Baking GPU's In The Oven

I guess I should just bake the flash drive. Since, inside got nothing.
It can be detected when injected to an USB. However, it can't be open and can't be format(just can't do a thing). It just shown "Please insert a CD to Drive F".
So, is this reasonable to bake it?

 

I don't think baking it will do anything. Then again, baking it won't make it any less usable.

 

Ok...just my 2CW. This is something a friend told me about a while back. Seems that this is also a known problem with xbox360s - part of the whole heat sink/cross bracket/etc. thing. The take on it that I got was this - the problem is magnified with BGA chips and the way the xbox junkies are fixing them is to leave the heatsink on, crank the tension down on it, and then instead of baking the whole thing in an oven, use a heat gun to heat the GPU up and re-seat the solder in the Ball Grid.

 

Um, I've fixed several 360s and I'll just say you do NOT want the tension "cranked down" when you're heating up a BGA. You're likely to destroy the BGA like that.
Usually just overheating them is enough.
http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/repair/ring_of_light_x-clamp_fix.htm

 

Then I defer to your experience. I haven't had to resort to baking or heating anything yet, that was just what one person told me. I do think a heat gun could be a safer way to do this, especially if you used some asbestos blanket or similar thing to insulate the more sensitive components of the card

 

wow, it worked!!!!!!!!! 9800 GT!

 

Asbestos?

You know that's dangerous too right? Like really dangerous.
Asbestos is toxic. The inhalation of asbestos fibers can cause serious illnesses, including malignant mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis (a type of pneumoconiosis). Since the mid 1980s, many uses of asbestos have been banned in several countries.


Do not use it.

 

Yeah, I know. I guess I just still use it as a figure of speech. I used to have one, a heavy-foil backed pad of Asbestos fibers. Used to protect the wall area when sweating pipe. Nowadays they're made of silica and much more durable. Something like you could find here:


http://www.e-tarps.com/category.cfm?Category=86

 

an extension of darksilvers question. I had an usb mouse that i accidentally pulled up a bit at the where the usb plug meets the plastic. I took it apart and it was not cracked off but would not work. Would baking it help?

 

Okay, I will have to jump in here and point this out because people don't seem to understand.

There is a science in what is being done here. This is not a magic fix.
It will not fix all of your poor dead electronics. Those will still be dead.
It won't fix a flash drive. It won't fix a mouse.
It will fix just about any BGA that has been degraded by heating/cooling cycles. That's it.

 

I'm with Hep on this one...for instance:

Solder Fatigue Study through Finite Element Analysis in a Molded Board Level BGA Module
Zhang, J.; Qing Ji; Rector, L.
High Density packaging and Microsystem Integration, 2007. HDP apos;07. International Symposium on
Volume , Issue , 26-28 June 2007 Page(s):1 - 6
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/HDP.2007.4283570
Summary: Eutectic solders are prone to cold flow and creep in thermal cycle process and therefore prone to fatigue failures. In this paper, eutectic solder fatigue in a molded board level BGA module was studied through finite element analysis. Particularly, the effects of underfilling molding compounds to the stresses and fatigue life of solder balls were investigated. A global finite element model was built to map out the most likely first-fail solder ball. The life cycle of this solder ball was further studied through a more detailed localized finite element model. Improvement of the fatigue life of this solder ball was investigated through optimizing materials properties of the underfilling molding compound.

This is from the 2007 IEEE journal on something or another...... But just goes to show you that there is an engineering principle at work here. There are also several articles out there on "reflowing BGA in a toaster oven", etc.

My only reason for joining this discussion was to present an alternative method of heating the materials, with potentially less risk to the surrounding or mounting materials.

 

OMG!
The discussion turn out to be something related to BIOLOGY, CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.
Can we just bake anything of a computer?
I mean processor, HDD and so on?

 

I do not think so, only the Graphics Cards can be baked, other components would suffer, most likely, and end up really damaged or totally useless. (A hard drive is made to resist up to 55 C without taking any damage, convert that number to Fahrenheit Degrees.)

I would only use this as a last resort, I'd rather use my warranty and get a replacement than to try to bake a component into an oven, risk myself, risk others, and if the process did not work, I cannot use my warranty anymore... actually, I would just buy an entirely new graphics card rather than to risk my house bursting in flames or inhaling toxic fumes.

 

Read post #110.

 

Everything about this thread, summed up, good.

 

Hmm I wonder if I could get my old go 7800GTX to life again by baking it. I know it´s one of the memory modules that has fried. Though I assume it´s no use to bake it.

 

Yep, that wouldn't help.

 

I am seriously considering baking my laptop mainboard in an oven, id appreciate some advice as for if it may fix my problems.

My laptop has about the same layout as the one baked by the op in this thread: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1421792&highlight=oven

It is a pavilion dv6189eu which has caused a number of problems and repair runs. Be that as it may, the current one occurred while surfing and running a game in the background. The GPU was overclocked to 600/900, to which I regularly overclock it when running something more graphics intensive (from stock 450/700, altough sometimes it boots up at 450/350).

If i remember the process correctly, it first froze, restarting the computer it just abruply powered off after some time of use in Vista, as if someone had cut out the power supply. It would keep doing this until it woudlnt pass the loading screen succesfully. I could however, still boot into safe mode, i figure now in hindsight, because of the Standard VGA driver used there.

A power off also occurs that way in the following situations:

- The CD/DVD unit is used (in the OS, this results in a sure power off, sometimes it works for a while pre boot)
- An external, USB powered HDD is plugged into the computer (or the computer started with one plugged in)

I now have a new HDD, and have installed Win 7 on it (had to use an external HDD to be able to, as it will power off trying to use a DVD). I can run it farely well with the Standard VGA driver (a power off or two have occured though). But if I install the Nvidia drivers, and restart the computer, it will power off as soon as the Windows loading screen is done (in other words, drivers initiated). And I can only fix it by rolling back with sys. recovery or from safe mode.

I had some EEPROM suspicions but dont think that is the issue. Could this have been caused by the overclocking? Here is some more info, albeit I have more insight now http://www.techsupportforum.com/mic...t/472852-laptop-powers-during-vista-boot.html

Anything that oven baking the mainboard may solve?

 

tried a 8600M GT and it worked! my pc is a compal ifl90!

Its been only a day but my graphics card was done and its been working for 2 days now.

Im a noob with most of this stuff (ie. opening up a laptop) and I was able to do it by just following the guide...

btw this is how I did it:

1. Put foil on a baking sheet and then the 4 foil balls to put the video card on.

2. I set the oven to around 380/90

3. After 5 minutes I took it out because I realized I had left the plastic, I ended up leaving it on because it was too hot to remove...

4. Put it back in for like 3, 4 min more and then let it cool off for around 20 minutes...

 

I had a few pixels out on my 27" monitor so I put it in the oven.... Long story short... I'll be going to the store for a new oven and some burn ointment.

 

The problem with this method is that, unfortunately its solves nothing. Ive done similar methods to various GPUs and had them work after for a month or two, then severe artifacting occurs.

Theres a small window that you would be able to do this with, which is once you get 1 error, or over heating or artifact. you have stop use of that gpu instantly. If not you will destroy the actual chip or memory and no amount of heating and reheating will save it. My ps3 for instance, yellow lighted, took a heat gun to my board and revived it, right away i was faced with prism polygon artifacts in each and everyone of my games. Decided id be a wise guy and reheat it again to fix it, and low and behold less artifacting.... for about a week then it went down hill from there. Last week the ps3 kicked the bucket, and I've come to the conclusion I cannot fix it anymore, its going up on personal ads to sell as parts for someone else.

So as much as this will revive it, your card will still have limited life left before you have to replace it anyways.

 

I've just baked my XFX 9800 GX2 (black edition) wich was half dead for over a year now. I've used slightly different temperatures though, 217 grd C for 10-11 minutes. In my oppinion the 210 grd C recomended is not enough to remelt the solder balls. Those solder balls melt at 217 grd according to wikipedia. I think that this is the main reason that only part of the oven baking procedures work.

The only regret is that I failed to protect well enough the ends of the board, and the transparent plastic from above the signal led partially melted (i've used tissue and alluminium foil wrapped arround the ends of the board)

 

Yesterday I’ve played about 4 hours of Fallout 3 (maximum everything including antialliasing and other settings that I wasn't able to use in a long time). The game was so smooth (no artifacts, not even an fps glitch).

Anyway I’ve reached the conclusion that my board failed due to poor maintenance (somewhere in the owners book I should have been told that the board requires a complete fan removal and thorough cleaning at least every six months).

I've run mine before the first incidents for a year and half not even monitoring the temps. Than I’ve played Borderlands and had constant crashes (looked up forums) made cuts from quality finished the game and than somebody told me to check the temps (118° C on one processor and 115° C on the other in load and about 80° - 90° on idle). I've cleaned the dust with an air can but the damage was already done and in a month or so the primary board artifacted and stopped working completely in a matter of minutes. Since than I’ve used the secondary card with dual monitor function until 2 days ago when I’ve installed fallout 3 and got constant crashes.

So to cut it short I've baked both cards with amazing results at 217° C for 10-11 minutes.

I’ll keep you post it. This weekend I’ll be a heavy gamer.