Holy crap, it worked! Dead video card resurrected!

Originally Posted by Sancti0n

I'm happy to say I can confirm what the OP wrote!

I had a similar problem with my vid card (no funky lines, but it just plain stopped booting one day.. looked kinda like the way gas looks in water). I had two of these cards in SLI, and have been using only 1 for about 4 months now.

I followed the OP's directions as close as possible. I had the oven at 390 instead of 385 because I just couldn't get the damn thing to do what I wanted lol. Also, I thought i'd be clever and I removed all the thermal compound from the gpu and ram, and replaced it with Arctic Silver 5 (it's all I had here at home).

Baked it for 10 minutes at 390, cooled it for 30 minutes at room temp (I was impatient lol). I reassembled the card and plugged it in and booted and voila! I'm using it right now! I really didn't expect this to work, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try (certainly couldn't hurt anything). I'm so glad I happened upon this thread!

Thanks to the guy that posted this thread on the main page (Kyle?)! And BIG GIANT THANKS TO THE OP FOR DOING THIS AND THEN POSTING ABOUT IT! GOOD FRIGGIN JOB!

^

nice!


the success stories keep coming in!

Worked for my 8800ultra so why not try a non booting motherboard i have

Wow, now that is some story I didn't expect to find. Nice job!

Since soldering is my everyday job I thought I'd ring in.

I work for Esterline in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and I see electronics all day. 4 SMT lines, 4 Selective Soldering lines, and countless 2nd Operation and Final Assembly lines. I'm amazed this trick works so well. Usually reflowing of solder (specifically lead free which is my specialty on Selective Soldering line #1) requires some sort of flux, oa (organic acid, water-soluble) or no-clean, in order to reflow properly. Using a home oven is ghetto at best but hey, if it works it works and its free!! Just be careful at how high of temperature you guys use. I hear a lot of arguing in here about what solders reflow at certain temps. I can say with confidence that lead solder will flow at 190°C and lead free will flow at 220°C. But that's minimum. In order to reflow properly we are talking 260°C for lead and 290°C for lead free and that includes flux application.

I'm happy to hear that so many of you are having success with this. Just be careful and don't expect miracles.

Originally Posted by Ehren8879

I've overheated my 360 twice to bring it back from the dead, but has failed again within days of doing it. Think I'll try the oven trick and report back.

Yeah if you could tell us whether it was successful or not i would really appreciate it. Also at what temps you tried it at . I've pretty much taken apart my 360 and planning to try this, but I need to get a hold of a t9 screwdriver to take the mobo apart from the metal tray.

Count me in on those who tried this and it worked on a 6600GT that was completely dead but I hadn't thrown away. Baked it at 385 for 10 minutes. Cooled overnight and dropped into a computer. Started right up at bios screen and kept on going. I too will try it again on any board that just quits. Can't lose anything since it's not working anyway. Thanks to all.

Originally Posted by moogle

Yeah if you could tell us whether it was successful or not i would really appreciate it. Also at what temps you tried it at . I've pretty much taken apart my 360 and planning to try this, but I need to get a hold of a t9 screwdriver to take the mobo apart from the metal tray.

Please see my post here. Not everyone would do higher temps, but if you're very careful and patient with your work, everything will be fine.

Originally Posted by e-geek

Worked for my 8800ultra so why not try a non booting motherboard i have

I need to try on a motherboard too, but I'm afraid the PCI slots will melt, no? Can anyone comment?

I think that some PCBs (especially large ones) go through hot ovens to get most of the components on, and then go through slightly cooler ovens for the ports and whatnot. So if I want to reflow the solder that requires higher temps, the stuff that works with lower temps might melt. =/

thanks godman, I will try your steps I'll do lower temps I guess since I'm not that experienced.

didn't work on my old 1900xtx

and since it was broken anyways after I put it all back together I went ahead and put it in the oven again to see what would melt, surprisingly only the heatsink shroud, and the sticker come off pretty easily after that, and you know what I found under it? ANOTHER STICKER!

Godman: I put the motherboard on at 200c - 392f for 8 mins and nothing melted, although the motherboard's still dead, lol.

Originally Posted by stealthy123

...and you know what I found under it? ANOTHER STICKER!

GASP!

Originally Posted by e-geek

Godman: I put the motherboard on at 200c - 392f for 8 mins and nothing melted, although the motherboard's still dead, lol.

I set my oven to 385F, once it hit 385, I placed my motherboard in the oven. After 4 mins I saw a little bit of smoke coming out of the motherboard (still don't know from where) and smelled it a bit. My girlfriend was there with me in the kitchen and I felt really bad b/c she was about to cook us Mexican pizza in the oven.

So 4 min is all I heated the board up b/c I got scared off from the smoke... should I have left it in there another 4 min? I keep thinking to myself that I should have left it in there... I guess the smoke and smell is part of the process... I know solder smokes when melted when I'm soldering something.

Just curious godman, has your xbox 360 been working fine with no problems ever since you baked it? And did you wrap the bottom of the motherboard really well with clothing and foil, or does the bottom not matter as much?

Also, I think im going to use some rope twine that's meant for tying down thanksgiving turkeys instead of metal twine LOL. It's all i got in the house :P. Still haven't gotten around to getting myself a t9 screwdriver ugh. Thanks!

Originally Posted by moogle

Just curious godman, has your xbox 360 been working fine with no problems ever since you baked it? And did you wrap the bottom of the motherboard really well with clothing and foil, or does the bottom not matter as much?

Also, I think im going to use some rope twine that's meant for tying down thanksgiving turkeys instead of metal twine LOL. It's all i got in the house :P. Still haven't gotten around to getting myself a t9 screwdriver ugh. Thanks!

My 360 worked for about a week and today I turned it on and while trying to join a lobby in Gears 2 I got artifacts all over the place.

I already have other plans. I'm going to bake it again, only this time I'm going to do this mod:
Team Hybrid's Ultimate X-Clamp Fix

I might BUY a few of the kits. If I buy 3 it'll cost me about $30. I have 3 xbox 360s that get the 3RLOD that I want to hopefully fix permanently. I've revived 2 of the 3 (still have to open up the 3rd), but you need to fix the mount.

You see... the one I baked that lasted a week... I did the 12v fan mod, I cut out the fan grill in the back of the case with a dremel, I cleaned the GPU/CPU thoroughly with ArctiClean, I put AS5 on there, I did the X-plate mod (the original), and on top of all of this I run the 360 caseless... with the DVD player outside of the case and a 120mm fan blowing over the GPU heatsink...

I have a feeling the team hybrid mod is the last solution left. If that doesn't work, I'm giving up on fixing 360s b/c they ALL come back to the same problem...

Originally Posted by g0dM@n

My 360 worked for about a week and today I turned it on and while trying to join a lobby in Gears 2 I got artifacts all over the place.

I already have other plans. I'm going to bake it again, only this time I'm going to do this mod:
Team Hybrid's Ultimate X-Clamp Fix

I might BUY a few of the kits. If I buy 3 it'll cost me about $30. I have 3 xbox 360s that get the 3RLOD that I want to hopefully fix permanently. I've revived 2 of the 3 (still have to open up the 3rd), but you need to fix the mount.

You see... the one I baked that lasted a week... I did the 12v fan mod, I cut out the fan grill in the back of the case with a dremel, I cleaned the GPU/CPU thoroughly with ArctiClean, I put AS5 on there, I did the X-plate mod (the original), and on top of all of this I run the 360 caseless... with the DVD player outside of the case and a 120mm fan blowing over the GPU heatsink...

I have a feeling the team hybrid mod is the last solution left. If that doesn't work, I'm giving up on fixing 360s b/c they ALL come back to the same problem...

hey if that doesnt work, try torching just the heatsinks. that way you dont have to worry as much about the rest of the system getting too hot and you can really heat up the solder alot more. my friend says his 360 still works 3 weeks later...

Originally Posted by Smiththers2

hey if that doesnt work, try torching just the heatsinks. that way you dont have to worry as much about the rest of the system getting too hot and you can really heat up the solder alot more. my friend says his 360 still works 3 weeks later...

Where do you aim the torch? I have a portable propane torch that I use to heat up the coal for my hookah. Apple flavor baby!!

Originally Posted by g0dM@n

Where do you aim the torch? I have a portable propane torch that I use to heat up the coal for my hookah. Apple flavor baby!!

i wrapped some solder around the copper heat pipe, and just moved the torch around the heatsinks for a while on and off. i did it long enough to melt the solder and then for a few minutes after that on and off.

! Now I'm debating whether I should just bake it first or try to get this dude I found on craigslist who fixes xbox360's with a bga reflow station. Oh I'm too indecisive!!! But thanks for all your info godman, but I might just go with the reflow dude, and hope that it might be a "permanent" fix.

Originally Posted by moogle

! Now I'm debating whether I should just bake it first or try to get this dude I found on craigslist who fixes xbox360's with a bga reflow station. Oh I'm too indecisive!!! But thanks for all your info godman, but I might just go with the reflow dude, and hope that it might be a "permanent" fix.

What does he charge and what's his guarantee?

Remember, a reflow is half the battle (the easier part). The HARD PART is PREVENTING it from happening again.

His reflow may fix the 360 and make it work, but remember that the engineering of the 360 is still JUNK and it WILL mess up again and any given/random moment... maybe it'll last a few months, but it WILL mess up again due to the design of the system as a whole.

You have to mod something different into the system to even think you have a chance at preventing the RROD. Trust me...

Originally Posted by g0dM@n

What does he charge and what's his guarantee?

Remember, a reflow is half the battle (the easier part). The HARD PART is PREVENTING it from happening again.

His reflow may fix the 360 and make it work, but remember that the engineering of the 360 is still JUNK and it WILL mess up again and any given/random moment... maybe it'll last a few months, but it WILL mess up again due to the design of the system as a whole.

You have to mod something different into the system to even think you have a chance at preventing the RROD. Trust me...

He charges $40 and has a 30 day guarantee which isn't that bad I think. But I totally agree with you on modding the clamps of the 360. I will probably try that too if and when I get the time to have that guy reflow it. I hope the hybrid fix like you mentioned fixes the design flaw though. Let me know if you do it!