I BAKED my P-6860fx Motherboard!!!

Yep, literally baked it @ 375 F for 10 mins - let it cool for 20 mins
Decided, , if it doesn't work after I put it back together, there is no way i'm taking it apart again.
Baked it again for 425 F for 9 mins.
Took it out right after I heard a "POP!" //I neglected to take out the MB battery
After a trip to Walgreens in SnOMG 2011.
Came back and tried to put the laptop backtogether....

I kind of succeeded, had to re-take apart part of it, after forgetting to connect something here, and something there.

Anyway, as I'm typing this on my laptop, I still have 7 screws left-over... so needless to say I didn't put it backtogether the best and apparently i didn't completely close the case all the way around and my keyboard is a littly wavy... but it's working!!!!


WHY DID I BAKE IT?
Back in November, 1 day I woke up and the computer wouldn't turn on (had power, could hear the fans, see the lights. But nothing would show up on the screen.
Determine it's some kind of MB issue. Looked around, found a local Repair Shop who said they would fix it and guarantee it for 30 days for 175 b ucks.
They fixed it, 27 days later it broke again, same problem. (they say the soldered it or something)
11 days later, broke again - they fixed again.
6 days later, broke again - they fixed again.
2 days later, broke again.
7 days later, got a call saying they would give me my money back, but my computer is shot.

So, of course i've been searching here and heard about baking. Decided if it ever came to it, I would try baking as a last resort before I chucked it out the window.

Took it apart (not too hard.... but not fun). Used the write up here that is stickied and a youtube video //I couldn't have taken it apart without both resources.
Baked it, easy and kind of fun //And the wife will think you're nuts!
Baked it again, easy and more fun until i blew up my MB battery
Put it back together (really hard for me, and didn't do the best job, but everything works!)

Anyway, i'm writing this now, on my Medium-Rare Gateway FX.
I will reply to this thread when the PC dies again, or when I hit 30 days of no issues (whichever comes first).

Thanks,
~Hendel

 

Its most likely the GPU that needed to be baked (8xxx series had that as a common problem). I believe GPU is soldered into motherboard, so baking it is the only option u can do if u dont have a hot air generator (or so called building fan), this is the only option. Before we bought a specific chip soldering/unsoldering device, we used fan like this to heat only GPU main chip - mostly it worked, but we needed to change thermal grease and cooling system to keep temperatures low, otherwise it passed out in few weeks again.
I suggest u use some IDC7 or Arctic Silver 5 and change the cooling system as well. After this refurbishing some people manage to successfully use their laptops for like a year or more and they still dont pass out.

 

lol, thanks for sharing funny story. ill check back to see if it dies again.

 

Just wanted to say: 15 days in and still going strong.

 

While this does work, it will inevitably fail again. You'll be able to bake it again, and it'll WORK again, but the time periods between each successive failure will become shorter and shorter until you can't stand doing it anymore or it stops working entirely.

 

True, but the bakeing process is largely free (not counting time and energy from running the oven) so even if it gets a month or a year out of the deal thats generally time well spent.

Good job on the baking, hope it smelled like brownies

 

30 days!!!!!!!!

 

Apparently you're a good cook.................

 

108 days. It works and definitely worth the ~4 hours of work to put into it to bring a dead laptop back to life.
It's ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I got a full year on my first bake, and several months on my second before the LCD panel failed. I think the failure was due to the GPU and not the panel. I baked it a third time and can now only run it on an external monitor. The 3D works, but starts to flake out if I run a 3D game for any usefull amount of time.

Baking was definately worth doing, and many ppl have posted similar results. In fact, I wonder if there are any P6860-fx owners out there that this hasn't yet happened to. Bad nvidia!!

 

Writing this on my heavily gamed p6860FX with an x9000 in it. I run it at 3.0ghz, and 640/1580/920 or so on the 8800gts. never a burp. cpu runs at around 36/37C when doing things like posting to this board, runs up to mid 50's when gaming. The gpu normally sits around 43-44C and when gaming, will run up to 68-69 then the fan kicks in and it drops back down to 63 or so. If I stress with MSI Kombuster at my highest overclock, (not my normal one) I can push the gpu to 81 C but that's some serious flogging for that old chip.

Must have gotten one with good solder ( knock on plastic)
All in all a pretty good purchase. With all my normal work day stuff running, it pulls a bit over 10k 3dmark06. tweaked and shutting down all non critical processes gets me darn close to 11k. pretty good for a 3 plus year old lappie

seer

 

Haha that last part just made me laugh... Best of luck though! My 6860 will be my newest paper weight by the middle of next week.

 

I disassembled my P-6860fx last night. I think I will try this before ordering a new MB. What can it hurt? The board's already shot, so it's worth trying.

Edit: I did the bake last night. So far it works. The original problem was a dead GPU - computer would not even boot and I received a beep code from the MB indicating a problem with the GPU.

I removed all of the components except the black sticky cover over some parts. I wish I had removed it as it melted to the board a bit but can still be lifted up and doesn't seem to be causing a problem.

I also missed the little plastic piece inside the SD card slot, which is now fused in there, so I will have no SD slot. No big deal, this was an experimental thing anyway.

I replaced the thermal compound with a thicker compound. Hopefully that helps prolong its life.

I'm still nervous about booting it up. Not looking forward to being disappointed when it dies again.

 

Just wanted to let you know it died again 3 days ago.
The bake gave me 11 months to save up for a new computer, so i consider it time well spent.

I tried to bake it again just for sh!&$ and giggles, however this time around I must have messed something up when putting it back together because it wouldn't even power up the lights or anything.

Oh well,
It was a good laptop while it lasted, I'm pissed at NVIDIA for ruining my laptop so I have vowed to never buy their cards again (easy to do when RADEONS are performing so well).

Saved up money knowing this day was coming, so
Now I'm going to build a beast of a Desktop where if a signgle component goes bad, you can easily just throw a new one in instead of having to deal with laptops...

~peace

 

lol this thread reminds me of my old 6860fx, I ran through more hard drives then GPUs. I ran through 3 hard drives in 1.5 years of having that thing. But of boy did that baby overclock like crazy. From stock 500mhz to 650 on the gpu core and 920 on the memory from stock of 800. I only ran it at 600 core and 900 memory most of the time. I only had a t8300 in it that is running in my old sager 2090 that 4 years later is still running but doing some Folding@home now.

 

I baked my P6831fx 5 times and the last one didn't do the trick and only registers as a a basic VGA chip. I can definitely say that the almost 2 years worth of baking made it last that long. But it is definitely a terminal ending.

 

Hehe, cant even remember when I first baked mine, must be close to 2 years now. Still working after a few re-bakes.

Going to be moving up to Ivy-bridge, Kepler/7970 soon though. Don't think I'll be investing into a laptop. They're just not made for gaming.

Are Nvidia desktop gpus as low quality as these laptop gpu's? After this experience I'd never buy another Nvidia card.

Anyway grats on the bake!!!

 

I don't think so. I have a 9800GT that runs just fine and has zero issues. Most of it is simple airflow. Keep them cool and run the out of them.

 

guess i am lucky so far, never had any issue with my 6960fx, of course i haven't used it as a gaming laptop in 2 years, but it is on 24/7 as my media center in the front room... i know it has outlasted its duty cycle, but i cant be anything but happy with it

 

The 86xx series had a bad solder issue. 98xx's are mostly fine with a few bad ones squeaking in. By the fact of the 2xx series the solder issues were all resolved. This is all well known and extremely well documented.

 

Ok, so this problem only affects the first generation FXs. Cool!

But, is it still possible to overheat a 2XX GPU?

 

I'm surprised that I've been running for four years on my 6860 without issues.

 

I think all it takes is one good overheating and then the troubles come. No way around it.

 

i am sure this is true, i had numerous overheating issues with my dell 1730 with duel 8800 gtx's, at least 5 gpu replacements. and i definitely knew the gateway would have issues, and maybe i babied the gateway a bit, but i have yet to have any issues with the outdated gpu. i upgraded the cpu, that was garbage to begin with, but god damn, this mf is pretty decent, seriously, i am hard to please! but i cant complain, if it failed today, i still would be completely satisfied

 

I just baked my MB ,but the express slot cage fell off and I can't figure it out. It is 3 pieces I know how to put the 2 pieces back but one piece unsure how to put back. It is like a lever or something. Please help my email is [email protected]. [ATTACH=CONFIG]80934[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]80936[/ATTACH]

 

here is a pic of one on the P79xx board...........

 

Still not seeing where the other piece goes. Thanks for the pic ,but I still don't know where to put it.

 

Anyone with pic of bottom case inside without MB in it for P-6860FX.