I baked my video card...literally.

[Tyberis]

First off, the reason I'm posting on FO4 forums is because my laptop video card died playing this game. Since then I have built a new rig. I have been gaming on laptops for the last 6 years. Started with Asus G73 and moved to Sager NP9370. Gaming on laptops is totally doable because I have had no problem running games on max settings for the last few years. My Sager uses an AMD HD 7970M and, is the card that died. It's been a month now with my new desktop, but that Sager has a special place with me. So...I revisited some options to fix the card since it's way too expensive to just buy a new card for laptops, hence why I built the desktop. The cost/performace ratio wasn't there for repairing the laptop.

Anyhooooo, my 7970M was usable to the the point of getting to the desktop but with large vertical green bars all across the screen. Color was off too like it was in 16 bit color mode. It would just crash to black screen if i did anything but look at the desktop. I've used the laptop with zero problems for the last 3 years, so I'm guessing the constant heating and cooling just loosened up some IC's on the card. I read about baking your video card to reseat the solder points on the board, so with nothing to lose I preheated my oven to 385* F and removed the mobile card from the laptop. I took off the heat sink and cleaned off the thermal past and the rubber boots from the bottom of the card since those would probably melt in the oven.

I took out a cookie sheet and lined it with aluminum foil. I made 4 small balls of aluminum foil about 3/4 inch in diameter to rest the video card on making sure it was on the corners of the card. I placed the card with the chip faced down on the foil balls. I carefully placed the tray in the oven on the middle rack and baked it for exactly 10 minutes. At about the 8 minute mark I could clearly smell hot plastic. Knowing I had nothing to lose, I let it reach the 10 minute mark and turned off the oven. I opened the door and let the tray sit in the oven for about 5 minutes and then placed the tray on top the oven to finish cooling to room temp for another 15 minutes.

I put everything back together with fresh AS5 thermal compound and started the laptop up. Not expecting this to work on the first, if any try, and it booted up to bios with no glitches. Needless to say I was excited. I reinstalled windows 10 today and downloaded all updates. So far there have been no negative effects and the card was running at 31* C idle.

**To Clarify, as was brought to my attention, this is a last ditch effort to bring a dead, out of warranty card, back to life.**

Summary, if you have nothing to lose go ahead and give the baking option a try. You might bring that zombie back to life. Hope this helps others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xanr4jkmEc

[FuzzyAnimator]

This seems very "put your iPhone in the microwave to charge it", if you know what I mean.

[Tyberis]

I've been repairing pc's since 2001. I would have never believed this if I didn't see it done several times on youtube with positive results. Once you understand the steps it makes sense with the melting point of common 63/37 solder used on most PCBs. Plus when you have nothing to lose, it never hurts to try it. My kids are using my laptop to play their games while I use my new desktop for FO4.

[bLaCkShAd0w]

Originally posted by FuzzyAnimator:

This seems very "put your iPhone in the microwave to charge it", if you know what I mean.

No its actually logical, Re-melt the solder joints. Not sure if 10 minutes is enough though.

Kind of a last ditch effort, Was the original fix for the xbox 360 red ring of death.

Originally posted by Prince Rahl:

Oh great this whole "bake your x" comonent to liquify and "resolder" soldering.

Video or it didn't happen.

You should have deleted System32, that fixes broken GPUs also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9XaXfyVOtk

Obviously a heat gun would be a better option, the melting point of solder isnt far below temps that would start to fry the gates on transistors etc, The margin for error is quite great. But if its pooched either way what do you have to lose.

[Tyberis]

Originally posted by bLaCkShAd0w:

Originally posted by FuzzyAnimator:

This seems very "put your iPhone in the microwave to charge it", if you know what I mean.

No its actually logical, Re-melt the solder joints. Not sure if 10 minutes is enough though.

Kind of a last ditch effort, Was the original fix for the xbox 360 red ring of death.

All the videos I watched were for full size desktop cards. I wasn't sure if I needed to adjust temp or time, but honestly I didn't care. I know the melting point was 360*F, so 385*F for 10 minutes gave the board time to heat up. There was no drippings on the tray so I'm guessing it was the perfect time for mobile card also. Either way it's working and it saved me about 500 bucks for a new card.

[ironhead1969]

Originally posted by Tyberis:

I've been repairing pc's since 2001. I would have never believed this if I didn't see it done several times on youtube with positive results. Once you understand the steps it makes sense with the melting point of common 63/37 solder used on most PCBs. Plus when you have nothing to lose, it never hurts to try it. My kids are using my laptop to play their games while I use my new desktop for FO4.

It's not possible to "re-melt" solder at 350F solder melts at 700F.

[bLaCkShAd0w]

Originally posted by Prince Rahl:

Originally posted by bLaCkShAd0w:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9XaXfyVOtk

Of course, put it in a cold oven and then a nice cut to not even seeing it in the oven and then holding it on a desk/counter top.

Got a video of someone showing the glowing red oven heating element with the component inside the oven for the entire "recommended" duration with no cuts and then the component working?

Sorry blackshadow, I completely disagree. For a start, see those capacitors? You think they didn't reach the same temp as the rest of the board? What happens when Caps overheat?

Well coming from an electrician, The gates on the transistors will be the first thing to go, You can actually destroy them just soldering them in initially.

The typical operating temperature range for aluminum electrolytic capacitors is –40 ºC to 85 ºC or 105 ºC. They are much more resiliant than other components IMO.

P.S. Nothing blows up electrolytics like reverse polarity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMyxKzyUVaQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G65-ncBxdHA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JWssVDkgOQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz_AGCXrTy8

People bake boards every day, Even common practice for professional electronic tecks, Maybe not in a residential oven, But same theory.

The fancy way of doing it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmmGsTcjKC0

Originally posted by ironhead1969:

Originally posted by Tyberis:

I've been repairing pc's since 2001. I would have never believed this if I didn't see it done several times on youtube with positive results. Once you understand the steps it makes sense with the melting point of common 63/37 solder used on most PCBs. Plus when you have nothing to lose, it never hurts to try it. My kids are using my laptop to play their games while I use my new desktop for FO4.

It's not possible to "re-melt" solder at 350F solder melts at 700F.

With most tin/lead solder combinations, melting does not take place all at once. Fifty-fifty solder begins to melt at 183 C -361 F, but it's not fully melted until the temperature reaches 216 C - 420 F. Between these two temperatures, the solder exists in a plastic or semi-liquid state.

https://www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=solder%20melting%20temperature

[Dies Fourth]

Wont the solder just drip completely down thru the holes when it liquifies ?

[bLaCkShAd0w]

Originally posted by Dies Fourth:

Wont the solder just drip completely down thru the holes when it liquifies ?

Only if its too hot, By that point you went too far and its probably destroyed anyways.

In the semi-liquid state it actually "clumps" together similar to mercury.

[Tyberis]

Originally posted by Prince Rahl:

Originally posted by bLaCkShAd0w:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9XaXfyVOtk

Of course, put it in a cold oven and then a nice cut to not even seeing it in the oven and then holding it on a desk/counter top.

Got a video of someone showing the glowing red oven heating element with the component inside the oven for the entire "recommended" duration with no cuts and then the component working?

Sorry blackshadow, I completely disagree. For a start, see those capacitors? You think they didn't reach the same temp as the rest of the board? What happens when Caps overheat?

No one said you have to do it Prince....Just saying it worked for me. There are thousands of examples online. Just have to look them up. It's a step for those that have no other options. If the card is dead it's dead. Won't make it dead-er by baking it. This isn't a religious topic, so your disbelieving comments make no sense here.

[loverevolutionary]

Originally posted by Dies Fourth:

Wont the solder just drip completely down thru the holes when it liquifies ?

No, thanks to capillary action. Most components are surface mount now, anyway, so no holes.

Blackshadow, thanks for schooling the previous idiots who don't know squat about modern soldering techniques. I went to look for video of reflow soldering and came back to find you'd beat me to it.

[ironhead1969]

Originally posted by bLaCkShAd0w:

Originally posted by Prince Rahl:

Of course, put it in a cold oven and then a nice cut to not even seeing it in the oven and then holding it on a desk/counter top.

Got a video of someone showing the glowing red oven heating element with the component inside the oven for the entire "recommended" duration with no cuts and then the component working?

Sorry blackshadow, I completely disagree. For a start, see those capacitors? You think they didn't reach the same temp as the rest of the board? What happens when Caps overheat?

Well coming from an electrician, The gates on the transistors will be the first thing to go, You can actually destroy them just soldering them in initially.

The typical operating temperature range for aluminum electrolytic capacitors is –40 ºC to 85 ºC or 105 ºC. They are much more resiliant than other components IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMyxKzyUVaQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G65-ncBxdHA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JWssVDkgOQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz_AGCXrTy8

People bake boards every day, Even common practice for professional electronic tecks, Maybe not in a residential oven, But same theory.

The fancy way of doing it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmmGsTcjKC0

Originally posted by ironhead1969:

It's not possible to "re-melt" solder at 350F solder melts at 700F.

With most tin/lead solder combinations, melting does not take place all at once. Fifty-fifty solder begins to melt at 183 C -361 F, but it's not fully melted until the temperature reaches 216 C - 420 F. Between these two temperatures, the solder exists in a plastic or semi-liquid state.

https://www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=solder%20melting%20temperature

First of all if you are an "Electrician" you should know it's tech's not tecks, Second if you heated a mobo to the point of solder reflowing you would de-solder more components than you would "fix". Third mobo's are multi layer and that alone would make the "baking' unreliable at best. Fourth Printed circuit boards are soldered by moving them across a bath of moletn solder.

[Grad]

Jesus christ dude why not just RMA the thing assuming you were still under warranty, and most laptops are at least covered for 2yrs. If the warranty date has passed though then I see no issue in this. If you want to bake your card go nuts you have nothing to lose.

[Tyberis]

Originally posted by Prince Rahl:

Whatever, bake your electronic goods that no longer work because heat is the answer and cracked solder is the problem. Enjoy folks.

Wait I'm confused, what exactly are you disgruntled about? That others tried something that helped with their "no other option" problem? It was either let the laptop sit and collect dust or try it and see if it worked. Sounds like your disgruntled for the sake of being disgruntled....Pretty sad way to live.

[ironhead1969]

Originally posted by bLaCkShAd0w:

Originally posted by Dies Fourth:

Wont the solder just drip completely down thru the holes when it liquifies ?

Only if its too hot, By that point you went too far and its probably destroyed anyways.

In the semi-liquid state it actually "clumps" together similar to mercury.

Mercury is liquid at room temperature. The melting point of mercury is -37.966 degrees C. Mercury is a solid, crystalline metal below this point.

[Tyberis]

Originally posted by Creamy Goodness:

Jesus christ dude why not just RMA the thing assuming you were still under warranty, and most laptops are at least covered for 2yrs. If the warranty date has passed though then I see no issue in this. If you want to bake your card go nuts you have nothing to lose.

Exactly. The laptop is over 3 years old and 2 years past warranty. I tried something I saw on youtube that others have tried with success, and you'd think I was talking about resurrecting Jesus Christ himself. If you believe in that stuff....=) Amazing what people get pissy about.