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

Radeon HD 6870 - Developed spontaneous screen glitching/tearing/artifacts while under normal use in Windows 7, causing BSOD. Eventually worsened, showing two massive blue vertical bars upon boot-up, then switching to small blue/white vertical bars filling the entire screen just prior to the Windows log-in screen. Disassembled, cleaned thoroughly. Baked for exactly 8 minutes at 385f, GPU side up on a cookie sheet lined with tin-foil, resting on 4 dice-shaped pieces of foil, roughly 1/2 inch above the surface. Pulled directly out of oven after time elapsed and allowed cool down on top of oven for several hours. Applied a modest amount of silver thermal compound to GPU and re-assembled. Powered up with no artifacts, discoloration or any other discernible issues. As of now it appears to be 100% operational. For those who think the age of this post discredits its relevance, you are sorely mistaken.
 
There is always a chance of it working, but it's only a chance. I tried it twice never successfully. Once with a Notebook motherboard that suddenly lost display adapter and with a dead x1950, neither came back to life. And the former was done by a professional electronics workshop.
 
It's a bit of a crapshoot, to my knowledge... and it's rather brute force. You do run a risk of screwing up other components than the broken one.

A poor man's rework, perhaps?
If you resurrect something with this method, I'd only use the part affected in primary use until you can get / afford a replacement.
 
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Thanks for keeping this thread alive. It just reminded me that I have a disassembled dv6000 that was supposed to go for a reball at the local guy who does it. He doesnt return calls or emails since he is too busy and I totally forgot about it. Time to grab the heat gun and try to fix it. The thing is worth like 20 bucks, but hey its worth a shot.
 
THANKS a lot !!!
To you and to the author of this crazy ideia .

My Nvidia Gainward GTX460 died a couple weeks ago .
I couldn't found the card in ''device manager'' and all i saw was ''GREEN HORIZONTAL BARS'' ...

I've tried everything to solve the problem because right now i cannot afford to buy a new one :
- i reinstalled the drivers multiple times
- i installed even older drivers
- i inspected the video card and nothing was broken or burnt
- i tried the video card in all available slots
- i open the video card and clean the dust and add new thermal compound
- i tried different cables from the power supply
- i tried with a secondary power supply connected only to the video card
- and lastly ... i Formatted the pc
Nothing worked ...

Fortunately i found this Page/site/discussion and crazy as i am , i decided to try .
I open the card and did the same thing with the tiny balls of aluminum foil (nvidia chip up) ,
I did it in a old Gas oven and let the card there for 15 min. almost in the maximum , opening the oven once in a while to see if the card did not start to melt .
After 15 min. i remove it and i just let the card Cool down a bit and i give it a try , and ...
''Voilá'' , -------- IT WORKED --------- , i just had to install the drivers.
Now, after a week is still working flawlessly 12 to 13 hours a day !!!

GOD BLESS YOU !!!
 
THANKS a lot !!!
To you and to the author of this crazy ideia .

My Nvidia Gainward GTX460 died a couple weeks ago .
I couldn't found the card in ''device manager'' and all i saw was ''GREEN HORIZONTAL BARS'' ...

I've tried everything to solve the problem because right now i cannot afford to buy a new one :
- i reinstalled the drivers multiple times
- i installed even older drivers
- i inspected the video card and nothing was broken or burnt
- i tried the video card in all available slots
- i open the video card and clean the dust and add new thermal compound
- i tried different cables from the power supply
- i tried with a secondary power supply connected only to the video card
- and lastly ... i Formatted the pc
Nothing worked ...

Fortunately i found this Page/site/discussion and crazy as i am , i decided to try .
I open the card and did the same thing with the tiny balls of aluminum foil (nvidia chip up) ,
I did it in a old Gas oven and let the card there for 15 min. almost in the maximum , opening the oven once in a while to see if the card did not start to melt .
After 15 min. i remove it and i just let the card Cool down a bit and i give it a try , and ...
''Voilá'' , -------- IT WORKED --------- , i just had to install the drivers.
Now, after a week is still working flawlessly 12 to 13 hours a day !!!

GOD BLESS YOU !!!

Good post. :D

I recommend you improve the cooling of your 460, and improve it well. Because the issue will resurface due to heating and cooling cycles.
 
Good post. :D

I recommend you improve the cooling of your 460, and improve it well. Because the issue will resurface due to heating and cooling cycles.

Thanks man , i will do that ... and i hope it work till i can afford to buy a better one . :)
 
I haven't had to use this method in a long time but I am glad to see it has been working for some folks, over 7 years later!
 
this is one necro that I do approve! this has worked for many people on many different devices!
 
15 more years in the future and it will be necro'd by people who have gotten some weird form of cancer. :sick::ROFLMAO::p
 
Hahaha! This is too damn funny. I posted in this thread way back in 2009 (nearly to the day). Since those initial fixes, I have done many more. The last one was a couple weeks ago. EVGA GTX670 SSC that my brother gave up on. Baked, torture tested for nearly 24hrs straight. I consider that "fixed". Tossed it in a static bag and into the pile of parts for use at a later date. The only items that didn't work out of at least a dozen or so was a HP Laptop Mobo and a XFX 7600GT AGP Card. That GPU was baked at least 3 times. Each time it worked fine for a good while, then the laws of diminishing returns took over. Bake, handful of months, bake again, 2 months, bake last time, few hours. DEAD. LOL. Kept it anyway. nostalgic.

On a side note, I had a customer that had an Ebay Store and sold TVs. He would put together working units from damaged or non working ones and sell them. (as used AS IS). I told him about this process and he used it on a few TVs. Maybe somebody here has one. lol
 
So my Sapphire R9 280 started dying two weeks ago (two months after the 2 year warranty ended).

Crash with a colored screen and vertical lines while playing. (Whea_uncorrectable_error)

Then the PC did not boot up.

I took the card off the PC, I plugged on to Onboard, I uninstalled all the drivers.
Then I connected the card on the PC, boot up on Onboard again.
I tried to install Driver ... crash in the middle of the installation. (Whea_uncorrectable_error)

Then I found this thread.

I took courage and did exactly like the original post, the only difference is that my oven is much smaller than his.

385 ° F (196 ° C) and bake for 10 minutes, with the GPU facing down.

I waited to cool for 40 minutes, I put the thermal paste, heatsink, coolers and the cover.

The PC boot up!

I was able to install the Driver.

The only thing I did not do was test in games. When I take courage I'll test and I'll come back here to tell you if it worked.
 
Has anyone done a GPU bake and had the fix last for years? I've read a lot about baking only lasting for short periods before the issues pop up again.

Also, I was watching a video by Linus on Tech Tips and he pointed out the the chemicals and gases released by baking a card will contaminate your oven, so not to use one that you plan to cook in.
 
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Has anyone done a GPU bake and had the fix last for years? I've read a lot about baking only lasting for short periods before the issues pop up again.

Also, I was watching a video by Linus on Tech Tips and he pointed out the the chemicals and gases released by baking a card will contaminate your oven, so not to use one that you plan to cook in.
yea mine lasted years and till i retired it.....i wouldn't run a business baking cards in a oven used for food...but one card is not a huge deal
 
I couldn't imagine the few times we've done it to be a problem, no more so then all those years it was still ok to microwave food in Styrofoam lol. I did a Virtual boy a while ago, one of the eye modules needed it, fixed it up good, working ever since. Back when I did GPU's they lasted the two years or so until I sold them off, so that's as far as I can confirm them to work but it's something I guess. I think a buddy of mine did this to his Xbox 360 and last I knew it's still going, that's like 4 years ago, maybe more
 
well....
I heard that this leaves a chemical in the oven? Truth to this?

u are heating up the whole board with other components ,,, also those ROHS solder (Lead Free) is actually more toxic, as it add lots of other compound to increase the adhesiveness compare to Pb, so yes.. it does leave toxic residue...but depend on ur toxicity index, the "toxicness" might be "ok"
 
I couldn't imagine the few times we've done it to be a problem, no more so then all those years it was still ok to microwave food in Styrofoam lol. I did a Virtual boy a while ago, one of the eye modules needed it, fixed it up good, working ever since. Back when I did GPU's they lasted the two years or so until I sold them off, so that's as far as I can confirm them to work but it's something I guess. I think a buddy of mine did this to his Xbox 360 and last I knew it's still going, that's like 4 years ago, maybe more
Seriously? A virtual boy? You did this world a disservice by repairing that XD. They should of dumped them all into the land fill next too the ET cartridges. I remember a friend trying to sell me his for like half the price. I couldn't stand playing it. A few months later I remember like piles of them in the middle of a EB story. They couldn't give those away. Think they were trying to sell them of for like $25.
 
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the minute amount of toxins being off gassed is negligible for a doing this a couple times and as long as youre not cooking a pizza with it youll be fine! oopen a windows and leave the oven open to air out after. its not like you kid will end up like this or anything....

 
question,
I have a Sony Fw-900 that i would love to bring back from the brink of death. Years ago I was browsing the web with it and i heard a subtle electric type pop, almost like a surge, then the picture flashed into greenish horizontal and mildly swirled lines across the sceen. If i were to take it apart and find it's guts to bake would this potentially be a fix, or is it more likely an actual piece of hardware is completely fried?
 
Seriously? A virtual boy? You did this world a disservice by repairing that XD. They should of dumped them all into the land fill next too the ET cartridges. I remember a friend trying to sell me his for like half the price. I couldn't stand playing it. A few months later I remember like piles of them in the middle of a EB story. They couldn't give those away. Think they were trying to sell them of for like $25.

I collect so I had to have one. I don't go for full sets on any system because I don't have the space or care for all the games I won't ever play but for virtual boy I will, I have 7 right now and I think there was only 11 in NA. It looks dumb with just one case on the wall for a certain system. I think I've only got 4 or 5 of them cased right now, but honestly I don't even have walls to display on at my new house so I guess it doesn't matter lol
 
My PowerColor Radeon HD 7970 was occasionally displaying architects since new. Just as the warranty ran out, it crashed hard once and would displayed random stripes and checker boards while posting, would not boot to high res in windows.
So essentially it was dead, which is a shame because its still a decent card that handles Warthunder (what i play these days) very well.

Found out about this trick and decided to give it a go. 12 minutes @ 195 deg C.
There was a bit of 'burned electronics' smell. I was expecting to see shiny melted solder but that was not the case. was not hoping for much.
I put it in the PC and it fired right up, without stripes or artifacts... booted to windows fine... have been plying games for few days now - no issues. even original random artifacts issue seems to be gone.

Pretty amazed it workd, and very happy.

Thanks Guys.




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I wouldn't flip the card upside down like that unless your oven doesn't have a fan forced option for both top and bottom.
 
This thread needs to be stickied, and have a revamp of the news posting. An actual editorial with instructions and pictures, and you can use a lot of these posts as testimonials!

I've done this with my PS3 once, and my GTX 570 twice (once for Wolfenstein TNO and once for Old Blood).


1,999 posts! crazy.
 
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