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

Dosobye said:
Sorry to go office topic a bit, but would this work for an xbox as well?
What would be different that would be done if so?
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It's not necessary to do this with an xbox motherboard, there's actually a better method that can be done with a $5 kit of hardware and a few tools (given that you have to open the xbox anyway, can't put the plastic in the oven). If you're interested in the x-clamp fix method, which is much more preferable to the oven method, you can get one of these kits: http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Repair-Kit-Replacement/dp/B00130AIQM . There are countless tutorials out there of how to outfit your 360 with the new hardware, and I can say from personal experience that it works 100%. I have a launch 360 from early 06 that has been fixed with this over a year ago and it's been working flawlessly ever since.

If you wanted to straight up put it in the oven, you would have to remove *everything* off of the motherboard that can be removed (cables, heatsinks, thermal paste, fans, etc), and then follow a similar method of putting the motherboard in the oven for 8-10 mins at 385F. I personally recommend the above method over this, the x-clamp fix has a high success rate.
 
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Yes This does work on the 360 also. Make sure you get off all plastic on the mobo that you can. I baked my 360 @ 390 for 9 minutes and repeated the process. I also after installed an Xclamp kit as well
 
I just did the oven trick with my 8800GT last night. It worked, sort of.

I don't have visual glitches now and my system no longer locks up. I was even able to run Dragon Age, although at a much slower frame rate than my 5870 of course.

Here's my problem... under GPU-Z the 8800GT shows 0 Mhz core, 0 Mhz shader, 0 Mhz memory speed. Also, none of the CUDA, PhysX, Direct Compute, etc. boxes are checked. When I try to load up MSI Afterburner I get an error saying "No supported hardware detected" or something like that.

When I go into Device Manager, it says my 8800GT is working corectly. Do I just need to install new drivers for it? I think it's using 185.93, or whatever drivers come with Windows 7. I only have access to the internet at work, and I can't download anything or hook up any media to these computers.

Any thoughts on what could be going on?
 
foxdelta said:
Hey All. First post here.

Got the link to this excellent site from Techspot as I had asked the question about fixing a couple of GCs that had gone the way of the Dodo (XFX GF 6600GT AGP & ATI X1650 AGP). The 6600GT works fine on desktop but as soon as you try and run anything 3D or try to do Win7 check, it corrupts and locks the system up. The X1650 card just produces lots of colourful lines and pixels etc from boot. Fortunately I have kept them in their boxes and now, having read this excellent thread (cheers Haste) I am embarking on a culinary experiment which I hope will reap rewards! Just got to wait until Mrs F goes out ;)

I will keep you posted on results. Thanks again all for posting results, hints and tips etc; much appreciated! :)

Regards.

Foxdelta
Click to expand...

Ok. So I have to say that my first attempt at baking did not produce the masterpiece I had hoped, in fact my XFX 6600GT resembled a cheap pizza at the end...... I was distracted by an annoying BT salesman on the phone at the critical moment; in my frustration of trying to get rid of him I lost track of the time and at 12mins and 40 secs, realised that the outcome would not not be good. Opened the oven to find all the capacitors had blown off and the VGA/DVI bracket had completely detached from the card......that and the obnoxious (probably toxic) smell that it made.........bummer!

Tried the X1650Pro next at 190C for 8 minutes, cooled for 30 mins, reassembled heatsink and fan - multi-coloured lines on boot up again.......bummer....... Tried it again same temp and time, same result, so I guess it is not the solder that is the issue....

Friends GF 7600GT on the other hand worked a treat. 190C for 8 minutes; handed it back to him today and voila - works a treat again. His son is currently trailing it on WoW and it is working fine. So I guess, 1 out of 3 aint bad?

Thanks again for all the anecdotes from everyone's experiences; great fun to read. Long may this fix continue!

Lastly, make sure you ventilate well as the smell can be bad and I am sure it is not healthy! I locked my dogs away during the process just in case!! :eek:)
 
Yeah, the smell was pretty noxious. Though I had no problem with the card baking at 350c for 8 minutes.

Anyone have ideas on why GPU-Z is now showing my 8800GT to have 0Mhz core/memory/shaders?
 
Darksword said:
I just did the oven trick with my 8800GT last night. It worked, sort of.

I don't have visual glitches now and my system no longer locks up. I was even able to run Dragon Age, although at a much slower frame rate than my 5870 of course.

Here's my problem... under GPU-Z the 8800GT shows 0 Mhz core, 0 Mhz shader, 0 Mhz memory speed. Also, none of the CUDA, PhysX, Direct Compute, etc. boxes are checked. When I try to load up MSI Afterburner I get an error saying "No supported hardware detected" or something like that.

When I go into Device Manager, it says my 8800GT is working corectly. Do I just need to install new drivers for it? I think it's using 185.93, or whatever drivers come with Windows 7. I only have access to the internet at work, and I can't download anything or hook up any media to these computers.

Any thoughts on what could be going on?
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I am not really sure what is going on with your card. How long did you have it in the oven for, and at what temperature? See my post above (#1002) for the temp. and time I used. I also baked my twice, with a coooling period in between.

My 8800GT was so dead, it was not even allowing my pc to boot up before it crashed! Since I baked it yesterday morning, it has been running great. I don't know how long it will last for, but for now its not showing any issues whatsoever.

I've included a couple of images to show diver versions, etc. You may need to get yours updated. Also maybe you should consider re-baking the card.

ONE ALSO NEEDS TO REMEMBER THAT THIS IS NOT A GUARANTEED FIX!

Good luck!

8800GT01.jpg


8800GT02.jpg


8800GT03.jpg
 
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Definitely the drivers on that 8800GT. The windows 7 included drivers are typically old, you should always download nvidias newest drivers.
 
big thank you for this thread - few months ago 9800gt had the 'Code 43: Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems' i think it was - which lead me here.

did the 10 minutes at 200C, let her cool off, and back to normal!

now today i have a dead motherboard, im gonna give it a go (it goes to the bin otherwise, cant hurt to try). although as its a mix of surface mount and thruhole, where the thruhole may be wave soldered, im not so confident all the plastic will handle the temperature, but i guess we'll find out!

edit: took it out at 7 minutes, due to plastic smell and bubbling electrolytics (completely forgot that - guess there is a point to these solid caps these days - can still them in the oven more easily!)
 
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wow, its alive!...never would have expected that

so:

dead 9800GT code43 - 10 mins 200C - alive and working ~ 2 months
dead GA-73PVM-S2H single normal startup beep but thats it - no screen/video/beep codes - 7 mins 200C (electro caps just started bubbling) - alive for time being
 
Bubbling caps are not a good thing. I'd still look into replacing your board.

A good way to prevent this is to get some thick aluminum foil and some extra cloth. Take the cloth and cover anything heat sensitive (plastic connectors, electrolytic capacitors, etc) as best you can. Take the aluminum foil and cover the cloth, leaving only the areas you wish to reseat exposed, and secure it to the board using heat resistant double sided tape.

Some liquid rosin flux is highly recommended for reseating otherwise the solder joints/balls may or will dry out and crack, causing further cold or non contacting joints. Take some flux and apply it between the underside of the BGA package and the PCB. Be generous, but not to the point where it's super messy. Clean up the excess with isopropyl (the lower water content the better) and Q-tips.

Making sure your board is stable and level (flat); heat it.

I hope this helps those who need to reseat/reflow boards that have lots of melty-poppy things on them with out wrecking them!
 
only needs to last a few more months till the new socket 1155 etc stuff is out, then we can decide what to do.

i did measure the capitance of some of the worst caps, one was e.g. 420uF instead of 470uF (-10%), which is within typical tolerances. long term outcome might not be as good, but better than a dead board.

but good info for those giving it a go, only downside of covering the caps is you cant see them bulging or bubbling.
 
Tried this on my 3870x2 last night, unfortunately i tried the gpu facing down method and some caps came off, soldered them back on but no go :(

Ive a 4870x2 thats not outputting any display, if powercolor don't get back to me then its next for the oven, gpu's up.

Gpu up or down i suppose its possible for components from the backside to fall off as well. :confused:
 
Hello my friend I have pny 9800gx2 only error 43, you solvent problem error 43 your video card 9800gx2. How i have solvent? How life time, is solution definitvo?
 
My 8800 ultra is having problems again. I baked it more than half a year ago and was working well until this week, I baked it 3 more times and the video glitches wont go. I have a HD 6870 due in the mail soon tho :D
 
My 4870x2 is failing again now, I tried cleaning the crap out of it and applying ceramique, helped but after another day its starting to crash after light use, re-boots with two thick bars of strange pixilated colors.

Gonna try the bake method, maybe ill put some fries in beside.
 
Good news , Had two 8800gts that where showing artifacts, horizontal lines, and causing boot failures and crashes.

Followed the instructions and both cards seem to be going strong from all indications.

I have played 3d games etc with that and its working great. Can't believe this worked!
:)
 
On the laptops, can you put the whole mainboard (minus the cpu) in the oven? Just did this and could smell the solder.. Hope it works
 
The procedure should work with any electronics board really.

It's done professionally with "Reflow Ovens" but they're expensive. I was looking on Ebay to see if you could find one for motherboards/graphics cards but they're a few hundred. And barely big enough to fit an ATX board in there.
 
NewKleer said:
only needs to last a few more months till the new socket 1155 etc stuff is out, then we can decide what to do.

i did measure the capitance of some of the worst caps, one was e.g. 420uF instead of 470uF (-10%), which is within typical tolerances. long term outcome might not be as good, but better than a dead board.

but good info for those giving it a go, only downside of covering the caps is you cant see them bulging or bubbling.
Click to expand...

I would check them weekly for any leakage, once the electrolyte starts leaking it will quickly damage other components. Personally I would head to digikey and grab som panasonic solid caps to replace your bubbling ones with.
 
Hi. I´m from germany and we are famous for our flavorsome bakery products so I´m going to try myself on a GeForce Go 7800gtx from my DELL Inspiron 9400 Delux.

One last question before heating the oven:
I´ve found reports where users baked there nVidia over 7-12 minutes at ca. 200° Celsius and I found some, where users used to do it 30 minutes at ca. 125° Celsius.

What´s your opinion at that point for a first time baker :confused:
 
Just a quick report back - baked my Nvidia card back in August - fixed!

Played Dragon Ages at reduced graphics and it broke again :(

Baked it again and I have a working laptop for Light Duties!!! :) :) :)

Great thread- thanks.
 
Ashcraaft said:
Hi. I´m from germany and we are famous for our flavorsome bakery products so I´m going to try myself on a GeForce Go 7800gtx from my DELL Inspiron 9400 Delux.

One last question before heating the oven:
I´ve found reports where users baked there nVidia over 7-12 minutes at ca. 200° Celsius and I found some, where users used to do it 30 minutes at ca. 125° Celsius.

What´s your opinion at that point for a first time baker :confused:
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Most solders used in electronics flow at around 180C -220C, since the basic idea behind baking is to reflow broken solder points (basically a shadetree mechanic version of the factory process) I'd start there. There are a few solders that flow under 130C, but as far as I know none of them are used for electronics.
 
worked on my 8800gts about 2 weeks ago. burned christmas moolah on a new 460 but thanks to this unorthodox method i can save this 8800 for a folding machine. honestly the only true pain in the arse step for me was getting the foil balls all the right size and the card propped up on them!
 
friend gave me an 8800 GTS 320mb card that had artifacts in bios and windows.

baked it.

BOOM no artifacts... havent fully tested it thoough
 
What else could be wrong with the card if it's not solder microfractures?

My card works fine in windows but freezes/artifacts with craziness all over the screen whenever I launch a 3D app. I've baked it 3 different times at varying temps and times, 415x8 minutes being the longest but the same issue still occurs.
 
Ashcraaft said:
What´s that stuff all around the chip? Do I have to remove it too bevore baking?
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it looks like TIM. i would try to clean it up if i were you. some IPA and a q-tip or two should do the trick
 
What is TIM and what is it used for?

IMHO the grey stuff could be some kind of isolation. But what happens if I remove that isolation afterwards the baking?
 
I haven't read the whole thread, but I wonder if this is due to the new leadless solder used now. The new solder does "grow fingers" over time and these fingers can short out the circuits.
The good news is that we are all safer for removing lead from the process. The bad news...the airplane you are flying in may have the same leadless solder.

Anyways the "fingers" are almost microscopic in size, I suspect that is what is melting and repairing the video card.
 
evanisthecoastie said:
Looks pretty shiny for TIM,
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It´s not shiny. It is grey and beamless.

2010-12-11 Update: baked my NIVIDIA GeForce GO7800 GTX 9 minutes at 185°C opened the oven door and let it cool down slowly about 2 hours. Result: a working display without any lines untill now (worked over 2 reboots and some stress-tests with FurMark and Farcry)
 
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This is some incredible stuff, I haven't had any electronics fail on me yet to use this method... but it's great that it works for so many people.
 
My 8800gtx started acting up last week and this morning it died.
Found this article and gave it a try and OMG.!!

I did exactly as the OP said and the entire process took about an hour from disassemble, to baking, to reinstalling.

So far everything is working great.
 
My wifes 9800 GT died tonight.. Wouldn't even get to windows just getting blue dots all over. Baked it and now she is up and playing wow right now lol. Worked like a charm. There thermal compound that was on the card was like powder when I took of the heat sink so that wasn't helping to start with. Put some AS5 on it and the fan doesn't even spin up now. This thread rocks.
 
My 9800GTX was artifacting heavily yesterday, baked it and put some new AS5, now it seems to be working fine. I don't trust it too much though so I ordered a HD6850.
 
I bought a Visiontek HD4850 from Circuit City and they went bankrupt. My receipt is washed out and Visiontek said I need to have a receipt for warranty, so pretty much I was screwed. Not until I baked my card :p

The card artifact on POST and would freeze on Win7 desktop, but after I baked it, all problems are gone now!

I love you - the inventor of the oven and the OP!
 
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