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Before I start, I would like to say that major credit goes to Open1Your1Eyes, for discovering this fantastic method of reviving a faulty GPU.
His initial thread which I had used as reference can be found here.
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Just a few weeks ago, I purchased a faulty Leadtek 8800GTS 640MB from somebody for $7.
The issues that he stated which were present in the GPU were:
". However, I was a bit apprehensive about baking my card in an oven, as can be seen by one of the threads I have made over the issue. The link can be found here.
That was when I chanced upon Open1Your1Eyes's story of how he resurrected his faulty 9800GX2. In short, the steps he used to go about "baking" the card were:
So I tried it.
At first, after taking off the heatsink and cleaning up the faulty card, I installed it into the primary PCIe slot and put in the display cable. What I got was an endless cycle of BSOD's, which prevented me from booting up to Windows. I knew that in order for me to actually power the faulty card, I would need a primary GPU running in the first PCIe slot. So I installed my GTS 250 back into the first PCIe slot, and kept the display cable plugged in the 250. The 8800GTS was relegated to the second slot.
Pluuged in all the power connectors, booted up the computer, and hoped for the best.
Booted into Windows no problem, waited for roughly 8 minutes for the card to get extremely hot. Then powered off the system, took out the faulty card, applied some Noctua NT-H1 TIM and resat the heatsink.
Installed the card into the system, crossed my fingers, and to my amazement, the 8800GTS booted up without any form of artifact whatsoever! In Windows, display driver was installing just fine!
Card was working flawlessly!
Even ran Furmark, Xtreme Burning mode with 16x MSAA, card topped out at 80C with only 55% fan speed!
I was absolutely ecstatic. Not only because I had just revived a $50 card for the price of $7 and some small labor, but I had found that Open1Your1Eyes's method of "baking" actually worked flawlessly!
It was simple, easy, and did not involve any of the risks involved in the "oven bake" fix. Also, only the necessary parts which were faulty were baked in this process, instead of the whole card being made to live though 380F of burning paradise which was needed in the oven bake fix.
However, I'd like everyone to note this:
As pointed out by many other users in this thread, this method has not been guaranteed to be 100% safe for use (Not as if the oven bake fix is though
). I cannot guarantee that using this method will surely bring your faulty card back to life. If you want to use this method, use it
AT YOUR OWN RISK.
His initial thread which I had used as reference can be found here.
================================================== ================================================== ==
Just a few weeks ago, I purchased a faulty Leadtek 8800GTS 640MB from somebody for $7.
The issues that he stated which were present in the GPU were:
- Artifacting badly
- System refused to boot into Windows occasionally

That was when I chanced upon Open1Your1Eyes's story of how he resurrected his faulty 9800GX2. In short, the steps he used to go about "baking" the card were:
- Remove heatsink from the card
- Clean up all the TIM and guck on the card
- Put the card into a SECONDARY PCIe slot (Keep a working GPU in the first PCIe slot)
- Keep the DVI plugged into the working GPU
- Boot up the computer
- Wait for around 5-10 minutes for the faulty card to get very hot
- Turn off the computer
- Plug out the faulty card
- Apply TIM and reseat heatsink
- Hope for a miracle
So I tried it.
At first, after taking off the heatsink and cleaning up the faulty card, I installed it into the primary PCIe slot and put in the display cable. What I got was an endless cycle of BSOD's, which prevented me from booting up to Windows. I knew that in order for me to actually power the faulty card, I would need a primary GPU running in the first PCIe slot. So I installed my GTS 250 back into the first PCIe slot, and kept the display cable plugged in the 250. The 8800GTS was relegated to the second slot.
Pluuged in all the power connectors, booted up the computer, and hoped for the best.
Booted into Windows no problem, waited for roughly 8 minutes for the card to get extremely hot. Then powered off the system, took out the faulty card, applied some Noctua NT-H1 TIM and resat the heatsink.
Installed the card into the system, crossed my fingers, and to my amazement, the 8800GTS booted up without any form of artifact whatsoever! In Windows, display driver was installing just fine!


Card was working flawlessly!
Even ran Furmark, Xtreme Burning mode with 16x MSAA, card topped out at 80C with only 55% fan speed!

I was absolutely ecstatic. Not only because I had just revived a $50 card for the price of $7 and some small labor, but I had found that Open1Your1Eyes's method of "baking" actually worked flawlessly!
It was simple, easy, and did not involve any of the risks involved in the "oven bake" fix. Also, only the necessary parts which were faulty were baked in this process, instead of the whole card being made to live though 380F of burning paradise which was needed in the oven bake fix.
However, I'd like everyone to note this:
As pointed out by many other users in this thread, this method has not been guaranteed to be 100% safe for use (Not as if the oven bake fix is though

AT YOUR OWN RISK.
