Hello again,

This week has been one of those where everything seems to explode in your face... A few days ago, a tall truck went past my street and clipped the net cable, leaving me isolated from the world (we have overhanging poles here), then a biker rammed the rear end of the car... (not serious, but now we got a broken tail light)

And now this is happening to my rig... I'm getting artifacts consistently now, even during POST... A quick search showed that it's probably the video card... and it seems this is one of those things that can't really be fixed without getting an entirely new card...

Well, my GPU (eVGA GeForce 8800 GTX 768) is not covered by the lifetime warranty, so RMAing it is not an option... nor is buying a new one at this point, so I have to find a way to fix it... Even if this fix only holds for a few more months... I could replace my card later, but right now it's just not gonna happen...

To make things worse, I don't have a backup card (not one that will fit in my motherboard anyways)...
So, I'm ready to try a desperate solution.

A google search of my problem brought up a very bizarre, but at the same time plausible idea that could work... at least some people are claiming to have had success with it...

Basically the idea is to strip the card of all plastic parts, and stick it in the kitchen oven 
5 to 8 minutes in a preheated 200ºC oven is supposed to reflow the solder and fix microfractures in it. 

I'm just about getting desperate enough to try this... the card is kaput... I can't have the computer on for more than 5 minutes without seeing magenta pixels that resemble aliens from space invaders, then the computer crashes (or at least the display freezes, I can't tell) and I'm forced to shut it down... resetting the computer makes the artifacts appear during POST, so I'm almost certain that it's a hardware problem with the GPU...

But, being scared of toasting 1000 dollars worth of video card... I wanted first of all to confirm with you guys here that the problem is, in fact, the video card. This solution could just as likely kill the card or actually work (the risk of destroying it is way too high to try on a card that can be otherwise saved)... so this is a completely last possible option idea. If I don't have anything to lose, I might just try it... It won't kill it any deader...

What do you guys think?

Cheers

Thanks for the quick reply man, and the offer 

The thread looks real... even with pictures and all... and a lot of different people have reported resurrecting hardware this way... even xboxes that were red ringed 

It might just work... so if I don't have anything to lose... hey, let's bake some hardware 

The idea was so bizarre in fact, that I posted a thread in the Mythbusters forum about this... who knows? 

Cheers

DEAR GOD!!!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS EVEN THOUGH I'VE DONE IT MYSELF!!!! O M G!!!!!! THIS IS INSANE!!!



I am posting this from the very computer that just had it's video card baked in a 200°C oven!!!

All artifacts are gone!!! IT WORKS!!! I still don't believe it!!! 

There aren't enough shocked smileys to express how uttelry flabbergasted I am!!
I honestly feel like the Mythbusters must feel when a completely improbable myth turns out true!!! Hysterical laughing and all!!! OMG!!!

I have pictures of the whole 'procedure'!!!

Man, I think I'm gonna stick everything that breaks into the oven!!! Even the car with the broken tail light!!! 

OMG!!!

I'll post pictures when I'm done laughing hysterically!!!!

I think this is one of those rare glorious occasions when one can truly say: "There. I fixed it!!" 

Cheers!!! (I'm still laughing)

It seems to be as good as new!!!

Dear god!! I still don't believe it!!!

There's been quite a few people who've had success using this method.
http://www.hardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1421792

Glad to hear that it worked for you. 

Just a follow up: left the rig on for the entire day and the card held up!! I wasn't playing or stressing the card all that time, so I thought a little pressure test was called for. A quick play test earlier had shown some unusual lag on ArmA 2, but I just attributed it off to the natural tendency the game has to lag depending on the mission you're playing...

So I thought I'd do a little benchmark to see if there was any perf loss after the fix... Well, there was a strange phenomenon during my little test... The game started up fine, just as before... but after about 5 seconds into the actual mission, the lag mounted up and stabilized at abut 3-4 FPS...  The strange part is that alt tabbing out of the game and going back into it seemed to relieve this lag, and then it mounted up again after a few seconds...

But I can't pin this on the fix just yet... It's too late today to go into extensive trials... Tomorrow I'm gonna test with a freshly started rig and see if the problem is still there... there might have been apps running that could have caused the lag and the blame would not at all fall on the GPU then... so let's see...

Anyways, even if I did lose performance for gaming... at least I have a working computer now... remember I couldn't even have it on before the oven fix... and this card was due for replacement soon (wishful thinking  )

If only the fix holds up for another month... or even a few more weeks...

Well, I can always bake it again if I need to 

Cheers

Several years ago, a friend's floatplane was upside down in a lake - don't ask.  The radios were there overnight before retrieval then placement in an oven, as you described.  He was an FAA electronics tech so I suspected he knew what he was doing.  Cutting to the chase, I bought his transponder and it squawked perfectly for over ten years in my panel.

That's awesome!!!!!
Ugh, my iPod is acting up, maybe I'll bake it!!!
Congrats on your mini-mythbuster success.

Ok my English its failing me again,So you put a 8800 inside of an oven?

is this a way to weld detached components?

alrot wrote on Sep 8^th, 2010 at 1:44pm:


There are a number of examples of the process on U-Tube...

..although how any Electrolytic Capacitors on the PCB survive the intense heat of the oven is beyond me!... ...!

Paul.

iirc,

Due to environmental concerns they lowered or eliminated the lead content in the solder. The new solder over many cycles cracks and the circuit is broken. Melting the solder again fixes this issue. If I recall correctly, newer lead-free solder doesn't have this issue, so I doubt you'll see this work on anything newer than a GTX 285.

Quote:

Oh yeah ,they blast as like Christmas or 5 July Firecrackers 

Ok,Ok I get it
its a re weld or re-sold the components and---

But don't you never Put in a

Microwave oven

LMAO!! 

jime59 wrote on Sep 10^th, 2010 at 4:17pm:



Well, it just might... I've read stories of people who claim they've brought RROD'ed Xboxes back from the dead...
AFAIK, RROD can't be repaired right? So if you're out of warranty you pretty much don't have anything to lose... it's worth the try!

Mind this though, the oven reflow is completely a last-case-beyond-repair-scenario solution. Before thinking of doing it you should exhaust all other possibilities for fixing your broken hardware. If you're definitely sure that the problem lies in failing hardware, then the oven can be a last-option fix that might just save your device. (with an almost as high chance of completely destroying it)

alrot wrote on Sep 10^th, 2010 at 11:29am:


Hi Alex,

just to explain the principle behind this, the oven fix is basically a very crude way of doing reflow soldering, which is an industrial method for soldering large amounts of tiny components on a very dense PCB. (yes, these cards are being baked at the factory)

The industrial method uses a special soldering oven, with several different temperature zones (the cards roll through it on a conveyor belt), and very precisely controlled exposure times to these temperatures... but then, that is for MAKING the solders in the first place... your kitchen oven is quite good enough for just reflowing it.

The melting temperature of lead-free solder lies at about 150 - 180°C, so that's low enough for your oven to melt.
This same low melting point is what causes the solder to crack in the first place, but thankfully it also provides us with the solution. The components are relatively safe in the 200°C oven, because they had to be able to endure that anyways in the manufacture process.

Once the solder is hot enough, it becomes a liquid again and starts to flow... just enough to fill up the microfractures that appeared due to fatigue... the connections are remade, and the card can work again!

Of course, this method can only fix problem with broken solders... it can't revive a burned out component or fix broken PCB trails... also if a false or short circuit happened, it might have fried some component and the oven won't do much good there...

I hope this explains it.

Cheers