[Baldy]

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.

================================================== ================================================== ==

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

Of course, first thing that came into my mind was "OVEN BAKE, OVEN BAKE!!!

". 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:

1. Remove heatsink from the card
2. Clean up all the TIM and guck on the card
3. Put the card into a SECONDARY PCIe slot (Keep a working GPU in the first PCIe slot)
4. Keep the DVI plugged into the working GPU
5. Boot up the computer
6. Wait for around 5-10 minutes for the faulty card to get very hot
7. Turn off the computer
8. Plug out the faulty card
9. Apply TIM and reseat heatsink
10. Hope for a miracle

The idea seemed feasible and logical enough to work. I mean, it works around the same concept as baking --- putting the card in extreme temps so as to heat up the solder in the card.

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.

 

[GanjaSMK]

That's awesome, will have to keep this linked. Sticky maybe?

 

[IEATFISH]

One thing that scares me about this method is something on the broken card shorting or exploding and taking part of your PC with it.

 

[zodac]

Who's that in your background?

 

[FallenFaux]

I wonder if this might fix the 4850 I have that failed Baking... I guess it couldn't hurt to try it anyway.

 

[Wiremaster]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zodac Who's that in your background?

A woman many boys have or have had a crush on.

 

[zodac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wiremaster A woman many boys have or have had a crush on.

She looks pretty.

 

[Baldy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zodac Who's that in your background?

Quote:

Originally Posted by zodac She looks pretty.

You're such a zodya.

 

[AgentHydra]

nice

maybe I'll try this next time. Although oven method worked fine for my 9800GT

 

[Baldy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IEATFISH One thing that scares me about this method is something on the broken card shorting or exploding and taking part of your PC with it.

I'm pretty sure all cards have some sort of overheat protection to prevent themselves from getting too hot and "exploding".

 

[zodac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baldy You're such a zodya.

Wait... let me figure this out...

 

[Baldy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zodac Wait... let me figure this out...

Thought it's pretty self explanatory.

 

[c00lkatz]

This is not a good idea. Overheating components that are in use with electricity running through them is completely different from baking the components in the oven with no electricity running through them. In the oven, nothing is powered and nothing is trying to operate. With this method, you could potentially do more damage. It's similar to the "towel trick" when fixing Xbox360's. Again, I do not recommend this method.

If you don't want to throw the card in the oven then get a cheap heat gun from your local hardware store and heat up the components that way.

Sure the card has built-in measures to help keep from overheating...with a heatsink of some sort installed, and all it does is throttle the clock speeds down. You are still running electricity through all of these components and severely overheating them at the same time. This is NOT good.

 

[Baldy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by c00lkatz This is not a good idea. Overheating components that are in use with electricity running through them is completely different from baking the components in the oven with no electricity running through them. In the oven, nothing is powered and nothing is trying to operate. With this method, you could potentially do more damage. It's similar to the "towel trick" when fixing Xbox360's. Again, I do not recommend this method. If you don't want to throw the card in the oven then get a cheap heat gun from your local hardware store and heat up the components that way. Sure the card has built-in measures to help keep from overheating...with a heatsink of some sort installed, and all it does is throttle the clock speeds down. You are still running electricity through all of these components and severely overheating them at the same time. This is NOT good.

Yeah I get your point. However, I think I failed to make myself clearer in the thread.

What the overheat protection did in my situation was cause a complete lock-up in my computer. Couldn't move the mouse, access Task Manager, anything. Had to resort to a force shut down in order to turn the computer off.

What the overheat protection does is not only throttle the card's speed, but when it reaches extremely high temps, it actually forces the card to shut down in order to prevent any sort of damage on the card, motherboard, power supply or anything else.

However, the interesting thing about this overheat protection is that it is set rather high, and before the overheat protection is triggered, the solder joints have already been heated up and realigned (or something along those lines).

Don't get me wrong, I understand your point completely. However, I honestly don't think that it can cause any form of significant damage to the card, or any other components.

 

[xximanoobxx]

Why did you block precious hayley's face!?!?!?!

 

[IEATFISH]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baldy Yeah I get your point. However, I think I failed to make myself clearer in the thread. What the overheat protection did in my situation was cause a complete lock-up in my computer. Couldn't move the mouse, access Task Manager, anything. Had to resort to a force shut down in order to turn the computer off. What the overheat protection does is not only throttle the card's speed, but when it reaches extremely high temps, it actually forces the card to shut down in order to prevent any sort of damage on the card, motherboard, power supply or anything else. However, the interesting thing about this overheat protection is that it is set rather high, and before the overheat protection is triggered, the solder joints have already been heated up and realigned (or something along those lines). Don't get me wrong, I understand your point completely. However, I honestly don't think that it can cause any form of significant damage to the card, or any other components.

With a working card, you are correct. However, when a card is already failing, putting under these extreme conditions is ill advised. Doing it in your oven where it can't take other parts with it during the stressing, melting phase is much safer than allowing it to reach the same point with connected to the rest of your system. But that is my personal feeling. Yes, it has overvolt protection but to assume that it will save the rest of your hardware is taking a large risk.

 

[Baldy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IEATFISH With a working card, you are correct. However, when a card is already failing, putting under these extreme conditions is ill advised. Doing it in your oven where it can't take other parts with it during the stressing, melting phase is much safer than allowing it to reach the same point with connected to the rest of your system. But that is my personal feeling. Yes, it has overvolt protection but to assume that it will save the rest of your hardware is taking a large risk.

Reason why I chose not to bake the card in oven was because I don't like the feeling of having random substances and plastics on the card burning inside the oven. Considering how I use that for my food, I really don't feel comfortable with the whole idea.

Yeah, I guess it is quite a risky move depending on only the Overheating protection to save your card and other components. Guess me and Openyoureyes were rather lucky. I also know another guy (username is terence52), who used a rather similar method to bake his card, and was also successful.

Still, I must say I cannot GUARANTEE that success will follow after using this method of "baking".

I will take off my final point in the thread which shows me recommending this method of "baking" a faulty graphics card.

I just want to let everyone know that this method actually works.

 

[Wiremaster]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zodac She looks pretty.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baldy You're such a zodya.

Explain. Google is unhelpful here.

 

[c00lkatz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baldy Reason why I chose not to bake the card in oven was because I don't like the feeling of having random substances and plastics on the card burning inside the oven. Considering how I use that for my food, I really don't feel comfortable with the whole idea. Yeah, I guess it is quite a risky move depending on only the Overheating protection to save your card and other components. Guess me and Openyoureyes were rather lucky. I also know another guy (username is terence52), who used a rather similar method to bake his card, and was also successful. Still, I must say I cannot GUARANTEE that success will follow after using this method of "baking". I will take off my final point in the thread which shows me recommending this method of "baking" a faulty graphics card. I just want to let everyone know that this method actually works.

Like I said before, get a cheap heat gun from a local hardware store. You can slowly heat up the components individually without having to bake it in the oven, and you can choose where you point the gun rather than baking the whole thing at once. Though the same rules apply, do not move the card, and keep it flat, otherwise you can dislodge/move components off of their pads. People use this method to fix broken PS3's and 360's all the time. Heat guns are hot enough to burn through paper. They are not like a hair dryer (and a hair dryer won't work). They definitely get hot enough to reflow solder.

Sure it may be $20 or so but what's $20 to a $100-200 GPU or $300 console? You will most likely find many other good uses for it as well, such as shrinking heat shrink.

 

[Baldy]

Actually, I'd very much love to learn how to use the heat-gun method, but there isn't a proper guide on how to go about it.

For instance, I would not know where to point the heatgun at since I do not know for sure where are the areas I need to focus on etc etc.

Of course, if someone broke down the whole troubleshooting process and technique, then I'd definitely use that method.