Holy crap, it worked! Dead video card, resurrected!

anchorpoint said:
Hi guys!

Thanks for this über-cool thread - I just saved at least over $400 on this neat little hack.

See pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/peteranker/sets/72157619886796144

My Dell XPS m170 was suffering from blue, random pixel artifacts all over the screen both at boot and in Windows after running for a while. It would then completely hang and become non-responsive.

Dell boot diagnostics boot tool said the video memory chips were failing:

Error Code 5300:0119

Msg: Detected a failure while writing and reading video memory. Video mode: Fh (640x350x2). Address A0080h, expected to read 0h, but read 20202020h instead.

I then disassembled the laptop and discovered a LOT of dust, hair, etc. clogging between the fans and the coolers. I cleaned it, and reassembled the laptop, but it still had artifacts, etc.

I called Dell for support. Since the warranty had expired, they would charge me $415 for a refurbished replacement card - provided that I send back the old one and installed the new one myself.

So after reading this thread, I thought "what the heck - I have nothing to loose and $415 and a working laptop to win", so I went ahead and did it, with a bit of disbelief.

I "baked" the card at 200 deg C for 9 minuttes, took it out and let it rest for about an hour. Then I cleaned the cooling elements a bit, and applied fresh thermal grease to the nVidia chip.

Once again I reassemled the laptop and turned on power while holding my breath. It started up as normal! I quickly re-ran Dell diagnostics and no errors were now detected.

Next thing was to boot into Windows and install 3D Mark to stress test the laptop to see if I could provoke any hangs, etc. I did between 10-20 3D Marks runs, and all was okay!

I also ran FurMark, which is said to be the best stress tool for video cards, and goes far beyond what is considered "normal" use". I ran at maximum stress for about 20 minuttes, and the temperature did reach 104 deg C, but it didn't crash.

Think twice before you throw away that video card! :D

See pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/peteranker/sets/72157619886796144
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awesome dude and nice pictures
 
I've got a dead 8800 GTX I may give this a try with.. I'm not hopeful because it seems very dead but hey, worth a shot! Nice one!! :)
 
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pollaxe said:
I've got a dead 8800 GTX I may give this a try with.. I'm not hopeful because it seems very dead but hey, worth a shot! Nice one!! :)
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let us know how it goes! pics would be great. :)
 
The 8800gtx and gts I used the baking method on are still working great. I have been using the gtx in this computer every since.

I just picked up three supposedly bad 3870x2 cards. No physical damage just not suppose to work. Ill be trying this on them soon.
 
Does this work with laptop system boards? At my workplace we have a bunch of bad one. I am thinking about putting them in the oven and cooking them up now. Thanks!
 
JHefile said:
Does this work with laptop system boards? At my workplace we have a bunch of bad one. I am thinking about putting them in the oven and cooking them up now. Thanks!
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It seems to have worked many times over. Search this thread for " laptop " and see :)
 
this thread reminds me of the kid in Wardwarecentral (Picachu was it?) who had the P4 before release date and was "being hunted down by the FBI."

epic thread!
 
AntiSocialMunky said:
Why isn't this thread stickied yet? This is like the most amazing thread ever.
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I don't think the [H] wants to actually encourage anyone to do this because it really is an "at your own risk" affair...so I can understand it not being stickied. It seems to have had enough response to keep alive for this long so I'm sure it'll keep popping up at the top of the forum.

But of course I won't argue with it being sticked, or me getting a custom title... :D
 
Hello. I'm new to this forum. I had to post my results for you so I made an account.

I had 8800 GTX cards in SLI. One of them developed broken random lines when in 3D, so I took it out months ago. The second one just crapped out a few days ago with the same symptom. It even had the lines in the BIOS screen. Just to check, I swapped in the other dead card and it too had lines in the BIOS screen. Since this card had worked fine in 2D and was only broken in 3D, I concluded that it was something else. I fooled around with swapping other components and concluded that it was my fishy 680i motherboard which I never really liked. I thought that since the first dead card worked fine in 2D, that it couldn't be the cards then. I got a 750i and it did not fix the problem. This invalidated my previous assumption that the first card that died worked in 2D but not in 3D. Rather, it was that the other card was the only one being used in 2D when in SLI. I guess only one card get used for 2D in SLI (right?) This is a possible "duh" moment, but I thought I'd mention it in case anyone else ran into this.

Anyway, I tried the aforementioned baking and it worked for me too. I have only done one card so far. I'm taking the second one apart now. I felt like an idiot for even trying it and indeed for even thinking about it. I tried to hide the whole thing from my wife, but it worked! What helped me do it was that I had nothing to lose and I've done another wacky thing like this. Once my old iPod stopped working. It would only click and click. I read somewhere to smack it fairly hard and it worked also and I've been using it for 2 more years.

In opening the cards, I noticed a hell of a lot of dust built up around the cooling fins and fan. I guess the moral of the story is that one must clean these occasionally. I've never had heat be such an issue before these cards. I'm definitely going water cooling next time (I don't want to invest in the blocks for these old cards).

Also, I did not register these cards which were both from EVGA. This was a mistake. They probably would have given me newer cards to replace them. I've read a post that mentioned that.

So, thank you for sharing and good luck to any people trying this crazy idea!

Sheckey
 
LOL, just tried baking a motherboard, but it warped the PCB so badly. :D

And I refused to test it to see if it's working again, because a bad motherboard could easily destroy all the other components! NO way, Jose!
 
If you guys bake large boards try coming up with some sort of shim to hold the board straight. And again, don't expect miracles. You're ghetto reflowing, or at least trying to, compaired to thee origonal manufacturing process.
 
Reflowed my old ATI 9800. Had bad colored pixels & artifacts. Now working like new. I did this to a redbox with a heatgun & it's been working for a year now. Gonna try it on a $400 SCSI card now to really push the limits.
 
HOLY SH!!!!T i put my gateway M520 with 9600pro a pieace fall off and i baked it at 400f for 15 minutes and i tried to turn it on after letting it sit for about 2 hours it did not work after reading the forum i said what the hell i will try it again and it worked!!!!! i though i was out of $100

Thank you dude so much
 
Wow, some great stories here. I almost want one of my old cards to FUBAR so I can try this :D Congrats to everyone who got their cards working again.
 
Update on the gateway laptop. i dont know what my oven did but i love it now lol. it fixed all my problems on the computer i put my hdd again booted xp and it worked wonderfully. before i had a problem where the wireless and nic would hog up my internet now it dont it works as it should thank you again. and if you have laptop it will work i will take picture if you guys would like and show you what fall off and how my oven make it go back on :D
 
Well my 8800ultra that i ressurected just died again. This time it wouldnt show video and makes the video card error beep on post.
 
lol yeah i could see the blurb if i ever sold it (i would never sell it), "every 3 weeks just chuck it in the oven".
 
Had a friend with a smart phone he dropped in a toilet recording the flushing sound. took it apart to dry out and it stated working again
 
I've kept reading this thread and it occurred to me that I have a Asus A8Js laptop with no video output to the LCD or the monitor port that I should try this on. I'll give it a shot if I get time soon, sounds like a prime candidate and it would be nice to have it working again.
 
twoblueeyes78 said:
Had a friend with a smart phone he dropped in a toilet recording the flushing sound. took it apart to dry out and it stated working again
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I remember last year in the beginning of the year I went to the gym and had to relieve some pressure before working out. Sat on the toilet and started playing with my company phone (the Treo)... I always played Solitaire while on the toilet.

Somehow... it chuckled in my hands and fell backwards, between my knees and into the toilet. It was swimming with the brown fish.

I'm more optimistic than the average person so instead of freaking out, I laughed.

I took out the battery, dried the phone, sanitized it and it ended up working again... it was funky for about a week or 2, but then it was back to normal. I never ended up having to tell my boss.

I feel bad for the next person that got the phone when I left the job. :D
 
enlightenedby42 said:
I've kept reading this thread and it occurred to me that I have a Asus A8Js laptop with no video output to the LCD or the monitor port that I should try this on. I'll give it a shot if I get time soon, sounds like a prime candidate and it would be nice to have it working again.
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I dont did not think it would reconnect 1 of the mini Capacitor that fell off my gateway 7330gz motherboard. i banked mine for 400f and for 15 minutes. i had to let it sit for about a day or 2. because i tried after letting it sit for 4 hours so i just waited a few days and it worked good as new.it worked even better. i was out of $100 for the mobo well not now :D

Good luck on baking your motherboard
 
enlightenedby42 said:
I've kept reading this thread and it occurred to me that I have a Asus A8Js laptop with no video output to the LCD or the monitor port that I should try this on. I'll give it a shot if I get time soon, sounds like a prime candidate and it would be nice to have it working again.
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Just make sure you do it long enough, im pretty sure that because my 8800 died again i didnt put it in long enough.

Good excuse to upgrade :p
 
g0dM@n said:
I remember last year in the beginning of the year I went to the gym and had to relieve some pressure before working out. Sat on the toilet and started playing with my company phone (the Treo)... I always played Solitaire while on the toilet.

Somehow... it chuckled in my hands and fell backwards, between my knees and into the toilet. It was swimming with the brown fish.

I'm more optimistic than the average person so instead of freaking out, I laughed.

I took out the battery, dried the phone, sanitized it and it ended up working again... it was funky for about a week or 2, but then it was back to normal. I never ended up having to tell my boss.

I feel bad for the next person that got the phone when I left the job. :D
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That is hilarious! hahahaha
 
tl;dr.. Total Awesome-sauce, it only went and worked !!

8800GTX (generic, out of warranty, 18months old) crapped out of game the other day, no biggie seemed alright. Then booted up one morning to get random characters & fuzziness on boot up screens. Continued into vista, card not recognised / code 10 bull and such stuff.

Read through this post and thought may aswell give it a go. cooked it today - pre-heat to 50c, insert card, 2 mins increasing temp to target 190c. 8 mins later turn off oven, open door and try for some kind of controlled warm down. left for an hour or 2 to fully cool/set then put HS on etc.

popped it back in rig and whoo -hoo - seems all good so far. Thanks a lot Haste & those others who gave it a go, another satisfied customer :)
 
Just resurrected my old AIW 9800 pro, it's been working fine for about a week now. I got 2 dead socket 939 asus motherboards that I might try baking when I get the time.
 
i wanted to update with my laptop it still works awesome i dont have any problems. its works wonderful. i am thinking of just messing around and buy a 7900 GX2 and bake it just for fun. i would be paying $35 for it lol. so i will update you guys when i get it and see if i get lucky i am going to bake it for 400f and for 10-15 minutes like i did with my laptop motherboard.
 
Can I bake a broken hard drive? Has this been tested? I might Bake some old broke RAM too.
 
THUMPer1 said:
Can I bake a broken hard drive? Has this been tested? I might Bake some old broke RAM too.
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The only part of the HD that could be baked would be the controller card, the circuit board on the drive itself, that interfaces with the computer.
 
Baked some Pc100 RAM. The Chips came off. lol No big deal. Tried baking a hard dives control board. Nothing fell off of it. :)
 
One of my 8800 gtx's was artifacting real bad and wouldn't load windows, I had seen this and thought of trying it, but wanted to wait until my wife wasn't around. I tried it @385 for 5 min and it didn't artifact in the boot screen and would load windows, but I got alot of errors in windows or linux. I later tried it again @390 for 9 min. It's been folding 24/7 for over a week with no problems.
 
I would have thought it would burn up/blow up in there. :D

Didn't read the whole post, but IMO I'd get a new card and use this as a backup. Would probably be safer.
 
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