cooking a dead 8800 GTS

[ezhackster876]

here's a vid of me cooking my nvidia graphics card which actually worked....for now lol did this a while nw jus decided to edit n upload it tell me wht u think n sorry for the messy work station =\

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDbL5_PAjfI

 

[Junglerog]

Awsome job lol.

 

[alienware]

A few pointers from a very old electronics professional. (me).

1. DO NOT bake it upside down. Gravity will pull away the parts you wanted to fix (IE the GPU core and capacitors) and actually make the situation worse if it goes again.

Lay the foil dull side up on a cookie sheet and put the card on it bottom side down so that none of the components fall off when baking. Wrap up some heavy coins in a roll of foil and place them on the main GPU and ramdac. These are the two things that are causing the failure and when not the card is done. pressure is what is needed. What caused your problem in the first place was expanding/contraction of the fibreglass PCB board. Without pressure you will form 'hourglass' shaped solder connections and they will simply fail again. Do not put foil balls under the card as this will cause small components to fall off. You've had it if that happens.

2. Get some liquid flux and spray it over the solder contacts you can see and under the GPU and RAMDAC as best you can. Solder does not deteriorate (yours should still be lead) but flux does. It's basically acid filled epoxy resin and heat causes it to become brittle and crack.

3. Replace all of your thermal pads with very slightly thicker ones and either shim or put a dense thermal paste onto the main GPU. The reason? Well, as I said, what caused your failure was warping of the PCB as it heats up and cools down. You ideally want to apply as much pressure back on them once repaired as possible. This will prolong the life of the card. If not? Well, failure rate within 90 days is about 80% likely going from a massive thread I read about it.

All of the above worked for me.

 

[ezhackster876]

A few pointers from a very old electronics professional. (me).

1. DO NOT bake it upside down. Gravity will pull away the parts you wanted to fix (IE the GPU core and capacitors) and actually make the situation worse if it goes again.

Lay the foil dull side up on a cookie sheet and put the card on it bottom side down so that none of the components fall off when baking. Wrap up some heavy coins in a roll of foil and place them on the main GPU and ramdac. These are the two things that are causing the failure and when not the card is done. pressure is what is needed. What caused your problem in the first place was expanding/contraction of the fibreglass PCB board. Without pressure you will form 'hourglass' shaped solder connections and they will simply fail again. Do not put foil balls under the card as this will cause small components to fall off. You've had it if that happens.

2. Get some liquid flux and spray it over the solder contacts you can see and under the GPU and RAMDAC as best you can. Solder does not deteriorate (yours should still be lead) but flux does. It's basically acid filled epoxy resin and heat causes it to become brittle and crack.

3. Replace all of your thermal pads with very slightly thicker ones and either shim or put a dense thermal paste onto the main GPU. The reason? Well, as I said, what caused your failure was warping of the PCB as it heats up and cools down. You ideally want to apply as much pressure back on them once repaired as possible. This will prolong the life of the card. If not? Well, failure rate within 90 days is about 80% likely going from a massive thread I read about it.

All of the above worked for me.

never thought about what you said i just followed the tutorial on a forum site a while back the card still fails occasionally but the main reason is cause i forgot to turn up the fan speed n it overheated n puts it back to square 1 with the glitches and i put it in the oven after and its works....for now but ill definently try what you said and post a vid of it

 

[Youngie1337]

Ha awesome

 

[alienware]

The tutorial video doing the rounds was performed using the very first guide on baking cards.

This means it hasn't honed itself at all, and the first method was prone to failure because it was a quick bodge that did not address the issue that causes the failure.

Graphics cards and most electronics now are all put together using BGA soldering. BGA = Ball Grid Array. Basically the board comes impregnated with small balls of solder on all of the contacts. They then drop on the components and fire them in an oven. However, that solder has fresh flux in and the components are being sat into new solder with flux in. Due to the size of the balls of solder they do not contain much flux. And, flux will break down over time.

Without flux solder is simply a ball of lead. And it will roll around and not stick to anything. I learned this the hard way when I was a kid (about 10) when trying to solder with plumber's solder without any flux. I ended up with speaker cables that looked like a pigeon had defacated on the end of. It took me years to realise that was I needed was flux cored solder.

Look for flux that is labelled as BGA repair. It is in a spray bottle and quite runny, but will basically react with the solder and heat to form a nice hard coating around the exposed solder, hardening it and making it more hard wearing.

Also, get yourself a straight edge ruler (metal pref) and put it down the length of the card. This will give you a good idea as to how far gone and warped or twisted the PCB is.

All of this ties in with the complaints I made about the 480 GTX. It runs too hot for too long and death isn't a case of if but when. 8xxx series cards are now dropping like flies. Even the 8800 GTS which is nowhere near as hot as the 8800GTX which was nowhere near as hot as the 8800u. 2 series cards are failing in their masses too, and the 4 series have just gotten bigger and hotter than ever before.

ATI have the brains. New technology doesn't just have to be about cranking the speed, but also about getting those temps down to acceptable levels. Which IMO makes the 5 series Rads an absolute triumph of engineering.

 

[JN]

Good job mate. Did you baste it with Turkey fat first of all, or was it just plain old olive oil?