[SOLVED] Can I repair my graphics card by my self?

[Relqiue]

I fried my GPU last week and I'm wondering if I could repair it by myself. The power still is registered and seen on the board, but when I plug it in my PCI slot on my motherboard it doesn't work. Any tips?

 

[siaan312]

Mostly, not.


Some people have had luck baking their gpu, to fix solder points, or even minor PCB trace cracks but... I wouldn't suggest it.. if it has a warranty, get it replaced, if not just get a new one.

 

[USAFRet]

I fried my GPU last week and I'm wondering if I could repair it by myself. The power still is registered and seen on the board, but when I plug it in my PCI slot on my motherboard it doesn't work. Any tips?

You cannot "fix", until you can "identify".
And maybe not even then.

If you're asking the question...probably not.

 

[Eximo]

No good advice really. Unless you can identify what has gone wrong, chances of repair are nearly zero.

Baking is a last resort technique, and has to be done very carefully to avoid desoldering everything on the board.

 

[Relqiue]

I fried my GPU last week and I'm wondering if I could repair it by myself. The power still is registered and seen on the board, but when I plug it in my PCI slot on my motherboard it doesn't work. Any tips?

Well I tried baking it and it didn't work, BTW my warranty is void since 2019. I'm just going to sell it for parts and use the money towards the 3070.

 

[USAFRet]

Well I tried baking it and it didn't work, BTW my warranty is void since 2019. I'm just going to sell it for parts and use the money towards the 3070.

The only "parts" that are sellable are the fans.
Unless you find some sucker.

 

[vov4ik_il]

Well I tried baking it and it didn't work, BTW my warranty is void since 2019. I'm just going to sell it for parts and use the money towards the 3070.

I did repair some, you would need some expensive tooling and knowledge.
However, after “baking“ there are no good parts in it. Not even fans (bearings are toasted). It is by far one of the best ways to ruin it. I would file a claim if I would buy a card after baking if it is not stated in the listing - it is easy to see for an experienced guy.

Lots of people here confuse getting solder balls reheated with a controlled IR heating station with putting a GPU in a baking oven. The first is a repair procedure to revive a semi-detached die while the second is a way to trash otherwise repairable card.

 

[siaan312]

I did repair some, you would need some expensive tooling and knowledge.
However, after “baking“ there are no good parts in it. Not even fans (bearings are toasted). It is by far one of the best ways to ruin it. I would file a claim if I would buy a card after baking if it is not stated in the listing - it is easy to see for an experienced guy.

Lots of people here confuse getting solder balls reheated with a controlled IR heating station with putting a GPU in a baking oven. The first is a repair procedure to revive a semi-detached die while the second is a way to trash otherwise repairable card.

Baking does work.
Obviously it's a last resort, really bad solution, and i wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they knew 100% what they were doing, but it does sometimes work.

 

[USAFRet]

Baking does work.
Obviously it's a last resort, really bad solution, and i wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they knew 100% what they were doing, but it does sometimes work.

For a temporary fix of a very limited range of fail modes.

 

[vov4ik_il]

Baking does work.
Obviously it's a last resort, really bad solution, and i wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they knew 100% what they were doing, but it does sometimes work.

NO, NO IT DOES NOT. This only proves what I wrote earlier. Everyone that watches that stupid Linus video and actually does it, creates more headaches for professionals who get the leftovers for parts. Actual successful repair using this rookie and stupid technique and without damage to other things is less frequent than Halley's Comet.

Background:
On some rare occasions during the card lifetime, it gets excessively hot and bows, which in even more rare occasions, causes large BGA elements (such as RAM or GPU ICs) to partially detach due to uneven expansion/shrinking.
When that happens, it might:

1. Rip off the pads (connection points) from the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) or from the Chip (which is essentially a smaller PCB with a die soldered or epoxied to it). Solder balls are not melted.
2. Rip off other elements due to uneven heating (or crack due to physical tension).
3. Crack-tear PCB tracks on top or in between the layers (as the cards bows, as it cools down, they might touch each other again).

Only "1" off this list sometimes can be repaired by reflowing, but reflowing is EVEN heating (again, to prevent BOWING) of the whole card using an infrared heating system with feedback and temperature control, maintaining element heating profile up to a melting point of tin (most cards are assembled using lead-free materials per RoHS). Infrared light (due to its wave-length) applies heat evenly - front and back, top and bottom, components and PCB all at the same time, and not only to the outer surface and regardless of surface material - the tin balls are located underneath the chips and not on top. That way the solder points and pads are reaching the soldering temperatures evenly. In the case of the oven, the surfaces are exceeding their temperature profiles and get ruined while the connection points are not even close to melting.
Besides, not every professional can reflow every chip properly, it is a very delicate task. Check out the process. Some cheaper home-made tools are still complicated but not impossible.

On top of that, VAST MAJORITY of card failures I have seen are (in the popularity order)

• VRM circuitry (shot MOSFETs, capacitors, controllers, etc mainly due to overclocking and poor heat dissipation, people only care about GPU chip temps, but also voltage spikes, static, etc)
• bad (failed) tantalum capacitors that are also used in VRM and decoupling circuitry
• GPU chip failure (voltage spikes, static electricity, overheating, impact damage)
• memory ICs (overclocking, poor quality, voltage spikes, poor cooling)
• knocked off-the-board elements (poor handling, impact)
• crystal oscillator failure (poor quality)
• failures due to poor board design (internal short circuits between the layers)

None of these has anything to do with the cause that can be fixed by reflow.

Baking on the contrary causes the PCB to bow and tears the tracks between the layers, rips off components and pads, and cooks the components due to excessive temperature or heating speed or uneven heating. Suggesting "baking" is poor advice by the least means. This leads to one of those cases, where repair after "repair" is 100 times more complicated and expensive.