Hey guys,
Many of you enthusiasts have probably heard of this odd technique before, but I'm posting it up for the less-informed or those who want a quick laugh...
Recently, one of my trusty old 8800GTs gave in. It was artifacting and freezing up, after which it no longer displayed anything. I wasn't too upset cause I've been gearing up for a new build in the close future (getting a pair of GTX 475s when they come out). In the meantime however, I was left using a single 8800GT to power all of my games. Being used to cranking almost every setting to MAX in most games, I got really annoyed with my drop in frame rates. Before chucking out the dead 8800GT, I decided to try one last thing, so I BURNT THE HECK OUT OF IT!.
Well it wasn't so drastic. I stripped it from everything I could (heatsink, memory heatsink etc). What I was left with was a bare PCB. I covered a baking tray in aluminium foil, and place the card on 3 little scrunched up balls as shown in the picture below. After this I put it into a preheated oven and left it there for 8 ~ 10mins at 200'C. You know when its down from the extreme smell of soldering.
Basically what this does is that it re-melts all the soldering points on the card which fixes the micro cracks when it cools down. The PCB has a lot higher melting point than the solder, and the short 10mins isn't enough to melt the plastic bits such as display ports etc.
After leaving it to cool down, I replaced the heatsinks and popped it back into my mobo. Voila, it WORKED!!! I was stunned to find that it powered on, my post screen popped up and eventually I was able to run all my programs (it did play Crysis) without a hitch. I benched it and found that it performed exactly the same as my other 8800GT!
So there you have it...If you find yourself about to chuck out an older/non-working GPU, run it through the oven first and enjoy the "miracle." If you want more info, hit up youtube/google.
If you want, you can add a couple of chocolate "chips" to top it all off
Needless to say, bake your GPU at your own risk!
Many of you enthusiasts have probably heard of this odd technique before, but I'm posting it up for the less-informed or those who want a quick laugh...
Recently, one of my trusty old 8800GTs gave in. It was artifacting and freezing up, after which it no longer displayed anything. I wasn't too upset cause I've been gearing up for a new build in the close future (getting a pair of GTX 475s when they come out). In the meantime however, I was left using a single 8800GT to power all of my games. Being used to cranking almost every setting to MAX in most games, I got really annoyed with my drop in frame rates. Before chucking out the dead 8800GT, I decided to try one last thing, so I BURNT THE HECK OUT OF IT!.
Well it wasn't so drastic. I stripped it from everything I could (heatsink, memory heatsink etc). What I was left with was a bare PCB. I covered a baking tray in aluminium foil, and place the card on 3 little scrunched up balls as shown in the picture below. After this I put it into a preheated oven and left it there for 8 ~ 10mins at 200'C. You know when its down from the extreme smell of soldering.
Basically what this does is that it re-melts all the soldering points on the card which fixes the micro cracks when it cools down. The PCB has a lot higher melting point than the solder, and the short 10mins isn't enough to melt the plastic bits such as display ports etc.
After leaving it to cool down, I replaced the heatsinks and popped it back into my mobo. Voila, it WORKED!!! I was stunned to find that it powered on, my post screen popped up and eventually I was able to run all my programs (it did play Crysis) without a hitch. I benched it and found that it performed exactly the same as my other 8800GT!
So there you have it...If you find yourself about to chuck out an older/non-working GPU, run it through the oven first and enjoy the "miracle." If you want more info, hit up youtube/google.
If you want, you can add a couple of chocolate "chips" to top it all off
Needless to say, bake your GPU at your own risk!