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

SpeedBump613 said:
I BAKED A COMPAQ! A few months back...I had some issues with a XFX 8800GTX so I went ahead and baked it. Worked out great so far. Been used LOTS for extended gaming sessions and still running flawlessly. My brother bought my mother a new laptop last christmas (Compaq cheapo) and today I found out it took a crap last night. I took my laptop to her to use while I decided to work on hers. It would boot up, LOTS of lines and garbled text and such, so figured it was the OB video. Knowing I had nothing to lose...I tore into it and tossed the mobo into the oven. 7 minutes @ 375, 20 minute cool down, put everything back together and fired it up. PERFECT! So glad I found this thread a while back. Sorry about the lack of quality in the pics...good camera was out in the garage so I used my fone. LOL!
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awesome! and perfect timing...im purchasing a laptop for cheap from a friend tomorrow because of video issues. :D

great to hear this worked for you!
 
Paragon said:
Wow.. this actually worked. I had a 9800Pro that had an an artifact filled screen. Happened middle of last year. I pulled it out the other day and still was borked.
I was searching to find card comparisons on what is out these days (I am so lost when it comes to comp hardware.. so out of the loop) and happened to find this post and tried the oven trick and wouldn't ya know it. I am using the card at this very moment with an image as clear as it used to be. No more need for the geforce2 card for now.
Will see how long it lasts.

Thanks for the post!
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I never updated my findings. After a wee bit of playing some games, the artifacts started to come back again. I threw it in the oven again and after that it was worse than before so I had pretty much given up on that card. I threw the card aside and forgot about it. Well the other night I had tested the card again and still had artifacts. Last night as I was flexing the card listening to the crackle (I assumed a busted solder joint somewhere) I figured I'd go for broke before I started to steal parts off the card for projects. I put it in the oven right on a piece of foil right side up (thankfully I did that) and let it cook... at 500°F (it was the highest the oven would go).

WARNING: Excessive heat can easily damage components, cause shorts, and in turn cause damage to your system. Use at your own risk.

5 minutes later and the nice smell of electronics, I went to pull the card out to let it cool overnight. Well I knew it had done something when the large throughhole capacitors were wiggling! Yep, the solder was completely melted on those leads :eek: I didn't go around touching parts until it was cool enough for the solder to solidify. I didn't want to go and push a RAM chip off the board or something.
Let it cool over night ,put it in the spare system and have it running 3DMark2000 on loop. So far so good but it won't go in this system until later tonight after continuous looping.
 
I have the mainboard from a LG 37" HDTV from work I'm cooking, will let you know if it works or not.

All it does is make a loud snapping noise when powering up then shuts itself off.
 
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I'LL BE DIPPED!

See the shiny cover on the right? I pulled the main board out and cooked it in the oven at 400F for 10 min with a 30 min cool down on the rack. The only thing the suffered was a small plastic flip cover for the optical audio out.

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Right now it is up and running Aliens, I'm going to let it loop for a few days and see if it craps out.
 
gdonovan said:
I'LL BE DIPPED!

See the shiny cover on the right? I pulled the main board out and cooked it in the oven at 400F for 10 min with a 30 min cool down on the rack. The only thing the suffered was a small plastic flip cover for the optical audio out.



Right now it is up and running Aliens, I'm going to let it loop for a few days and see if it craps out.
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that is AWESOME. it has been a good week for baking...

I bought a laptop with borked video because i was fairly positive it could be fixed by baking...

It is working now after 7m 45s @ 385f in a conventional oven. i noticed a heavy solder smell when pulling the board out of the oven.

PICS!

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here is a picture of the problem before baking:

laptopbeforefix2.jpg
 
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holy shit guys, i just baked my dv6000 laptops mobo and it booted into windows, wow. the only problem now is the speaker is popping non stop, not sure what the issue is.
 
fuckin hell, just one word "WOW" my past baking experiences where a tragic, (2 4870x2's dead, 9800pro dead due to everything falling off, and a 8800gt card dead) but you guys have surely pulled the balls of actually oven baking, a tv, laptop's and a guy from another forum baked his 2 mobilephones.
 
Paragon said:
I never updated my findings. After a wee bit of playing some games, the artifacts started to come back again. I threw it in the oven again and after that it was worse than before so I had pretty much given up on that card. I threw the card aside and forgot about it. Well the other night I had tested the card again and still had artifacts. Last night as I was flexing the card listening to the crackle (I assumed a busted solder joint somewhere) I figured I'd go for broke before I started to steal parts off the card for projects. I put it in the oven right on a piece of foil right side up (thankfully I did that) and let it cook... at 500°F (it was the highest the oven would go).

WARNING: Excessive heat can easily damage components, cause shorts, and in turn cause damage to your system. Use at your own risk.

5 minutes later and the nice smell of electronics, I went to pull the card out to let it cool overnight. Well I knew it had done something when the large throughhole capacitors were wiggling! Yep, the solder was completely melted on those leads :eek: I didn't go around touching parts until it was cool enough for the solder to solidify. I didn't want to go and push a RAM chip off the board or something.
Let it cool over night ,put it in the spare system and have it running 3DMark2000 on loop. So far so good but it won't go in this system until later tonight after continuous looping.
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Same problem I had with my 9800 Pro. Well one of the guys here actually mentioned that oven-bake process is more designed for nvidia cards.
 
Matthew Kane said:
fuckin hell, just one word "WOW" my past baking experiences where a tragic, (2 4870x2's dead, 9800pro dead due to everything falling off, and a 8800gt card dead) but you guys have surely pulled the balls of actually oven baking, a tv, laptop's and a guy from another forum baked his 2 mobilephones.
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TV still ticking along just fine this morning too.
 
This has got to be one of the coolest subject threads I've ever read on a forum..... Hope I never have to use this method but, sure glad I know I can if I need to!
 
WOW too many pages to read.
I have a GTX260 that has bad VRAM as it gives horizontal lines greenish or something.
WOULD this methods work??
 
My lappy is still kicking, works like it was prior to black screen problem, it was most likely the dreaded nvidia chips that were failing, but baking has fixed the issues. I wanted to do this a while back but when i saw others doing laptops i had to try it and it worked :).

abbasdr, its worth a try if its out of warranty.
 
I am wondering why you didn't eat it afterwards, why slave over an oven like that..
 
Good job fellow bakers.

I really want to bake an actual motherboard where the PCI-E slot works on and off but I'm worried about the ram slots, IDE/Floppy connector, old style liquid capacitors, etc.
 
abbasdr said:
WOW too many pages to read.
I have a GTX260 that has bad VRAM as it gives horizontal lines greenish or something.
WOULD this methods work??
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I dont think its a bad vram then, this process is designed to reheat the "loose" solder joints beneath the electronic components on the pcb, if it was a bad vram, if I remember from overclock.net a guy baked his gtx285 to see if it fixed the problem resulted in a complete dead card at the end due to the vram. But hey, if its out of warranty then bake it, who knows you could bring to life.:D
 
Spare-Flair said:
Good job fellow bakers.

I really want to bake an actual motherboard where the PCI-E slot works on and off but I'm worried about the ram slots, IDE/Floppy connector, old style liquid capacitors, etc.
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Considering my 9800 pro has a power connector on it, as well as the plastic of the video out connectors and the can-type caps (electrolytic - SMD and thru-hole), a notherboard should be ok. I have one that had a bad keyboard port so I was pondering throwing it in th eoven or reflowing the solder on the port and nearby components by hand.

abbasdr said:
WOW too many pages to read.
I have a GTX260 that has bad VRAM as it gives horizontal lines greenish or something.
WOULD this methods work??
Click to expand...

A lot of what this cures are evenly spaced lines all over the screen. That is what I had.

iGrooCk said:
holy shit guys, i just baked my dv6000 laptops mobo and it booted into windows, wow. the only problem now is the speaker is popping non stop, not sure what the issue is.
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If you had the speakers in the oven, they are probably fried. If they were off, then it is probably either a bad connection somewhere or the audio chip is fried.

Matthew Kane said:
Same problem I had with my 9800 Pro. Well one of the guys here actually mentioned that oven-bake process is more designed for nvidia cards.
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I think it all depends on if there is truely a broken solder connection somewhere and where that joint is located to how hot, how long they card needs to be in there. If the joint is one of the center pins of the GPU, then it will take longer for the heat to get to the point and heat the joint up enough. If it is just on an outer joint of a RAM chip, then it should take less time for the heat to get to it.

Regular solder melts at 360-370°F depending on the blend. Lead Free solder can be closer to 400°F.
 
Thank you guys, I will give it a try as its out of warranty.
It would be GREAT if it revives it :D
BTW anyone of you got a link to opening GTX260 up.
 
hmm, no, buts its pretty easy, unscrew all the screws on the bottom, then carefully lift up the heatsink, don't pull it, and disconnect the small 4 pin fan connector, once taken off, clean all the thermal paste off the pcb only, not the heatsink, then remove PCB bracket and your all set.
 
Matthew Kane said:
hmm, no, buts its pretty easy, unscrew all the screws on the bottom, then carefully lift up the heatsink, don't pull it, and disconnect the small 4 pin fan connector, once taken off, clean all the thermal paste off the pcb only, not the heatsink, then remove PCB bracket and your all set.
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Thanks man, will give it a try IF my 6month old sleeps early today hehehe!
 
I have an older X850 that's artifacting. Thought about baking it but there's all kinds of components on both sides of the card. How do I keep them from falling off while baking? Tape?
 
Thats the problem with my 9800Pro ages ago, I baked, everything fell off, because it was it was baked upside down same as what the op did with his 8800gtx. I learnt the afterwards killing the card, that older graphics cards with old type of chokes, capacitors and heaps of components should be baked with the gpu chipset upwards, so the components don't fall off from the heat.

Before oven baking a ATi card, please read this....a little unpleasant experience I had:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1432783
 
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Does this artifacting appear to be due to bad solder connections? i oven baked my G70M (GeForce Go 7800 GTX) after it produced the above artifacting for 9mins @ 385f and that apparently fixed it, but what do you guys consider of that artifacting? is this fix a long lasting one?
 
erek said:
Does this artifacting appear to be due to bad solder connections? i oven baked my G70M (GeForce Go 7800 GTX) after it produced the above artifacting for 9mins @ 385f and that apparently fixed it, but what do you guys consider of that artifacting? is this fix a long lasting one?
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that looks very similar to the symptoms my card was experiencing. the survival time of a resurrected card still isnt known for sure. some people have had one go bad only after 3-5 months...people with cards that are still working may have not chimed back in to say so.
it does seem quite a few people have had success with baking their cards a 2nd time also, so this may be an option for the future.

i recently baked a laptop motherboard and it will be used on and off basically every day...so when it breaks i will post in this thread. my 8800gtx is just sitting on a shelf. i should try it in my computer to see if it still works...
 
Nice ^^


erek said:
Does this artifacting appear to be due to bad solder connections? i oven baked my G70M (GeForce Go 7800 GTX) after it produced the above artifacting for 9mins @ 385f and that apparently fixed it, but what do you guys consider of that artifacting? is this fix a long lasting one?
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Well it should, I mean as long as you have not damaged the card yourself, by doing so with some high oc's, overheating or volt mods then I'd say why not go for it. Hint: Usually solder cards that keep on/ constant artifacting horizontal or vertical lines and continous driver crashes, then you can bake them and it will be 100% guaranteed a fix. Bad Vram is usually when your card boots up and it can't be detected by anything, even a bios flashing prog and the screen is torn with massive artifacts, then oven baking can't fix this kind of problem.
 
Good lord.

While I applaud everyone's resourcefulness in this, I can't knowingly commend people using ovens to bake their electronics.
 
Another 8800gt raised from the dead. Had it lying around from a friends computer, it had died and he upgraded to a 260 gtx. My kid had been asking for his own computer, so over Xmas break friends and I started piecing him one together from parts lying around. Only thing we were short was a gpu, and I remembered this thread so we threw the 8800gt in the oven. Sure enough, works great first try.
 
Was it completely dead? (Won't even show on startup POST, very loud fan) or was it artifacting at times/constant? (Vertical and horizontal lines and garbled bits of colors on the whole screen).
 
Wompa164 said:
Good lord.

While I applaud everyone's resourcefulness in this, I can't knowingly commend people using ovens to bake their electronics.
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Why? This is a well known engineering method even used by professionals. It's called reflowing.
 
Haha, wonder how big the market would be for a reflow oven... that could handle motherboards and video-cards...

Well, a service setup where someone buys one of those ovens for ~$600 and charges a small fee to reflow stuff and ship it back... hopefully fixing it...

I know a lot of people have dead cards/motherboards that are out of warranty.
 
Matthew Kane said:
Was it completely dead? (Won't even show on startup POST, very loud fan) or was it artifacting at times/constant? (Vertical and horizontal lines and garbled bits of colors on the whole screen).
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If you meant me, it was completely dead. Wouldn't show on startup, fan was loud. Tried it in multiple setups, was definitely toast. After baking and putting back together, runs just fine. Installed into the new setup, stress test for a day, installed some games. He's been playing with it now for a few days with no problems.
 
I definitely have this problem with one my 8800gt's lying around, I've tried the bake method, the card just wouldn't boot even after a second run in the oven :( BTW, what psu you use to verify the gfx card before and after the oven bake method before it was installed into the new setup?
 
Thanks to this thread I succesfully revived my 2 year old 8800 GTX I thought I had lost for good. Thumbsup.

I have a few questions about the cooling paste however. I only need to apply it to the GPU itself? I dont need to bother scraping the white stuff off from the heatsink that connects ram/shaders?
 
Hels said:
Thanks to this thread I succesfully revived my 2 year old 8800 GTX I thought I had lost for good. Thumbsup.

I have a few questions about the cooling paste however. I only need to apply it to the GPU itself? I dont need to bother scraping the white stuff off from the heatsink that connects ram/shaders?
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congrats!


you are correct in your thinking. thermal paste only needs to be reapplied to the gpu. the thermal pads must be kept on the heatsink/memory parts so they get decent contact. thermal paste by itself would be too thin.
 
I have to chime in here and say that with the help of the advivce here at Hard, I just baked my 4870 that just died (no video signal) and it came right back to life and working great today !

I'm not reading this whole topic, but I'm assuming that the contacts on the card have the same fate with cheap soider like the XBOX 360's and the RROD.

[H] fucking rules ! :D
 
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