HOW TO: repair your dead graphics card in your alienware!

I just fixed my Geforce Go 7600 in my Asus A8Jm which died this morning using the oven method. I was surfing the web, my monitor blacked out, came back, blacked out again and then after reboot windows wouldn't show. I could only boot into safe mode and there were vertical pink strips across the screen. After 10 mins at 385 F, voila! The first bootup after reinstallation was screwed up but the second was fine after driver reinstall. Seems to be working normal again! AWESOME!

 

By any chance do you have a Cookie Recipe ?

 

Another success here w/ go 7950GTX

Thx for the info

 

Yep here too my go 7800GTX works again

 

Nice! I baked my no longer working 7950GTX last night. Put it in this morning and it works! Too bad I already talked the wife into letting me order a M17x to replace my "dead" laptop

 

my 9800m gt i think is not working properly. 2 minutes or less into the game, iam thrown out into the desktop giving the nvlddmkm error. but i have warranty. so gonna send it off for replacement tomorrow. else would have tried this trick.

 

Almost wish I'd tried this with my dead 4850 mastercard now, considering it's taking so long to fix! Still if it hadnt worked and left marks

 

Doubt this was the issue with your cards though Alex.

 

Well, not the second lot no, the first mastercard did seem completely dead though, and did run hot, so maybe? Who knows...hopefully I hear something on the repair shortly

 

just tried this with my m5550's graphics card and SUCCESS! This laptop has been collecting dust for the last 5 months and it is great to have it back! Still ordering a new 15x though thanks for the tutorial!

 

lol another one saved :bow:

 

update: I had to bake my gfx card a second time a few weeks ago. of course it worked again.

i gotta be honest, if i have to keep baking the thing, this is not an ideal solution. isn't nvidia (and ati i guess) really responsible for all of this? i mean, it seems like high-powered gfx cards essentially disposable.

also, is there any way to avoid having to go through this all the time?

 

Get an ATI card??

 

I wanted to thank the OP for making this thread, as I knew it would be risky and open to a lot of criticism. I'm a living example of how much this method works. Not going to bore you with specifics, but basiclly Dell is backlogged on 8800 GTX's, and I use my computer everyday for gaming and work, so not having a working computer is a no-go for me. I have successfully baked the same pair of cards back to health 6 times in the past two months. Granted this is not a long-term solution, as they lasted maybe two or three weeks after the initial baking, and every time after that they die again after a week's time, but it definitely allows me to game for 4 hours staight on Steam. No FPS hits; no nothing. Back to new for a short time until I get my replacements from Dell.


Please don't doubt this article, and please don't try this unless you have no OTHER options. This is what you do when you have nothing to lose.

 

Unfortunately mine was not able to be saved

I did find out though, that PCB technology has changed over the years. Surface mount soldering has become more efficient, and higher temperature solder is used now than in the past. The switch was made around 2004, so dont run this test if your part is older than 2004
Apparently this, came as a result of higher wattage components, which needed to take the heat

I found out the hard way: (My 2001 ATi 9700 pro on the left after baking, and my new replacement ATi 9700 Pro through Compal on the right)


K-TRON

 

Yikes, ATI Flambé!

 

oops k-tron.. but shouldn't the ATI 9700 have a high TDP... after all it is old and made in a lager manufacturing process? The solder shouldn't have melted that easily.

 

this is a prob im running into... i'm going to have to bake it for a 3rd time. something must be done. unless advertised as "disposable" nvidia should be responsible for this problem. i'm looking into buying another gfx card... but why should I? the thing should friggin work!

basically, i'm buying another gfx card only to have it fail after another 1.5 yrs... this is totally unacceptable.

 

Has anyone else had an issue where the card got hotter after baking (no I don't mean RIGHT after When I baked my 8800 gtx, it worked fine, except it was running at slightly higher temps. I'd say a good 10-15 C both at idle and at load. It worked fine for about 2-3 months then failed again. I baked it again and it worked, but raised the temps at both ends another 10-15 C. This is pretty much inoperable temps at load and require a strong laptop cooler with the maintenance cover removed to run at idle. I can run it in stealth mode with the cooler on and cover removed, but that's certainly not ideal. I ordered a new card, so it's really not going to be an issue for me, but has anyone else had similar results?

 

i did, although not as extreme. after the 1st bake, I was idling at around 77 to 80 and under load (tf2... not like crysis or anything) it was around 88 to 90.

after the 2nd bake, i switched thermal greases (to ocz freeze) and was idling at around 73 to 76 with load at around 85 to 90.

i thought those were acceptable temps.

did u order another 8800? personally im doing everything i can to NOT have to get one of the older GPUs... i think this problem will just happen again...

 

Hmm, I'll try and get my hands on some better thermal compound and see what that affects. I ordered an hd3870 for $187 including heatsink, shipping, and all I need to install. For that price I can certainly handle the 12-13% difference. I'm also gonna be putting together a good deesktop soon enough for more serious gaming.

 

FYI: I've toasted my 8800's proprietary Dell cards back to health (computer BSOD's multiple times or just goes black) a total of 8 times now, with each time between the next toasting averaging 6.4 days. This is obviously a temporary solution to getting new cards, but I just wanted to let people know the soldering on the g92 core cards (especially 2nd gen) are crap and teh roller-coaster temps you put the video cards though booting up, shutting down, and running for extended periods of time so the fans can cycle, really messes with the soldering. This is a good way to set things straight in a video card you have nothing to lose with.

 

Thanks all folks here, I've just successfully revive my Alienware's 8800M GTX card using this "oven" method after 3 months of torture having the display card dead for my m15x, how great it's!!!

Anyone here has any experience to share about how long this can be last? i.e. re-heat it every 2 months, or just once for 6 months/1 year & etc.

 

As a side note... I fixed my XBOX 360 red ring this way also. It was a release model with a bad scaler chip.

 

i have a motherboard that will boot once after having been off for a long time but after that initial power on it completely dead. The power on usually doesn't last long but was wondering if this would fix it.

 

Will this work with an ATI X1800 that has severe artifacting problems etc.?!!

 

The first time I did it...it lasted 4-5 weeks I believe. After that, the life went down by a week, up until now, where I do it once a week, hence the running counter in my signature.

Ferrari - no. Sorry

 

Has anyone done this successfully to a desktop GPU? Curious as I have a friend with a burnt out 8600 GTS.

 

Ehm this method might work and all but just be carefull with the food you bake in the oven, I can't imagine the impact of damping plastic in your oven which might turn your pizza into a cancer-causing bom.

Just think it's worth mentioning, who knows if some 10 year old kid tries this and gets sick lol. That's why I also think the microwave 'joke' is dangerous for the same reason...I didn't know you can't put metal in the microwave untill I was 18. For all you know this post might have poisoned 100 kids, and blown up a 100 more microwaves.

 

I was seriously considering doing this but ran into some problems. Does anyone else have an orange plastic cover over their gpu?:

http://img696.imageshack.us/i/img0151r.jpg/

I thought that maybe it came off of the cooling component, but that isn't very likely:

http://img696.imageshack.us/i/img0149y.jpg/

Could i peel off this orange layer before i stick the card into the oven or does it actually serve a purpose?

Thanks.

 

I don't know what that is, but I'm guessing it serves some purpose similar to the thermal pads. Just peel it off and put it back later.

 

yes it has work for desktop parts and laptop motherboards

 

I already disassembled my laptop to try this oven baking technique. Gonna have to put the whole motherboard in though. I should probably take the round battery out of the motherboard right?

 

Hello everybody, sorry for asking but, i didn't find anything about my problem, I have a Sony Vaio vgn fz11e, the model with the faulty nvidia 8400m GT video chip, it's gone bad, still works but no video performance.

http://img.diytrade.com/cdimg/790842/8959142/0/1241845615/MBX-165_Motherboard.jpg

that's how the motherboard looks, is there any chance i can bake this?
Thanks in advance

 

I just wanted to say i just did this for my sager 2090 laptop's 8600m video card and it now works perfect. Thanks for the tip!

 

posting on my 2 year dead 766, gfx card artifacted badly after a few minutes of powering up, took it out and baked it for 8mins @ 200C let it cool for an hour and wallah!

 

good to hear !

 

nice sig moo.

 

just wanted to say THX and maybe help others with the symptoms...

I owe a 9750 with two nvidia 7950 GTX 512MB with Win7 installed.

Yesterday my 9750 came up with the following symptoms:
a lot of green line artefacts in some sort of matrix style, during the BIOS screens while booting
having a external monitor connected to it, I got BSODs after the "WINDOWS IS BEING STARTED"-screen.
without the external screen it results in black screen & no further reactions. Starting up in "safe mode" and during the error & recovery procedures everything looks fine on both screens.
Disconnecting the parent card did not make any change.
Disconnecting the daughter resulted in a black screen & no boot procedure at all.
So I "baked" the secondary (10 min @ 200 Celsius) and reinstalled everything. And everything working fine!!!

it took me quite a while to figure out, that my problem probably could be solved with this solution, so maybe this description of the symptoms could help somebody...

 

Just baked my 8800m GTX for the second time! (1st baking was 2 months ago)

again working perfectly!

Approx 3rd baking - Maybe in April

Thanks for the method again Rob

 

Ok, It appears that this has worked for my 1.5 year old 8800GTX in my m15x. According to the thermometer we have in our oven, I hate the temp of the oven at around 365F was a bit skittish about doing 385F. I did it for 9 mins and well so far so good.

Also, I think I probably should have check the thermal paste a long time ago (might have been a reason the card always ran hot), it looked like a sloppy glob and it was hard like playdough. I used some Antec thermal grease and the GPU is actually running cooler under load than ever before

 

Tried this last night with a dead GeForce Go 6800. My m7700 is back up and running now. Hopefully it will last till my m17x comes in.

Adam

 

Guys just a noobie question...

I don't know whether it has been asked before too.
anyway,Can this be tried with a microwave owen?

Peace~

 

no. The microwave oven only heats things that contain water molecules, which the GPU does not. So the GPU would stay cold, and maybe sparks will fly though. You will ruin the oven and the GPU.

 

Oh damn...

That rules away the baking technique for my 9800m GT, since all i got over here is just a microwave....

Anyway thanx for replying..

Peace~

 

You could try using a heatgun, $20 from a local hardware store. Set it to 300C.

Do it outside.

 

300c

......

 

That's what a repair guy told me (he does a lot of BGA reballing).

Just don't bring the heat gun too close to the chip, you can burn it.

 

Just thought I'd add my name to the success list. 190*C for 8 minutes, then maybe an hour cooling. An exquisite recipe for saving new GPU money (although that GTX 280m remains tempting...). Kudos to Rob41

(That GPU is an 8800m GTX btw, in a first gen Alienware m15x.)

 

you must have to hold the heat gun really close to the gpu for 300C. lol. damn. i do architecture work and a $20 heat gun don't usually come with adjustable temperature controls. but if it doesnt get to 300c just hold it fairly close for a bit longer and it should do the same.