. Looks like there are many well within the budget of many of the enthusiast here. I might just pick one up myself.

I'm seeing 10,000 to 25,000

and a few closer to a couple hundred.. haha... but those only have 7 x 9" cooking areas... theres one for $400 + $120 shipping that does closer to 12 x 12"

Guys, can you please start posting specs on your ovens? I'm not sure if my current machine will bake Crysis...

Also, if I pop my old stupid compaq desktop from 2001 in there at 385f, will it stop being a piece of sh*t after 10 minutes?

Thanks.


(Kudos to the OP for a great 1st hand experience. Good read.)

Originally Posted by Glimfeather

Guys, can you please start posting specs on your ovens? I'm not sure if my current machine will bake Crysis...

Also, if I pop my old stupid compaq desktop from 2001 in there at 385f, will it stop being a piece of sh*t after 10 minutes?

Thanks.


(Kudos to the OP for a great 1st hand experience. Good read.)

you can certainly put it in there and try My Oven has an OC'd AMD TBird in it with an XFX Double Edged Super Quad Alpha XXX TOP Major Big Dog Eleventy Billion Edition card powering it. It has random pictures of Japenese Anime characters and futuristic robots on it. The food literally comes out of the screen and looks so real I can taste it!

lol, actually most electronics are 'baked' (reflowed) nowadays, especially industrial scale production. The official guidelines for this process can often be found at the chip manufacturers documentation, it's a very slow and precise process, elektor hase some oven (control) designs to build one yourself and they also sell a complete oven: http://https://www.elektor.com/extra...n.683120.lynkx , pricing around 1600 dollars instead of 10000+

unfortunately still too expensive for just fixing a few PCB's i'm afraid...

Originally Posted by Impulse

You're not supposed to be melting anything and/or releasing anything from the part... If you are, you're definitely doing it wrong. (and there's probably even nastier shit in half the stuff you've cooked in there, heh)

True.

If you guys are doing any of this, make sure anything made of plastic and such is removed. ONLY electrical components should be thought about putting in the oven. If there are pins holding down a heatsink, remove that stuff. If there's some sort of a port made of plastic, remove that too... etc.

Some of that stuff is soldered on / I have no idea how you'd remove the plastic of a DVI port..

Originally Posted by Blazestorm

Some of that stuff is soldered on / I have no idea how you'd remove the plastic of a DVI port..

Don't worry about it. It'll be fine. The plastic will more than likely not melt at 385. It'll get soft but you don't wanna touch it until you naturally let it cool.

So i bought a 8800ultra for $60 nz so like $35 us. Had funny characters and redlines when booting so i stripped it down and chucked it in on 200c which is comparable to 385f. Left it for 8mins took it out let it cool down and omg it works, booted up fine and am typing on it right now .