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Graphics card broken... Bake it?

webbhost

webbhost

webbhost

Associate
Joined
22 Jul 2008
Posts
43
Hi all,

I have heard a few places that have said that by baking a broken graphics card they have managed to fix it so I wanted some opinions on this...

1) My graphics card stops the computer turning on.. the engineer at a computer shop said he could hear "shorting"... Is this card still a suitable candidate for the baking method?... The card doesnt do any harm to my computer if I turn it on with it in there, it just cancels its turn on after about 1/4 second..

2) Has anyone here tried it, and did it work?

3) what temp would the oven have to be set to?

4) which way up should I place it in the oven?

5) What are the risks involved in attempting this? (other than burning myself)... I mean like, could it result in my computer going bang when I connect it back up and flick the power?
 
Also any hints and tips I should be aware off before I try this?

Going to assume the olbvious, that I need to remove the fans and plastic connectors if I can... (Not sure on how to do this, so if its neccesary let me know how if you know... if its not neccesary please savce me the hassle!)


ITs a Nvidia GTX 9800 KO by the way.
 
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I have. No experience thought. It resolders the connections again. Some people gets months out of it others said that it lasts longer.

With the price of some GPU's though now especially from OCUK my suggestions is just buy a new one or go 2nd hand.
 
the cards new were about 300 each I think (It was actually a free upgrade as I originally had 8800's but the model became discontinued after id bought the comp, so they had to upgrade both cards lol).. but either way not the sorta price I wanna pay to replace one..

Actually wondering whether I actually need to through... as far as im aware thermal paste can short out a card if too much is used? On the main GPU, the paste had oozed all other the sides onto the surrounding smaller chips next to the gpu? Little bit shocked that they would do this in manufacturing stage as its recipe for disaster?

Or maybe i am misunderstood there and thermal paste will not cause a short if applied on wrong area?
 
Solder melts at about 320 degrees C. Unless it is melts it wont fix any joints.

Effectively you are talking about reflow soldering, except your board has already been reflowed when it was made.

You could also have bad connections within the PCB and its many layers. Usually one looks for dry joints but it is such a complex board probably with BGA devices where you cannot even seen the pins.

I do not think baking it will really do anything. But give it a go :) you got nothing to loose.
 
webbhost said:
Or maybe i am misunderstood there and thermal paste will not cause a short if applied on wrong area?
Click to expand...

Only if its conductive paste like AS5. If its normal paste it will be fine, you'll need to re-apply afterwards anyway. I presume you are taking the heatsink / shroud off?

You'll need to take anything plastic off that can come off as it may melt. Make some little support legs out of silver baking foil. Roll them up into small golf size balls, place them on a baking tray and then put the card on top of them so that the hot air can get underneath. I think I did mine at gas mark 6 for around 15 minutes. Preheat the oven first. After 15 minutes, switch the oven off, open the door and leave it in the oven to cool for around 30 minutes. Re-assemble and see if it worked. If not, try again. Dont be tempted to leave it in too long or to increase the temperature or components may fall off having become desoldered!

This fixed my laptop board that had a dodgy AMD GPU with bad solder joints. Worked perfect ever since I did it around 18 months ago.
 
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I've heard of electronics boards being washed and scrubbed under a tap and then dried under a hand drier or baked in an oven at a low temperature (160C). It's not something I have ever tested though, as most are either covered by warranty or so old it's not worth trying to save them. But if your card is broken and you've got nothing to lose then of course it's worth giving it a go.
 
just turned oven off and starting the cool down process (consisting of 10 minutes door closed, then open door for 30 minutes, then remove board)...

Would I be right in assuming I should be safe plugging the board into my computer WITHOUT re-applying the fan and heatsinks... and turning on for just a few seconds?

I just want to see if my computer will turn on successfully once it's been treated before going out and buying some more thermal paste + thermal pads?
 
You would be mad to attempt this in an oven you and or your family cooks in....the chemicals used to make PCB graphics cards arent exactly good for your health and I read an article that it can be quite dangerous.

Each to their own though.
 
okay lol... I managed to get a small amount of arctic paste, and the thermal sheets althrough a bit battered are still on the heatsink so I'll screw it back up and see what happens... Just sorta wishing I'd baked it at 200C now rather than 180 for 10 mins as I have read quite a few articles where people ran it at the higher temp...

Only 1 way to find out if its worked I guess... Plug it in. If it doesn't work, I'll have to clear the paste again and try again at the higher 200C

Got to say I am a abit skeptical as to whether this will work, and whether I will have a computer left after trying to plug it in.. but worth the risk :P (sorta) lol
 
I think it may be game over for this graphics card... Just took it out and inspected.. 2 of the tiny chips (labeled C641 and C669 are now missing.. One I have seen fall off, the other I have not... Whether the oven has caused this is unknown, but this is from the top of the board so I would assume not?

Not sure this is worth testing any more to be honest?
 
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