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

CoachB said:
I tried this with an old Socket 754 motherboard. After about 5 minutes at 380 degrees, the capacitors started exploding like popcorn. One actually blew itself off the board. Needless to say, that board is now "fixed".
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You're kidding... it really works now??
 
Looks like gonna try this with a gigabyte GA-EX-58-UD4P.

Anything else that needs to be done other then remove the heatsink/tim?

EDIT: does anyone think this would work with a dead cpu? (never oced/overvoltage)
 
g0dM@n said:
Dude, you're joking, right?
What was wrong w/the cpu?
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No post on both of my motherboards but worked with x2 6400+ and a x4 9850. No idea what the hell happend to it. but all it matters is that it works and from the looks of it, it's stable.


I have no clue how this trick fixed it... :eek:
 
To the OP, thank you so much!!!!

I got given a 8800GTX because it had bad graphics corruption during post, odd yellow lines when loading windows and windows would blue screen whenever trying to load the NVidia drivers, so it was pretty much toast.

I found your article today and decided to give it a try; I had already cleaned the heatsink out (it was pretty chocked full of dust) and reseated the heatsink with artic silver which made no difference at all.

I followed your instructions and put it on a tray, upside down, suspended by small bits of crunched up foil and put it in the oven between gas mark 5 and 6 (about 400f) for 9 minutes, after which time I shut off the gas and opened the door, but didn't move it for 5 minutes or so in case it unseated anything.

The board warped a little on one corner (or it was already and I didn't notice before) but otherwise, no bad signs. I re-assembled once cool (wrenched the head off one of the small screws around the GPU retightening it, but don't think that will be a problem) and put back in the machine, not expecting much, but to my amazement, it posted perfectly and booted straight into windows with no corruption at all using the latest NVidia driver!

It has now been running for about 5 hours in which time I have solidly been running 3Dmark06 on it trying to get it to go wrong, but it is working perfectly! It is benchmarking 8501 in 3Dmark06 which I don't know if is where it should be, but the graphics while testing are amazingly smooth The rest of the PC only has 1.5GB RAM, a 2.0ghz dual core pentium and an older conroe 1333 motherboard (some bits I had laying around I threw together to see if I could get the card working).

The other thing I noticed is while it was faulty, it used to get VERY hot, to the point it burned you touching the heatsink; I don't know how hot because it wouldn't load the NVidia drivers to open NVtune to get a reading, but now it is idling at 45 degrees c and only goes up to 56 degrees c running 3Dmark and is only warm to the touch.

So again, thank you VERY MUCH!!! I now have a pretty good gaming card which cost me nothing! :)
 
SL01947 said:
To the OP, thank you so much!!!!



So again, thank you VERY MUCH!!! I now have a pretty good gaming card which cost me nothing! :)
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awesome. thanks for the post!


did i mention already that i take donations? :p;)
 
jonneymendoza said:
can i put my 360 in the oven if it breaks? :p
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Actually yeah, you can. There is a tutorial somewhere on how to disassemble it get it prepped but they using a reflow gun (which is just isolated heat). Same concept but just a slightly different approach.
 
i tried my gateway 7322gz motherboard one of the tiny chips came off / i put it in the oven at 400F for 15 minutes and it reconnected the pieace that fall off. it worked and was on there but the laptop did not boot. i think the mobo is just bad and cant be fixed so i will be on ebay for other board 1 that is non working and try it as a fun project
 
I've done it too for my half-dead video card that kept giving a No signal input after a few seconds of starting the machine. It worked wonders and now I can stick with it until I upgrade to a new system that I wanted to do anyway in a few months... BUT NOT NOW. :)
Here's a *short* video I made if anyone wants to see the process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7jUqoKVY-k
 
akashi_tm said:
I've done it too for my half-dead video card that kept giving a No signal input after a few seconds of starting the machine. It worked wonders and now I can stick with it until I upgrade to a new system that I wanted to do anyway in a few months... BUT NOT NOW. :)
Here's a *short* video I made if anyone wants to see the process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7jUqoKVY-k
Click to expand...

nice vid. short and easy to follow.

i like ur pink oven mitt! :p
 
akashi_tm said:
I've done it too for my half-dead video card that kept giving a No signal input after a few seconds of starting the machine. It worked wonders and now I can stick with it until I upgrade to a new system that I wanted to do anyway in a few months... BUT NOT NOW. :)
Here's a *short* video I made if anyone wants to see the process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7jUqoKVY-k
Click to expand...

You made that beat? Right on!
 
My GF gt6600 card didn't revive itself but It still works fine in a workstation just no heavy graphics.
I have a dead GF4200 agp that I roasted be have no way of testing!!!
Compaq Laptop mobo seemed to cook fine but a cap moved. I will resolder just that cap and give it a try later
 
akashi_tm said:
I've done it too for my half-dead video card that kept giving a No signal input after a few seconds of starting the machine. It worked wonders and now I can stick with it until I upgrade to a new system that I wanted to do anyway in a few months... BUT NOT NOW. :)
Here's a *short* video I made if anyone wants to see the process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7jUqoKVY-k
Click to expand...

I thought I was supposed to have my pants down while watching the video... only to find out it was just about a video card.
 
After reading all the success stories I decided to bake a couple of non-functioning video cards. First one was a 3dFx V5 5500 PCI that had no signs of life. Second was a Geforce 4 Ti4400 that had severe artifacting even in the BIOS screens. I baked them one at a time in a small toaster/oven at 385 degrees for 9 minutes.

The V5 still did not work after baking, but it did give me a POST video error beep that it did not do before. The Ti4400 however, seems to work great with no artifacting at all in the BIOS or OS after running for more than 3 hours!

I have not tried this technique on a motherboard yet, but did fix one of my old Socket A boards by replacing swollen caps around the CPU socket.

Thanks Haste266 for a great thread.
 
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!
 
Now try running Ati tool torture test on your "baked" card and see how long it lasts....

I know mine fails after about 3s lol, still no graphic anomalies in games.
 
Tried to bake a biostar tforce 550 that wouldn't post... it didn't work. Throwing the board out once and for all. :(

First time I did only 4-5 min at 385F b/c I saw smoke and wasn't sure what was burning. Second time I tried I forgot to pull off the motherboard bracket (1st time I had it off)... the bracket melted a bit and bent, which would not have been a good thing if the board worked... b/c I would have had to replace it. It was too badly altered from its original shape.

Anyway, it was fun trying.
 
OMG! It worked! My 8800GTS 640mb recently started crashing my PC like crazy and I got blue lines running across my screen with distorted visuals and characters even during POST. Well some dude on AT linked me here, I followed the guide and VOILA! Card works like new! Thank you sooo much! you, or whoever thought of this 1st is the craziest, sickest, haxxor alive.

** I took pictures during the whole process so they are available upon request if anyone needs a reference to their 8800GTS 640mb from EVGA.

Question for you guys. Anyone tried overclocking their cards after the bake? I'm hesitant to do so, because I'm extremely happy this thing even works, so I'm not sure I want to push my luck until I'm ready to buy a new card.
 
ibex333 said:
Question for you guys. Anyone tried overclocking their cards after the bake? I'm hesitant to do so, because I'm extremely happy this thing even works, so I'm not sure I want to push my luck until I'm ready to buy a new card.
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If it fails, just do it again! :)
 
Yea, I did it to a 9800Gt... I tried overclocking and got artifacts / BSOD... so I left it at stock and it's been running fine... friend has been using it for the past few weeks and said he's only had CoD4 crash once...

But it's better then nothing...
 
I saw this when it got Dugg a while back, About a week before this thread started, my 8800GTX developed "faulty vram" apparently. Anyways, I saw this but was hesitant to do this to my only card.

Since then I have had a GTX 260 and I felt that today was the day I was going to try this.

To my suprise, it worked! My oven is a gas one however, so with that in my mind. I baked my video card for 6 minutes at gas mark 5.5

Some nice pics for you! :)

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ibex333 said:
OMG! It worked! My 8800GTS 640mb recently started crashing my PC like crazy and I got blue lines running across my screen with distorted visuals and characters even during POST. Well some dude on AT linked me here, I followed the guide and VOILA! Card works like new! Thank you sooo much! you, or whoever thought of this 1st is the craziest, sickest, haxxor alive.

** I took pictures during the whole process so they are available upon request if anyone needs a reference to their 8800GTS 640mb from EVGA.

Question for you guys. Anyone tried overclocking their cards after the bake? I'm hesitant to do so, because I'm extremely happy this thing even works, so I'm not sure I want to push my luck until I'm ready to buy a new card.
Click to expand...

benbrooks said:
I saw this when it got Dugg a while back, About a week before this thread started, my 8800GTX developed "faulty vram" apparently. Anyways, I saw this but was hesitant to do this to my only card.

Since then I have had a GTX 260 and I felt that today was the day I was going to try this.

To my suprise, it worked! My oven is a gas one however, so with that in my mind. I baked my video card for 6 minutes at gas mark 5.5

Some nice pics for you! :)
Click to expand...

^

awesome!
 
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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