heat attaching gpu chip

atocp · 7 Jul 2010 at 23:29

I have placed this in the laptop section, but if it is more suited to the motherboard or graphics card section then, admins, please move it.

I have/had an asus g1s laptop, that was amazing to use and play games on. I bought it in a Best Buy in Las Vegas, so taking it back was not an option. It was also just over 2.5 years old. The problem was the dreaded nVidia problem, where the chip over heated. It did this since I got it, and unfortunately as it was my first laptop, I didn't realise there was a problem.
I have tried to have it fixed by heat soldering the chip back on, to see if that works, but the company that 'tried' were unsuccessful. When I say 'tried', I mean the looked inside and said "lets just leave this alone and go for lunch instead...eh?!"

That was the background to the story, here's the question:
Does anyone know what temp i should apply to the chip to 'reseat' the pins? Im going to try and do it myself, as I can't break it any worse than it already is. Its currently a write off, so anything short of setting it on fire will be an advantage. I was told that you can apply lots of heat to bend it back into shape and reseat the pins, as that is a major problem with the chips.

Has anyone tried this, or even better, been successful doing it?

Any help with this, or a point in the right direction is greatly appreciated.

Thanks all,
atocp

Ian_Eb · 7 Jul 2010 at 23:35

Is it a separate VGA card or on-board?

I got mine re-flowed by a local electronics company and they took it through 4 stages gradually increasing to about 220C from memory. They also taped over the GPU connectors etc. to make sure they didn't move or anything bad.

atocp · 7 Jul 2010 at 23:54

hey Ian_Eb,

it's a dedicated VGA. it's a 8600GT 256mb. Unfortunately, it's either Asus or a new laptop for me. Or as you say, a separate electronics company, but i don't think i'd bother getting it fixed if i can't do it myself. Paying to get it repaired and still use a faulty 'repaired' chip isn't really worth it. Almost better just saving up for a new laptop. But i shall certainly try to fix it.

atocp · 7 Jul 2010 at 23:55

when i say dedicated, it's built into the motherboard.

Ian_Eb · 8 Jul 2010 at 00:09

If its on the motherboard, then you will have to heat the whole thing up.

I didn't pay for the re-flow but then work put a lot of stuff through the guy

If you can't or don't want to try that then it will be a bit of experimentation in the oven.

taken from another forum

1: remove heatsink and thermal paste
2: preheat oven to 385F to 400F( NO HIGHER!) ( gas mark 6)
3: lay foil over the oven rack
4: make 4 balls of foil, about 4cm high,
5: when the oven is heated to its correct temperature, put the graphics card on the 4 balls, one on each corner )
6: leave for around 6-10 mins, NO MORE THAN 12 OR IT WILL MELT
7: remove from oven and let cool on a stack of newspaper
8: once cooled, reapply thermal paste and heatsink then reinstall

Disclaimer! I have never tried this myself and I can't offer any guarantees that something like this may work at all. It may just make everything worse and it may be worth paying someone to make it all better in the long run.

atocp · 8 Jul 2010 at 15:58

thanks for that.
i also browsed youtube to see if anyone could show how they were doing it. I was surprised to find out home many people actually do this sort of thing!

Im slightly worried about the amount of plastic on the motherboard though. Will that not melt, or at the very least become brittle? Surely all the little plastic washers, connectors, etc would be ruined?

thanks again
atocp

edscdk · 8 Jul 2010 at 16:06

Ian_Eb said:
1: remove heatsink and thermal paste
2: preheat oven to 385F to 400F( NO HIGHER!) ( gas mark 6)

thats the most mental fix ever... lol.... Q someone sticking their hole laptop in the oven...

the one way to be more extreme would be to suggest flame throwering a laptop!

admoo · 8 Jul 2010 at 17:04

I'd highly recommend you do not (REPEAT, DO NOT

) put your whole laptop in the oven.

If you do you're definitely gunna be left with a lovely gloopy mess of plastic infused with liquid crystal

atocp · 8 Jul 2010 at 17:57

I'd thankfully guessed not to put my whole laptop in the oven. Although I'm still unsure about the amount of plastic. The cpu socket at the very least!
I know its used to the heat, but I wouldn't have thought that high, and thanks to the heatsink, not that evenly high.

Cheers again
atocp

Ian_Eb · 9 Jul 2010 at 08:58

Like I said, the motherboard will have already been through a re-flow oven at manufacture but there may be parts on it that have been added by hand afterwards.

Personally I would send it somewhere and pay them to take the risk rather than do it myself.

Aod · 9 Jul 2010 at 09:36

atocp said:
I'd thankfully guessed not to put my whole laptop in the oven. Although I'm still unsure about the amount of plastic. The cpu socket at the very least!
I know its used to the heat, but I wouldn't have thought that high, and thanks to the heatsink, not that evenly high.

Cheers again
atocp

i have actually performed a reflow. the socket and motherboard connectors will be fine, however, any plastic covering insulation layers MUST be removed, no matter how well glued on they are, otherwise they will start to shrink in the heat, and when the solder melts the shrinking plastic will take everything it's stuck to with it as it moves.

the reflow technique i used was place 'board in cold oven, then turn the oven on and heat to 230 degrees centigrade.
leave it at the 230 for four or five minutes, and then turn the oven off and GENTLY open the door.
you must then leave the board absolutely still until the solder cools otherwise it'll be ruined.

atocp · 9 Jul 2010 at 11:21

Thanks for that extra info. I have now stripped back my motherboard ready to go into the oven. I was worried about putting it into a warm over for 10mins, but the cold oven technique sounds like it should be more stable. I will give it a go tonight.
I was going to look into the reflow option, but to be honest, im far too lazy to look for a company and too skint to shell out money.

Cheers for the advice, i'll let you know how I get on.

atocp

Ian_Eb · 9 Jul 2010 at 14:32

edscdk said:
thats the most mental fix ever... lol.... Q someone sticking their hole laptop in the oven...

the one way to be more extreme would be to suggest flame throwering a laptop!

Flame thrower might work if you are careful ;-)

atocp · 9 Jul 2010 at 15:34

Sheen+flame+gun+-+DO+NOT+USE+MOWDIRECT+ONLY_900_18840525_0_0_7020333_300.jpg

i've got one of these, would that work?

atocp · 9 Jul 2010 at 17:42

As I type this, its currently in the oven. One thing I forgot to ask was...I've got a fan oven, should I reduce it to 215 degrees?
Any help from a budding gordon ramsay is also appreciated.

Ian_Eb · 9 Jul 2010 at 23:52

Any updates?

Aod · 10 Jul 2010 at 00:35

atocp said:
As I type this, its currently in the oven. One thing I forgot to ask was...I've got a fan oven, should I reduce it to 215 degrees?
Any help from a budding gordon ramsay is also appreciated.

no, the solder will only melt at 230C -+5. any news on how you've gotten on? currently i believe that it's only wise to oven reflow once, although no-one's ever been able to give a compelling reason as to why.

i hope you've succeeded.

atocp · 11 Jul 2010 at 14:40

hey guys. here's an update. the oven trick didn't work.
i put it back together and it didn't change anything. although, in saying that, i put it back together before i read the post from Aod, about the solder not melting until about 230. the oven was at 210, and then for the last minute, went up to 220, but never reached 230.

i noticed that some of the parts to the motherboard went brown around the solder, but im hoping that was just flux, or impurities. the picture (which was taken on my phone) shows the little bits of solder that turn brown. these are just a few, this happened all over the board.

i will try again, as although Aod you have stated it's only wise to do it once, at the moment, it's a paperweight, and can't get any worse!

thanks again, and i'll give an update after i've stuck it in the over for the second time.

atocp

on a side note, i did like the look of the new HP DV6-2110 laptop, with i7, so i don't know if im going to unconsciously sabotage this asus!

Aod · 12 Jul 2010 at 06:37

atocp said:
hey guys. here's an update. the oven trick didn't work.
i put it back together and it didn't change anything. although, in saying that, i put it back together before i read the post from Aod, about the solder not melting until about 230. the oven was at 210, and then for the last minute, went up to 220, but never reached 230.

i noticed that some of the parts to the motherboard went brown around the solder, but im hoping that was just flux, or impurities. the picture (which was taken on my phone) shows the little bits of solder that turn brown. these are just a few, this happened all over the board.

http://file051a.bebo.com/17/original/2010/07/11/13/1811673731a12639056563o.jpg

i will try again, as although Aod you have stated it's only wise to do it once, at the moment, it's a paperweight, and can't get any worse!

thanks again, and i'll give an update after i've stuck it in the over for the second time.

atocp

on a side note, i did like the look of the new HP DV6-2110 laptop, with i7, so i don't know if im going to unconsciously sabotage this asus!

because you didn't get up to temperature there's not much harm in trying again. don't worry, the discolouration is normal, it's both flux and resin and other assorted nonmetallic waste components of the manufacturing process.

good luck on the 2nd try!

atocp · 12 Jul 2010 at 20:49

So, here it is...the result.

So....it didn't work.

I tried again, this time getting up to 230, then holding at around 225-230 for just under 5 mins. I put it all back together, but still nothing.

I see from other posts/tutorials/videos, that people put it in for 6-10 mins, but am i really clutching at straws here?

I think it's time to look at a new laptop.

Thank you all for your help, advice and time in helping me try to fix this in such a unorthodox way. Maybe next time i'll buy it in Britain, so at least i can fight it legally if it's defective. Damn that 50% off saving on holiday!

atocp

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