Could use some expert help with a bricked GTX 680

pgi947 · 17 Nov 2012 at 12:22

How easy a job is depends on the person doing it. I consider my self to be pretty damn good with a soldering iron, but I wouldn't touch something so small due to the amount my hands shake, this is how an easy job becomes extremely difficult

@OP, If you've never picked up a soldering iron before, seek out some professional assistance, you have to think what is the going to cost the most...~£100 for someone to solder on some caps or ~£350 for another 680.

ibpalle · 17 Nov 2012 at 12:49

BONUS - when moving the new PC around I noticed a tiny rattling so turned it upside down a couple of times and guess what came out! The missing capacitor.

Now to decide on whether to try the repair myself

The surface mounting soldering looks fun and I have never tried that before so I may give it a go.

Any links to online stores that carries what I need please?

JonSmith · 17 Nov 2012 at 13:21

Just some advice.

Surface mount soldering is hard, it's very easy to damage the tracks if you're inexperienced. I suggest you buy a practice board and a bag of SM resistors (shouldn't be that much money). For soldering, you're going to need a fine tip iron (with a tip going to about 0.5mm) and a pair of strong tweezers.

There are various techniques, so you'll have to watch some youtube videos. But the most important thing is that you practice soldering and de-soldering on a spare board first. If you have a really old GPU or something that would suffice.

Also those resistors might be broken. Usually when they come off like that they fracture, so you'll have to test them somehow.

ibpalle · 17 Nov 2012 at 13:32

Practise board is a good idea, thanks. Fractured capacitors - oh no!

Will look for replacements as I also need test solder ones so could get a couple of the same ones.

Gregster · 17 Nov 2012 at 13:48

spoffle said:
That really wasn't worth it. Replacing a broken laptop power socket is one of the easiest soldering jobs you could ever do. The charging sockets cost a few pounds and it'll take about an hour to repair.

Sorry for being a noob.

Stanners said:
There you are Greg, that's you told!

Stop wasting your money

Seems that way

spoffle · 17 Nov 2012 at 13:51

gregster said:
Sorry for being a noob.

Seems that way

I didn't say you're a "noob" I'm just pointing out that you got ripped off really. I'm by no means an expert when it comes to soldering, my soldering is in fact quite messy but I've managed to replace broken charging sockets in a fair amount of stuff.

Gregster · 17 Nov 2012 at 13:54

spoffle said:
I didn't say you're a "noob" I'm just pointing out that you got ripped off really. I'm by no means an expert when it comes to soldering, my soldering is in fact quite messy but I've managed to replace broken charging sockets in a fair amount of stuff.

Do you ever read how condecending you sound? I was happy with the price and the repair but according to you, I got ripped off...

humbug · 17 Nov 2012 at 17:03

This?

spoffle said:
I didn't say you're a "noob" I'm just pointing out that you got ripped off really. I'm by no means an expert when it comes to soldering, my soldering is in fact quite messy but I've managed to replace broken charging sockets in a fair amount of stuff.

Thats not remotely condescending, i don't know how anyone can get condescending from that.

Its like walking on egg shells if you cant post a perfectly acceptable line like that.

d_brennen · 17 Nov 2012 at 17:22

spoffle said:
I didn't say you're a "noob" I'm just pointing out that you got ripped off really. I'm by no means an expert when it comes to soldering, my soldering is in fact quite messy but I've managed to replace broken charging sockets in a fair amount of stuff.

Ripped off? He got charged £70 for a service that he wasn't willing/able to do himself. It matters not that jacks are a couple of quid. There is the small matter of having the equipment to solder, the strip down and rebuild of the laptop, which if done correctly would take an hour or more of someones' time. Would you say that surgeons rip the NHS off with their wages? I mean suchers and scalpels are mere pennies, and surgery is just cutting and stitching, amiright? And those damn bakers, charging £1.50 for some flour, water and knob of butter FFS. You can make your own bloomer loaf for one 1/4th of that!

OP, SMD soldering is **easy peasy**. Easy when you are good at it that is, if you don't have an iron and small nozzel hot air gun to begin with I'd just get someone else to look at it. Tracks and pads can be damaged with the slightest of slips.

OR you could take it on as a project. If you consider the card as dead already you don't have much to lose. I'd go with the recommendation to buy some SMD caps and practice replacing components on a really old GPU.

ibpalle · 17 Nov 2012 at 17:31

d_brennen said:
OP, SMD soldering is **easy peasy**. Easy when you are good at it that is, if you don't have an iron and small nozzel hot air gun to begin with I'd just get someone else to look at it. Tracks and pads can be damaged with the slightest of slips.

OR you could take it on as a project. If you consider the card as dead already you don't have much to lose. I'd go with the recommendation to buy some SMD caps and practice replacing components on a really old GPU.

Havent decided yet if I'll attempt the repair myself. Watched a few youtubes about this and it looks interesting - could be fun to try but preserving the card is a priority and as you say, the pros will have a better chance of that. Thats what one pays them for

spoffle · 17 Nov 2012 at 17:32

d_brennen said:
Ripped off? He got charged £70 for a service that he wasn't willing/able to do himself. It matters not that jacks are a couple of quid. There is the small matter of having the equipment to solder, the strip down and rebuild of the laptop, which if done correctly would take an hour or more of someones' time.

Soldering irons are dirt cheap. I think £70 is excessive, it's no issue if you disagree, I think it's high, you might not that's fair enough but it's above 20% of the cost of an average laptop and that doesn't seem right to me.

You know, some laptops don't even require soldering to replace a charging port, some just have a cable header you swap over.

Would you say that surgeons rip the NHS off with their wages? I mean suchers and scalpels are mere pennies, and surgery is just cutting and stitching, amiright? And those damn bakers, charging £1.50 for some flour, water and knob of butter FFS. You can make your own bloomer loaf for one 1/4th of that!

Surgery and repairing a computer aren't really comparable.
Baking with ingredients isn't really the same either, a better example would be if I was referencing the costs of a PCB, components, solder and chips and so on but I wasn't.

OP, SMD soldering is **easy peasy**. Easy when you are good at it that is, if you don't have an iron and small nozzel hot air gun to begin with I'd just get someone else to look at it. Tracks and pads can be damaged with the slightest of slips.

I see what you tried to do there, I didn't imply it's easy, I don't think it is. I said I'm not very good at soldering and I managed to repair broken laptop charging ports. Surface mount soldering is hard, I would give it a go but I don't think I'd do too well. I wouldn't mind practicing like you suggest though.

Gregster · 17 Nov 2012 at 17:33

spoffle said:
Ah "I wait for the mods to come and clean this up" means you've been reporting posts again doesn't it? Oh lawd.

Yes it does. I have no wish to be insulted and like I asked. "Would you talk to people like that in real life or do you only do it whilst you can hide behind a keyboard"?

And lying? What? :confused about what?

You said I was the first to say "Crybaby" which is a lie. I never stoop to suck low levels.

And yes, you do over react, I said something you didn't like and you have a moan about it and go on about how I'm being condescending, and then start reporting posts because you don't like what's been said, then tell me I'm immature?

No I didn't like it and I am still not sure why you felt the need to tell me I was ripped off. You said "That realy wasn't worth it" and I am saying it was.

Get a grip and stop playing the victim so much. You're a grown man you should be able to deal with people saying things you might not like without acting out.

Like I asked, do you talk to people in real life like that?

Then accuse me of thread derailment ignoring the moaning and sulking you've been doing as if it's ontopic. If you think what I've posted is so bad and awful that it physically hurts, why do you respond?

lol at Physically hurts....

spoffle · 17 Nov 2012 at 17:36

Give it a rest Greg, no one cares.

Gregster · 17 Nov 2012 at 17:37

spoffle said:
Give it a rest Greg, no one cares.

You speak for the whole community now?

d_brennen · 17 Nov 2012 at 17:39

ibpalle said:
Havent decided yet if I'll attempt the repair myself. Watched a few youtubes about this and it looks interesting - could be fun to try but preserving the card is a priority and as you say, the pros will have a better chance of that. Thats what one pays them for

Indeed. Some people are masters of EVERYTHING though, and repairs done by pros are rip offs!

spoffle · 17 Nov 2012 at 17:40

d_brennen said:
Indeed. Some people are masters of EVERYTHING though, and repairs done by pros are rip offs!

It's all about the context. You know very well I never said SMD soldering is easy, and AGAIN I've already said I think my soldering is bad.

This point you think you have, I don't get it.

Gregster · 17 Nov 2012 at 17:43

spoffle said:
It's all about the context. You know very well I never said SMD soldering is easy, and AGAIN I've already said I think my soldering is bad.

This point you think you have, I don't get it.

You don't get the point. That is the problem. I had no wish to try and solder my laptop and was happy to pay £70. you said I was ripped off...Please explain ripped off? Should I take them to trading standards?

spoffle · 17 Nov 2012 at 17:55

gregster said:
You don't get the point. That is the problem. I had no wish to try and solder my laptop and was happy to pay £70. you said I was ripped off...Please explain ripped off? Should I take them to trading standards?

You don't have to do anything, but the ripped off part, well that was in relation to the actual cost. £70 is very expensive even for paying some one else to do that sort of job, it's quick and easy so £70 is what I'd call excessive.

I would have done it myself, but that aside, anything over £40 is very high for it, if £70 doesn't bother you, fair enough that's your choice but you're recommending them to others which I don't agree with.

It's just my opinion, you don't need to have an emotional response to it, just in case you were thinking of having one.

Gregster · 17 Nov 2012 at 18:01

spoffle said:
You don't have to do anything, but the ripped off part, well that was in relation to the actual cost. £70 is very expensive even for paying some one else to do that sort of job, it's quick and easy so £70 is what I'd call excessive.

I would have done it myself, but that aside, anything over £40 is very high for it, if £70 doesn't bother you, fair enough that's your choice but you're recommending them to others which I don't agree with.

It's just my opinion, you don't need to have an emotional response to it, just in case you were thinking of having one.

I was pleased with the service and hence why I said:

gregster said:
As the cards are expensive, I would look to get it repaired professionally if you are not overly confident with a soldering iron. I sent my laptop to be repaired after the power point got damaged after the lead got ripped out. It cost me £70 but was worth it.

I will get their number if you like and see if they can repair it?

I have no financial gain from recommending them and it was an option that was left for the OP to decide if he wanted that number or not. Nothing more and nothing less.

You seem to feel I get emotional easy and yet you don't know me. I wish you did know me because that way you would see a GFX card forum never gets me emotional, except when I see a new GPU released.

d_brennen · 17 Nov 2012 at 18:03

spoffle said:
It's all about the context. You know very well I never said SMD soldering is easy, and AGAIN I've already said I think my soldering is bad.

This point you think you have, I don't get it.

I'll spell it out with a little story for you

A guy has a laptop with a broken DC jack. He is no idiot, in fact he is a professional in his field, but he has little soldering experience. He tears down his laptop one evening and in the process of doing so he misses a ZIF connector. It's easy to do if you don't know what you are doing. Upon removing the touchpad the mousepad connector is ripped from the board and will never work again.

Not put off by this he soldiers on, getting his £15 Antex iron and crappy lead free solder out of the garage. This iron is fine for school projects and such but not nearly hot enough to make the jacks solder points molten enough. He bodges the old jack off and the new one on. The contact is ok, but not nearly strong enough. After all his efforts he has a semi-working laptop and it only cost him 2 hours and £3 for a jack! Huzzah! But wait, 3 weeks later the jack is playing up again. But why? How could this be!?

All for the want of getting someone else to do it for a prearranged fee

Moral of the story: Not everyone is you (thank god) and you can't speak for everybody

The end