How to fix your broken video card. Step 1: Preheat your oven to 385F.

ha

that was a crazy idea
maybe all video card makers should
pre-heat their video cards before selling them

I like how the results were repeatable. Several other people on the thread tried it with their dead cards, and pretty much all the newer ones worked, and some of the older cards worked as well. This shall forever more be stored in my memory as the thing to do!

This is no different than a reflow oven

I wonder how the capacitors fared under such high temperatures though

They're usually rated for 85c or 105c
Some damage must've occured

indeed. i wouldnt try it in the owen i bake with tough..lol.save a video card and get cancer later..hmm.....difficult choice :D

McArthur - if the card's dead already it doesn't really matter ... if it works after that , then it'll work for a while ... if the capacitors crap out they'll do so later .
Anyhow , I LOL'd at this .
And what's 385F in Celsius ?

@Radiator

385F = 196C

@anonymousD

Honestly I don't think the risk of cancer from a video card would be that big. You'd probably be worse off if you spent the day sun tanning (which is something no self-respecting computer geek would ever do).

About 200c, but I'm guesstimating since I don't feel like pulling up calculator or actually doing any math.

5/9*(fahrenheit-32)=celsius is the equation if I remember right.


There probably was some damage to the card, but if it was dead due to broken solder and it's working now... I wouldn't complain, just don't OC like a maniac.

Heh the equation was right, I decided to actually do it and i got 196.11 C

Thats pretty neat, I think alot of luck was involved as well though.

Capacitors on video cards are almosta always rated for 105C, the heat conditions require that. They are also so called "Low ESR" capacitors since GPUs need a well filtered, steady supply of power. Capacitors on high-end cards like that 8800GTX are polymer caps and can handle heat and ripple current much better than standard electrolytic caps.

I've seen this done with faulty motherboards also. I wonder how it affects the plastic components attached to the board/card, wouldn't they melt or become brittle?

IT WORKS!!! My 8800GTX died 2 months ago so I got myself a GTX260. It didnt really die, it just filled the screen with artifacts. After reading about baking it I gave it a shot thinking "what the heck, I got nothing to loose".
Well, amazingly it worked!
I rapped it up in aluminum foil after removing the heatsink and fan, and baked it for 10 minutes at 200ºC.
It was the baking that fixed, as I tried the card again right before baking it.
I have been playing games with it the whole day and still runs as new.

Can someone explain WHY "Baking" Video card would fix it if it were dead?

Some solder joints may have broken loose due to normal use where heat warped the card in certain spots. The "baking" just allows the solder to reflow and "fix" itself.

@ultima ... theres no need to pre heat it...

baking is already a manufacturing process after the SMT machines put the components in the board and soldering river.

I was trolling thru and came across this article -- interesting. Here's some technical tidbits, from a chemist who works in the electronics industry, if anyone cares:
1) "RoHS" compliant means a couple things. First, it makes this harder to do because compliance means lead-free solder, and high-tin content in Pb-free solders make them reflow at much higher temps. It also means there are no flame retardants containing certain bromine-based molecules, but it doesn't mean bromine or halogen-free. Still, the alternatives should be stable to well past 300C. I'd be more concerned about what's coming off the green soldermask coating, likely all kinds of acrylates depositing onto your oven's walls. Ick.
2) 105C rating -- UL746 is the standard for this, and to achieve a rating you have to subject a part to a much higher temp for 40 days or to an insanely higher temp for 14 days. I forget the specifics, but safe to say, things with 105C ratings have withstood much higher temps for days or weeks with no mechanical or electrical issues. A couple hours at 195C would be nothing.

Great site here, lotsa good info. Thanks!

lol wtf... now thats a awesome to do though lol