Another successful oven trick :)

Bought a used 7900 GTX for my collection from ebay and it was artifacting (the guy stated he didn't test it, *sigh*) and failing to boot into Windows. So I said, what on earth, lets do that oven trick as we have nothing to loose.

And there it went:

- Preheated oven at 200 Celcious
- Inserted the card on 4 tinfoil balls for 7 minutes

The artifacts are now gone (writing from a PC with this card now), booted Windows fine. Did some 3DMark2005 and Need for Speed Most Wanted playing and so far so good. Nice experience I have to say.

 

i have a pin key for logging into work from home, some of the digits wouldnt show so i bunged it in the oven, 200C for 7-8 mins, works perfectly now.

Its the cure to all your electronic problems lol

 

What's the explanation for why that works? Does the high heat somehow "purge" the electronics?

 

In most cases that artifacting and stuff appears because of bad contact. So by heating up the card, you're melting solder and it works again.

 

Resoldering cracked contacts

The concept behind this method is simple: Reflow Soldering.

Commercial Electric circuit boars are made of SMT IC’s (Surface Mount Technology).
These IC’s are soldered on the board by placing a layer of solder on the board, placing the ic’s and then passing the entire thing through a Oven or a hot air blower.
The places of electrical contacts get attached, while the rest of the solder melts and flows away.

Over time, these electrical contacts may develop “HairLine Fractures or cracks” that are not visible to the naked eye.
If any such crack disconnects a electrical line or a chip’s pin, then errors occur, depending on the place/chip on the board.

Graphic cards, and Laptop Motherboards are very prone to this, because of the stresses they take, but this can happen to any electrical item.

By “Baking” the card in the oven, all u do is to remelt the non-visible solder, in the hope that it would automatically reflow and repair the connection.
(its still pure dumb luck, but with an educated style )


GJ OP!!!!!

 

Thats the advantage of 470/480 fermis. They have built in oven simulation to maintain solder flow/contact.

 

Damn i can never get my of the cards i tried back with this trick.

glad it works for someone

 

I baked my 8800gtx last night as a last ditch effort and it's now working fine.

However it looked like it had been baked by it's previous owner (an ebay special), so am not sure it will last for long....

But was very surprised that it did work! If you've nothing to lose then why not?

 

I did the same thing with my old 8800gts. still works great on my fiances computer.