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

This sure has flared up a lot of attention...i'm wondering why cnn or fox news weren't involved :rolleyes:
 
This has gone completely viral. 50 bucks says it'll be on g4tv in 2 weeks. Its simple, and its showing to work fairly consistantly. +infinite internet to op.
 
wow 11 pages. Seems like doing it in the over is the slow way. Stick it in the microwave for a few minutes on high.
 
Well, I can't wait to try this on my 8800 GTX. I will have to wait for the wife to leave for work, so I don't get accused of being able to cook. I'll post the results after testing.
 
butundo said:
Well, I can't wait to try this on my 8800 GTX. I will have to wait for the wife to leave for work, so I don't get accused of being able to cook. I'll post the results after testing.
Click to expand...

take pics!
 
Haste266 said:
sooooooo, i removed all bits from the card including the i/o shield and placed it gpu side down with the card raised up on 3 sides by tiny balls of aluminum foil and placed it on a very thin cookie sheet. i preheated the oven to 385f, put the card in and waited around 8-10 minutes. i carefully removed the cookie sheet and placed it on top of the oven to cool down naturally. waited about an hour and voila! =D
Click to expand...
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.
 
I wonder if this "trick" will work for those 1st and 2nd generation Xbox 360 motherboards from systems that have RROD? :D

edit: Hurrr, should have looked through the thread first to find my answer.
 
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If anyone still doubts this is safe, this is how the cards are made in the first place.

I work with making surface mount cards, not as complex as video cards or motherboards, but same principal. Soldering paste is applied over the PCB, put into assembly machine that places all the parts on the correct contacts, then it's put in a reflow oven that "bakes" the card so the solder melts and the parts stick.

I recommend gradually heating the card though because too much heat too soon can ruin the soldering. The reflow oven i use pre-heats the card for 180 seconds at 160°c then turns on intense heating lamps which heat it at 250°c for 90 seconds. Then the card has to cool before touched or moved, as the solder has to set a bit, otherwise all the parts just slide all over the board.

It's nice to see people doing this and great to hear it has worked as a fix.
 
Mega kudos to OP, thats so freaking cool.

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but oven temps can vary considerably. For instance, my oven is 25 degrees F hotter than it says on the display. You can tell this with a cheap oven thermometer (don't use mercury ones).

This is the one I got from amazon a while back:
http://www.amazon.com/Polder-550-Thermometer-Stainless-Steel/dp/B00004S4U5
Its only $5 with free shipping from amazon (if you hit the super saver amount).

Put that in your oven and set your oven to the desired temperature, let it fully warm up and look at the dial.
 
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Hi, my first post here on [H] :D

After reading this yesterday, I was skeptical ... thought maybe it was a hoax. Then replies started coming up from other people with success stories, so I thought it might be worth a try.

A year or two ago, my x1900xtx died ... green lines and blocks shown all over the screen even during post. Basically put it in a cupboard and forgot about it. Seeing this, I stuck it in the oven, took it out after 8 minutes and reassembled (once cool).

On first boot there were pixels changing to random colours on the screen throughout post ... but by the time windows was loaded they'd stopped appearing, and didn't show themselves during several reboots (driver uninstall and install stuff).

Has now completed many tests of 3DMark 05 and 06, and has currently been on the 3DMark06 demo on loop for about 3 hours ... not had a single dodgy pixel or artefact or texture the entire time.

So yeah ... this is awesome :)
 
CoretTrobane said:
Hi, my first post here on [H] :D

After reading this yesterday, I was skeptical ... thought maybe it was a hoax. Then replies started coming up from other people with success stories, so I thought it might be worth a try.

A year or two ago, my x1900xtx died ... green lines and blocks shown all over the screen even during post. Basically put it in a cupboard and forgot about it. Seeing this, I stuck it in the oven, took it out after 8 minutes and reassembled (once cool).

On first boot there were pixels changing to random colours on the screen throughout post ... but by the time windows was loaded they'd stopped appearing, and didn't show themselves during several reboots (driver uninstall and install stuff).

Has now completed many tests of 3DMark 05 and 06, and has currently been on the 3DMark06 demo on loop for about 3 hours ... not had a single dodgy pixel or artefact or texture the entire time.

So yeah ... this is awesome :)
Click to expand...

very nice!
 
Well, I'm 2 for 2. (I put my cards in the oven GPU up)

I first tried this with an ATI x300 video card that was totally dead. The computer would boot with it in but it was not detected at all and would not show video. Seems to be working fine now as a computer posts and boots into windows ok. HOWEVER, this card had older style thru-hole caps which bulged and partially melted in the oven. These will be replaced before doing any further testing.

Then I tried an nVidia 6800 that had massive artifacting and would lock up the computer when attempting to go to 3d mode. Seems to work fine. I played a little WoW with the card for about 15 minutes and it worked perfectly!

/edit: thanks to the OP for giving this a shot and sharing your experience!
 
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AMD_Gamer said:
Digg front page, better snatch up any dead video cards from ebay and elsewhere now!
Click to expand...

Damn, I'm looking everywhere for dead cards to try this on X.x
Ebay isn't showing up anything for me. I've just been searching up "Dead video card" or "Dead 8800"...

What else should I try...
 
Hey I am trying to get this http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190311109520&viewitem=&salenotsupported sounds like putting it in the oven might work.

Somebody really wants it though, I started bidding when it was $15.00 and it is now $40+shipping making it like $52 shipped, I'm not sure if it is worth it for that price.

Posting the link here in case anyone from [H] wants to give it a try. I suppose you can always put it back on ebay just like this if resolder does not work.

ITEM DESCRIPTION
You are bidding on a used nVidia 8800 GTX 768MB PCI Express (PCIe) graphics card. This card is made by EVGA. This card was used in my personal home computer until it had to be replaced due to artifacting issues. It comes from a non-smoking home.

The card works to boot a machine with, but will show graphical artifacts during POST. The fan still works 100% fine. This would be a great item for someone who needs spare parts or someone who wants to use EVGA's Step-Up program.

This auction includes the following:

* nVidia 8800 GTX 768MB PCIe Card
* Original Packaging from EVGA
Click to expand...
 
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LordTacodip said:
Damn, I'm looking everywhere for dead cards to try this on X.x
Ebay isn't showing up anything for me. I've just been searching up "Dead video card" or "Dead 8800"...

What else should I try...
Click to expand...

took me a awhile to figure it out but putting in "as-is" come up with some, like "nvidia as-is" or geforce "as-is"
 
Hi..
I baked my recently dead 8800GTX
unfortunately I moved by accident one of the Ram chips while its hot, after a seconds it just stick to board, I tried the card but didn't work..
so tossed it again in the oven & tried to correctly palace the ram in its accordance (I don't think it's perfect) but didn't work either
(Just black screen but the fan work well)
any advice?

note: I placed the card on the oven not upside down (the GPU is facing up)
 
ameer said:
Hi..
I baked my recently dead 8800GTX
unfortunately I moved by accident one of the Ram chips while its hot, after a seconds it just stick to board, I tried the card but didn't work..
so tossed it again in the oven & tried to correctly palace the ram in its accordance (I don't think it's perfect) but didn't work either
(Just black screen but the fan work well)
any advice?

note: I placed the card on the oven not upside down (the GPU is facing up)
Click to expand...

if you moved one of those ram chips then you probably have all kinds of shorts from the solder smearing, will be hard to fix
 
Never mind the video card. Do you actually cook food on that cookie sheet? Gross.

Dude, here's a thought. You may want to clean the area up before you take pictures.

Yuck!
 
mentok1982 said:
Nice job Haste.

I posted a story on GPUReview.com:

http://www.gpureview.com/how-to-fix...-1-preheat-your-oven-to-385f-article-798.html
Click to expand...

bluehash said:
This screams guts! But well done!

edit: BTW you are now on hackaday.
http://hackaday.com/2009/05/31/ghetto-electronics-repair/
Click to expand...

awesome! this definitely seems to have had some success. im glad some people could get some dead hardware going again. im currently just going to keep my 8800gtx securely buried away in my closet in case i ever need it for backup.
 
Alright. Hoping I can score this X1950PRO for $15 shipped on Ebay. Details say it powers on but it just gets artifacts and what not.

If I can get it and get it to work with the oven technique, I'll post pictures.
 
Another success story!

Just brought an Verto Geforce 6800 GT back from the dead. It had been acting up while I was using it in a backup rig. Finally wouldn't boot so I yanked it a few weeks ago

Todya, I stripped it down, put it in the oven at 385F for 8 minutes just like the photo, let it cool off, dressed it back up and dropped it in an extra box I have in the basement. Booted into Windows fine. Ran a couple games for a few minutes and seems to be OK. Haven't torture tested it with anything yet but I am very very surprised. I really didn't think it would work and the look on my wife's face as I cooked the videa card was priceless. I am sure she thinks I am going around the bend.

Gonna try it with an artifacting Radeon 9700 Pro later on.

Thanks for the tip!
 
Dude, I'm not surprised at all that you were able to do this. Quite interesting indeed, though!

I've fixed a few 360s with my heat gun, but it doesn't always last (b/c of Microsoft's poor design). If I was you, I'd be so happy and I'd just slap on a good aftermarket cooler and be done w/it. :)
 
Wow, very lucky.

In addition to the gradual heatup that others have mentioned in a reflow oven:

There are also some electronic components that are moisture sensitive, in that they soak up the moisture in the air. If you high temprature bake them while this moisture is present, it turns to steam inside the compoents and ruins them.

The solution is to do a long low temprature bake (around 50 deg C) for a period of 24 hours, before doing the final high temp bake to reflow the solder.

Just an FYI for you people with dead vid cards or xbox's that are also thinking of trying to resurect them via this method.
 
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.
 
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