Can I re flow a GFX card?

[oO Stevie Oo]

Can I re flow a GFX card? (New question)

Howdy,

***edit, see post 7 please ***

I have an old BFG 8800 Ultra which died some time ago,
It just gets beeps when I try installing it,
I'm about to bin it but just had a thought of a re flow,

Would It possibly fix it if its say some split solder paste?
I'm assuming id have to completely strip the board to release any tension and mask plastic bits but it is worth a try?
Of would I be wasting my time?

I only ask as I only have a little thermal paste left and don't wanna waste it lol

cheers

 

[Tealc]

There are lots of examples of people reflowing their 8800s including videos. You've nothing to lose but I little bit of thermal paste.

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

yeah I'll do it lol
any links spring to mind?

 

[d_brennen]

Message ZZZAC, I hear he's a master of micro electronics

 

[willthepirate]

Did it on an 8800gt, worked fine.

 

[AHarvey]

If you don't want to try it you can always send it to me and I'll try it for you when I do my next batch of xbox's

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

I also do xboxes lol cheers though

now I'm thinking a reflow might not be the way forward, I never really researched the issue the card was having, but it seems like a common one with old and even new cards

Basicly I'm getting no beeps but I dont know if the motherboard has a speaker on it lol, but when I try to power up with this card in, theres no display and the fan is runnin at full speed like its supposed to until it starts to boot, but it doesnt let off, the fan just stays at 100% and nothing else happens.

I have read sometimes the DVI pins in the monitor cable sometimes aren't long enough to make the connection with certain 8800's,

but while I look into that, has anyone had this problem?

cheers

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

re-flowed, used my desolder kit lol
waiting for it to cool

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

oh and went abit hardcore when dismaling it, someone had stripped it before and overtightened the heatsink screws (even though their spring loaded so sorta defeats the object) and the crosshead was rounded off,
so I used a dremel with a slit disk so I could get the off with a flathead screwdriver, if it wasnt bust before, it might be now haha

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

fixed

/thread

 

[d_brennen]

fixed

/thread

What did you do if I may ask?

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

Used my de-soldereing station, its basicly like a mini heatgun which I use to remove SMD/LEDs of circuit boards,
I just heated up different sections of the board until all the solders were shiny and starting to liquefy, rejoining any cracked/split solders that might have caused it to fail.
Then let it cool, rebuilt it, fitted it, working

I've ran a few stresses and all seems to be fine, this will live as my media card (for videos n stuff) til it dies.