Blazestorm
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2007
- Messages
- 6,940
I'd wrap the entire thing in aluminum foil... then put it in for 450*F....
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your story is hilarious and awesome. congratulations, seems like some solder did indeed get separated from a critical joint.. what a crazy fix~!
interesting. I do have some old video cards with artifacting issues, but don't really care enough to try. They are also pretty damn old, an X800XT PE AGP, and an X1900GT.
I do have a 74GB raptor that stopped working a long time ago. Won't even act like its trying to spin up, so it's a problem with the PCB. At one point I was thinking of getting a replacement PCB for it, but that seemed to be fairly expensive. I wonder if I could try and reflow the PCB.
It could also just be fried. I noticed some voltage problems with my PSU after this happened. When I looked inside there were leaking caps. gg enermax. Noticed this problem like a month or two out of warranty. Replaced the PSU of course
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.
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 ;-)
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.
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'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.
true, most plastic coated capacitors, will not take reflow temperature, but the SMT "solid" ones seem to hold up pretty well,And it's hard to know if all the parts will take the higher temperature without damage.
^
for people that dont have a reflow oven handy and have a dead video card no longer under warranty...who cares?
after reading this thread I decided that I'm going to cook everything that breaks and see what happens
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.
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'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)
Some of that stuff is soldered on / I have no idea how you'd remove the plastic of a DVI port..