Do-it-yourself video card repair with an iron

Have you ever experienced your graphics card stopped working? God grant, of course, that this never happens, but still! What to do, for example, if you hear that the computer is booting, but there is no image on the monitor (black screen)?

What we usually do in such cases: substitute a known working video card (or switch to integrated video) and make sure that the problems are with the graphics adapter. But what to do in this case? Can we provide video card repair ourselves?

The good news is yes: DIY video card repair is quite possible! The bad thing is that after such a repair there is no guarantee that the video card restored in this way will work for a long time. Also, the repair itself may end unsuccessfully if we do not follow certain rules. But let's talk about everything in order! 🙂

So, we have a non-working video card from Nvidia, the GeForce 9500 GT model. Like this:

What's the problem? The video card worked for a long time in harsh temperature conditions, which led to its overheating. As a result of this, a fairly typical (in such cases) thing happened: the "dump" of the BGA chip of the video card.

Don't be scared by the word “dump”, nothing has fallen off there 🙂 This is just how the people call the electrical contact of the BGA balls array with the printed circuit board of the card that occurs as a result of prolonged overheating. Usually, this phenomenon occurs as a result of the presence of a small section of cold soldering, which is subjected to prolonged and strong heating.

This is not to say that this is a 100% marriage of the manufacturer: there can be quite a lot of tin balls in the array and the violation (or oxidation) of the contact of even one of them can lead to a complete (or partial) loss of the card's performance. So overheating, be it a video card or a central processor, is a very unpleasant thing. Try to avoid it in every possible way!

And in this situation, we have no choice but to try to repair the video card with our own hands, on our own. So, first of all, we need to take care to remove all plastic plugs, stickers (stickers) located on the back side of the card from the card. Anything in the area of ​​the graphics chip can melt.

Yes Yes! You heard right: to melt. After all, we will repair the video card by heating it, and all the “unnecessary” need to be removed, just for every fireman. Of course, perhaps nothing like this will happen, but just make it a habit - it will come in handy 🙂

We will also need to remove the fan and cooling system. We do this with whatever is more convenient for us. Personally, I use this screwdriver with interchangeable nozzles:

We unscrew the screws securing the fan, remove the metal cover and get the following picture:

As you can see, the cooling system requires thorough cleaning, and the fan itself needs preventive maintenance, since its efficiency has decreased due to lime adhered to the blades and dust crammed into the bearing.

The next step is to remove the GPU heatsink. It would seem: what is so difficult here? But, as one movie hero said in a film about various evil spirits: "There is a catch everywhere!" Here it lies in the fact that often (especially if the chip was operated in a severe temperature regime), when dry, the thermal paste tightly glues the crystal and the heatsink together.

It is strongly discouraged, in this case, to use heroic force and pull this matter upon yourself, or, as experience erroneously suggests, to pick something up! This can damage the crystal! There is a simpler and more elegant solution: we take a regular household hair dryer and slowly warm up the clutch area.

After a while (5-10 seconds), we begin to slightly shake the radiator from side to side, as in the photo above. Thermal paste, softening under the influence of temperature, will allow us to do this. Warming up this thing a little more, we can easily separate our radiator from the crystal:

Try as completely and as carefully as possible to clean both the "base" of the radiator and the crystal itself from the remnants of the old dried thermal paste. At the same time, try not to scratch the metal surface of the radiator (this will reduce its heat transfer coefficient). Do not scrape, it is better to warm up separately and wipe off the old paste.

With the crystal, it is also as careful as possible: if you did not manage to remove some part of the paste (like mine, for example), then it is better to leave it. Anything that is erased - be sure to delete! Otherwise, the thermal paste, under the influence of temperature, will, as they say, “bake” and then it will be very difficult to remove it without damaging (chipping) the core itself.

Before we start repairing a video card with our own hands, let's take a closer look at the graphics chip.

Why did I highlight some of the areas in the photo above? See, the larger area is the graphics card chip itself, and the smaller area is the GPU die (GPU - graphics processing unit). Along the perimeter of the crystal, we see a white sealant (compound) that performs several functions: protects the crystal from dust getting under it and fixes it to the substrate.

What is the "trick" here and why repairing a video card with your own hands can end unsuccessfully, no matter what efforts we make? The area (array) of BGA solder balls is not only between the chip itself and the PCB textolite, but also between the crystal and the substrate graphics card!

Do you feel where I'm going? The harsh reality is that we can repair the video card ourselves (if we are still lucky) only if there is a violation of the contacts of the balls directly between the PCB and the substrate. If the “dump” occurred under the crystal, then we can hardly do anything about it. Even such an operation as reballing (complete replacement of an array of balls using a stencil) will not save in this case, since this procedure is performed only for the “bottom” of the entire chip, but not for the crystal!

So, I hope we have learned the necessary minimum of theory? Moving on! To repair a video card at home, we need a flux and a disposable syringe. I use the usual GFR (alcohol-canin), which is called “GFR-flux”.

We collect the substance in a syringe (about one cube). If it remains, it will be possible to drain back.

Note: You can use any other inactive (ideally neutral) flux. For example, "F1" or "F3". The original LTI-120 is also suitable. Although, with LTI, not everything is so simple: leave it as a last resort 🙂

We carefully apply the tip of the needle to the edge of the substrate, tilting it so that the flux we squeeze out of the syringe is under the chip. After pumping it, if necessary, tilt the card slightly so that it spreads well between the balls. Ideally, we want to achieve an effect where the liquid appears a little from all sides.

Advice: after use, rinse the syringe (just take several times of water from the tap and squeeze out through the needle). If this is not done, the rosin in the needle will dry out and clog it. It will take a long time to clean or throw away.

Now we can be sure that when heated, the flux will fulfill its function. Why fluxes are needed, what they are and how to use them correctly, we considered in a separate article, so we will not repeat ourselves.

After that, we can proceed directly to the repair of the video card with our own hands! To do this, we place it in such a way that we have free access to the GPU from above and below and, using a soldering station, we begin to heat the substrate around the perimeter.

Note: under no circumstances heat the crystal itself! It can fail!

How I do it, I’d better show you in video format, since you cannot clearly illustrate with photographs alone.

Now let's comment on this video a little. When you warm up the video card from below (under the chip), try to keep the hair dryer perpendicular to the plane of the PCB, otherwise I didn't manage to shoot and warm it at the same time. Also, be careful not to flare the small card components located on the back side (they can be easily shifted, given the heated solder underneath).

In the video above, I did not show the whole procedure, as you understand. The bottom must be heated long enough (3-5 minutes) so that the smoke from the flux, which you may have noticed, began to rise quite intensively above the board (this is evidence that the board has warmed up well). The first stage will be “boiling” and bubbling of the flux - this is normal.

Also, do not hesitate to warm up the place under the crystal itself (you can do this through the board). The main thing: do not hold the hair dryer in one place - smoothly move it over the area (to exclude places of local overheating of the surface). Keep the funnel of the hair dryer at a distance of 2-3 centimeters from the surface to be treated. I personally set the air flow to an average value, the temperature that the soldering station shows at the same time is 420-450 degrees Celsius. The second value is the limit for my "Ya Xun 880D".

The temperature spread here is due to the fact that its sensor itself is located directly in the handle of the hot air gun, and the air temperature at the outlet of the hot air gun is already different (lower). Plus, here you can add the inevitable heat loss due to the ability to absorb and dissipate heat by the treated surface itself, the temperature in the room, the proximity of the hair dryer to the heated area, the power of the air flow, etc. That is why only empirically it will be possible to select the exact value of the operating temperature (thermal profile) for a particular soldering station.

To what state should you warm up? Here, again, there are indirect signs by which we can navigate. The whole procedure takes approximately 5-8 minutes. The spread of time is due to the factors listed above. It also depends on the quality of the flux used, the type of solder from which the BGA array is made on a substrate (lead or lead-free). In the process of strong heating, the flux should evaporate (smoke) fairly decently.

Another important marker is the visual detection of the melting of the solder on the elements located on the chip around the die (usually a series of small SMD capacitors). When the solder "shines" on them, it is a sure sign that the balls of the substrate have reached their melting point, which is exactly what we need! For greater confidence, you can take tweezers in your free hand and try to slightly move the chip itself: gently push it (literally by a millimeter) to the side and you will see how it “wobbles” and, due to the forces of surface tension of the molten balls from below, will snap into place. After that, the heating can be safely stopped!

Note: some craftsmen, instead of a station, use a regular building hair dryer or repair the video card with their own hands, “baking” it in a household oven, after wrapping it in foil! Frankly, I am not a fan of such radical methods of "repair", although (if the guys succeed in everything), then why not? 🙂

During the heating procedure, you can monitor the surface temperature with a thermocouple or pyrometer (infrared thermometer). This will help in the future to better navigate in the selection of the correct thermoprofile.

Note: when cooling the video card (or any other element), do not use forced airflow - fan, etc. Let the part cool naturally, no need to "fit" it. We don't need the microcircuit to receive a thermal shock (shock), do we?

This is how you repair a video card with your own hands! Whether they were successful or not, we have yet to verify. To do this, we need to do a few mandatory things. Out of habit, I clean (where possible) the board from the flux residues. In this case, it is the rosin remaining after the evaporation of the alcoholic component. The rosin is neutral (it does not interact with the components of the board) and, in theory, it may not be necessary to wash it off, but, for the sake of order, let's go over it thoroughly with a brush and a cleaner.

We washed more or less (the rosin dissolved), let it dry and apply fresh thermal paste to the crystal (“KPT”, “AlSil” or “Zalman” - I respect):

Now we put the whole "constructor" back together (we fix the heatsink, screw on the cooler, connect it to the connector on the board).

Before installing the card into the system unit, let's go (just in case) with an elastic band over the contacts of the Pci Express connector and that's it - can you install a component on the motherboard to check what we've got?

But it turned out, as we can see, everything is not even bad. There is an image on the monitor! Do-it-yourself video card repair is possible! Of course, to be completely sure, we need to install the operating system (it was not at hand), install the video card driver and, ideally, run some kind of stress test for stability, which will show us, in the end, we managed to repair the video card ourselves or No?

Note: The free and easy-to-use tool "FurMark" can work very well for this test.

Otherwise anything can happen: the video card seems to work, but the driver is not installed or does not pass the stability test. Also, as you understand, we cannot give any guarantee for this type of "repair" and we do not know how long the device will work? But, as they say, on the other hand, we “pumped over the skill” of repairing video cards at home, and the client received a temporary working computer. We did what we could, and then there will be what should happen!

As always, I am waiting for your comments, feedback, constructive criticism below under the article 🙂

On the eve of International Women's Day (I take this opportunity to congratulate all women) my old lady gtx 660 ti got sick. Symptoms - artifacts, a gray screen, a fall into the BSD, blinking, in general, it was normal for her to be so feverish. After looking at the prices for these pribluda, I was a little shocked. Since my last monitoring of prices, everything has risen in price by at least a third. Looking into my wallet, the shock gave way to despair. Found a damn time to get sick!

Then I remembered stories about warming up in the oven, etc. I didn’t dare to cook a dish from PCB, silicon and tin, but by the way I had an iron at hand (I used it for the first time after ironing a suit for a wedding).

Damn, I don't know how anyone, but I was dumb. Well, I don’t know how embarrassing it is to iron a vidyahu with an iron at 2 a.m. on March 8 at home. The warm-up process took about 40 minutes with a gradual increase in power, and then with a gradual decrease. Replacement of thermal paste, assembly and lo and behold! Everything is working. In order not to entertain false illusions, the first thing I did was a stress test.

I drove 15 minutes to the end of the temperature 74 degrees. Nothing crashes. So the Myth is confirmed!

And yes, happy holiday again, iron more often)))

Recently I had a problem. My faithful friend, my eternal serial and my magnificent music have passed away. Yes, you understood correctly. My computer crashed. But, despite the fact that the PC has been for many years, I decided to find out what, after all, the problem was. For a long time I went over it and, after a while, I discovered the cause of the failure, which manifested itself in the absence of an image. It turned out that the so-called "chip on the video card" had occurred in my computer.And then the Internet came to my aid, which is simply replete with options for solving this problem. So I propose to sort this out together.

We'll start with the first and logical question. Why? There may be many versions on this topic, but the following is more likely. Often everything is connected with a change in the technology of manufacturing video card chips. In this connection, there are frequent and significant temperature drops, due to which the place where the contact is soldered loses its connection with the site. After that, the video card system stops working correctly, and you get such a picture on your screen (see Fig. 1), or it turns off altogether. To solve this kind of problem, you need to have at least a good soldering machine, and as a maximum a lot of knowledge, skills and abilities in this area.

That is why, I propose to study the structure of the most common BGA chip. This is approximately how it looks schematically (see Fig. 2). Having looked at this figure, it is obvious that one of the problem areas is the chip seat, where the contact between the main board and the die passes (see Figs 3 and 4). Of course, it is practically impossible to determine at what stage the breakdown occurred. In this case, removing the crystal from the substrate is unlikely to help. Even if you have a good microscope. Do not forget that there can be many reasons for the breakdown of video cards, but it is the desoldering of the solder ball that is their most frequent "enemy".

Any service for repairing a computer and its components will offer a solution to this problem in a classical way. Replacing the balls between the substrate and the graphics card. This action is called "reball" (from the English. "Ball recovery"). For this, an infrared soldering station, a stencil and special balls are used. The repair is carried out by uniformly warming up the video card, due to which problems with contacts are removed. Such an operation would be beneficial to the chip if that was the problem. In the case when decoupling occurs between the crystal and the substrate, this will be ineffective.

Do not forget that repairs of this kind are one of the most expensive ones. As a result, we turn to the materials at hand and how to repair the chip with their help. I spent a long time analyzing how it is possible to warm up the chip evenly without harming it. There were a lot of options: both an oven and a hot frying pan. But I settled on a more gentle form of heating - an iron. When I got to the place where the breakdown occurred, I found that the chip was in an aluminum case. Although this is a good form of protection, it will still not be superfluous to lay it in foil.

Warming up I started right away from about one hundred and forty degrees Celsius. The thermocouple helped to determine the temperature. On the iron, it was the “wool” mark. So I kept it on the chip for about ten minutes. After that, the temperature was raised to about two hundred degrees. And the heating continued for about fifteen minutes (see Fig. 5-8). This type of heating has its advantages. One of them is the slow cooling of the iron. This allows the temperature to drop slowly, and all elements of the chip planting to cool down without sudden changes. After unplugging the iron, I left it cool on the chip for about forty minutes. After the resurrection operation, I put everything back together without unnecessary details, and was incredibly happy about the awakening of my faithful friend.

I also want to note that this procedure was done by me several more times with other video cards, and all of them successfully functioned for another two or three months. But, unfortunately, repeated multiple "repairs" do not bring the same results and become less effective. I hope that my article will help many home craftsmen to reanimate their computer at least for a while with a minimum of financial costs.

Artifacts appeared on my brother's computer: blue stripes in the bios and hieroglyphs (and sometimes clones of letters) in the download logs.This was to be expected - the day before there was a moment when, when the computer was turned on, the video card (Asus 8800 GTS 640Mb 320bit) squealed like a pig. In general, I didn't really want to buy a new one, and the old man did an excellent job with games. It was decided to try the method of frying the GPU (warming up the GPU) - there was nothing to lose.

There are several ways: in the oven, with an industrial hairdryer, or with an ordinary iron. I chose the latter. First, I don't have a production hair dryer. Secondly, I do not have food foil to protect the plastic items in the oven. Thirdly, before the breakdown, fresh thermal paste was applied to the video card. Yes - I'm lazy, I don't want to go to the store again.

• he was not sorry for him
• it heats locally (not all at once)
• no need to change precious thermal grease on the rest of the elements

We remove the cooling system: unscrew the bolts, remove, clean the GPU from the remnants of the thermal interface (in my case there was liquid metal) - acetone will help you.

We take a baking sheet, add a little oil, put it in a safe place (if it's not a sink, like mine, I advise you to put a towel on it). We put the patient on it.

Important: under no circumstances should you move the iron during the frying process. The principle is this: with long-term use, microcracks appear in the GPU. With the help of high temperature, you can get rid of them. Basically, we are melting the disconnected conductors.

Now the most difficult thing: put the cold iron evenly on the GPU surface (to adjust the height, I put an iron microwave stand under the video), and cook on low heat, turn on the “minimum” mode - the temperature should increase gradually. After 10 minutes, set the mode between “minimum” and “maximum”. After another 5 - to “maximum”. In this state, I kept the processor for 15 minutes, and began to lower the temperature in the reverse order. Only after the iron had cooled down did I take it off and let our poor fellow lie down for a couple of minutes.

I put the thermal paste back, assembled it, connected it and was very surprised - it works! Honestly, I didn't believe that everything would work out until Windows issued a welcome signal!

Hello to all visitors to the Radio Pill site!
As you have already noticed, with the appearance of the article about options increase PC performance, I decided to diversify a little the subject of the site, to a more or less suitable one. Over the years of using and repairing computer equipment, I learned a thing or two, practiced at work and at home. Maybe you can also draw something from my small article.

And now the speech will go about frying a video card with an iron... Not in the oven, not a microwave (God forbid), just an ordinary iron!

But remember, if you do everything that is described below, remember.
You do this at your own peril and risk, and as a result of these actions you can turn the card into a brick!
We are not responsible for your actions!
Blah ... blah ..., blah ... etc. etc.
In short, the tail is a pistol and let's go!

Warming up the video card with an iron, Nvidia ... I don’t remember the exact name, and I don’t need to, who cares what to heat, Titan v or Zotac GT 610 PCI.

Of course, I was joking about the first one.

So, it was in the evening, I got one such, with artifacts.

Before starting the operation, I thoroughly studied the video material on YouTube on warming up the card with a soldering station, baking in the oven and the actual iron, and is now ready to share my experience.
I describe the warming up of the video card step by step:
1. We disassemble the card to the board by removing the fan with a heatsink. We erase the thermal grease from the processor.
1.1. We put a card wrapped in high-quality food foil on a thick flat cardboard, or on a non-flammable something, now we put the “nose” of the iron on the processor so that the heated bottom clearly covers its entire body (without fanaticism).
1.2. Do not forget to put something non-combustible under the "heel" of the iron, for example, a thick piece of metal (this requires imagination).This is done so that the level of the video card processor and the heated metal of the iron are on a par.
1.3. To check and verify the temperature, you need a thermometer, always digital. I used a DT9207 multimeter with a temperature probe. You need to place it where the temperature will be the highest, near the processor.
The first stage of the setup has passed.

2. We check the reliability of the entire structure so that it does not accidentally move in the process. Otherwise - "Finita la comedy"!

3. We set the power of the iron to a minimum, plug it into an outlet.
4. Gradually, according to the modes, we raise the temperature, waiting for each mode until the light for heating the iron goes out. Monitor the temperature on the multimeter display.
5. When they have reached the maximum, the readiness temperature should be close to 160-170 С about. After heating to the required degrees, we keep the maximum temperature -165 C about. 15-20 minutes, turn off the iron,
6. We wait until it cools down so that you could put your hand on it, remove it.
If your iron cools down very quickly, then it is better not to turn it off, but to gradually cool it down by lowering the temperature by switching modes. Rapid cooling of the video card processor will entail a crack in the "stone".

7. After removing the iron, wait another 10 minutes for the card to cool down.
8. That's all, if necessary, wipe the card, then apply thermal paste and install radiators.
9. We start the system and see how it turned out. If you are not lucky, then the problem is specific, you cannot do without the SC.
It is very important not to move the iron from the GPU while switching modes, otherwise the card can be thrown away.
Of course, all these methods of warming up, especially in artisanal conditions, are a very dubious decision and there is a greater chance of finally ditching the video card, but still it can help out in an emergency, postpone the purchase of a new card for a while, but for how long, no one gives a guarantee ...

DIY video card repair.

Hello friends. In today's topic, we will consider an issue that sooner or later interests every user who is not used to keeping an eye on the cleanliness and cooling system of his computer. The question sounds like this: how to repair a video card actually manually.

How to monitor the cleanliness of the system unit and avoid stupid problems with overheating of chips can be found in the article “Why the computer is warming up.

As practice shows, and I have had it for at least 5 years, about 90 percent of breakdowns are due to poor-quality cooling, which leads to overheating of the chips.

In video cards, the main element is the video chip, which is usually located under the heatsink. In the screenshot below, number 1 shows the video chip of the Msi rx2600pro video card, and under the second is the heatsink removed from the chip.

Now I will describe how I carried out the repair of this particular video card under the influence of heating the chip using a soldering hair dryer. The breakage of this element was caused by the "blade" of the video chip, which caused vertical artifacts to appear all over the screen.

Do not forget to subscribe to free updates and you will always be aware of interesting cases from my practice.

This is just one of the breakdowns that occur with video cards and it is the most common.

Malfunctions of video cards are as follows.

* When the device is turned on, the picture is not displayed on the screen.

* Appearance of all kinds of color distortion.

* POST beeps about card initialization error.

* The appearance of vertical and / or horizontal "artifacts.

* All different picture display glitches under load on the chip.

* Braking of the picture during the game.

All of the above problems have different ways of solving, but in this article we will touch upon the "artifacts" that usually arise due to the "dump" of the chip itself or its memory.

By "dump" should be understood the process of breakage or burnout of the contact inside the chip or from its "seat". A break may occur if the computer is dropped and hit.Burnout occurs mainly due to the operation of chips at elevated temperatures, which in turn is caused by negligence in monitoring the state of cooling. The contacts also burn out due to incorrect power supply.

I am touching on the topic of repairing a video card, because, as I have already mentioned, I recently carried out repairs of this type.

A man approached me with a request to fix the breakdown of his video card. The breakdown, he said, was the appearance of strange vertical stripes across the computer screen.

Having accepted the equipment for repair, I began to fix the problem, but for a more detailed analysis of this situation with the application of video filming of all stages of the repair, I turned to a friend in a way that second hands would not interfere with me. By the way, my friend is a phone repairman and I think that from his practice, we will take something useful for further articles.

Let's start to repair the video card, which I divided into six stages and to each of which I will attach a video file with the work done.

Stage one: “Disassembly and cleaning.

I hope you already know that the video chip of a video card usually has heatsinks with passive or active cooling. In the first stage, we remove the cooling system from the chip. To do this, unscrew the 4 radiator mounting bolts. After we remove it to the side. Having unscrewed the bolts, the radiator remains either on the thermal paste adhered to the chip or, in some cases, on the latches passing through the textolite of the video card. We carry out cleaning around our patient - the chip with a toothbrush, having previously moistened it with alcohol.

Stage two: “Removing the thermal paste.

As mentioned earlier, in the system, the role of heat sink and filling the void between the heatsink and the chip is performed by the applied thermal paste, which over time either burns out completely or partially sticks. At this stage, we remove it, both from the chip and from the heatsink itself. Remove the sticky paste with an alcohol-coated napkin. I have adapted to do this with a toothbrush. In general, friends, after doing the same work, you yourself will pick up a familiar cleaning product for yourself in the future. So, having eliminated the remnants of the paste, we proceed to the third stage.

Stage three: “Fixing the video card. Flux application.

When the "patient" is ready to warm up, you need to secure it comfortably. The fastening in this case was carried out using the holder, which can be seen in the video below. Having fixed the card, we apply flux with a stick around the video chip, it is also called "soldering fat". We apply the flux without regret; we will eliminate the residues after the end of the procedure.

Stage four: “Warming up with a Lukey B52D soldering hair dryer.

We put our soldering hair dryer on 300 degrees to warm up. In general, every owner of a soldering station should know how his hairdryer heats up, whether the temperature readings correspond to real ones. Ideally, of course, it is better to carry out the entire heating process with an infrared soldering station - under its heating, you can bring the chip to a "floating state" which is very convenient for shrinking it to its seat. In the absence of such a station, we will use the Lukey B52D soldering hair dryer. Gradually we begin to warm up the chip by running a hairdryer along its edges in the area where the flux is applied. Noticing the boiling of the flux, we "shrink" the chip to its place by pressing it, without stopping the heating process. In my case, pressing was done with tweezers. The whole warm-up process took us approximately three minutes. You can adjust the heating temperature yourself, the main thing is that the chip is brought to an almost floating state.

Stage five “We remove the remains of the flux and let it cool.

Having finished the work on "shrinking" the chip that we have warmed up to its place at the fifth stage, let the card cool down for a couple of minutes, and we can start to eliminate the remaining flux. If during the heating process you notice that somewhere there is no flux, then you can add it. But we add, without interrupting the process of repairing a video card with our own hands.

Stage six “Assembling the device.

The last, final stage of the video card repair, which was done by hand, has come. After warming up and shrinking the chip and removing excess flux, we can start installing the cooling system. By this time, I think your card has cooled down. Is not it? If not, then it's okay.

We take a high-quality thermal paste and apply it in an even layer on the video chip. Avoid getting the paste past the chip, and if you suddenly "missed" it is advisable to immediately remove it with paper or a rag. Install a radiator on top of the chip with the applied paste, fixing it with fixing screws.

All the guys. So we have learned how to repair a video card with our own hands when “artifacts appear.

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In this post I want to talk about my experience roasting (warming up) video cards, as well as unsuccessful examples of roasting video cards by other people. I repeat once again that everything is based on personal experience. Therefore, my assumptions and conclusions may be wrong. Nevertheless, almost all the video cards that I have warmed up work to this day.

This entry is not a guide to action. I, as an author, do not bear any responsibility for the damage to your "hardware" by your own stupidity or as a result of crooked hands.

So why do video cards warm up? Video cards warm up when a video chip or memory chips have fallen off. It fell off not in the sense that it fell off the board (from the PCB), but in the fact that contact disappeared at some points between the chip and the board.

Why is this happening? Here I cannot give an exact answer, but I can only assume that chips or memory (much less often) fall off the board as a result of prolonged exposure to high temperatures. And also, perhaps, due to the relatively sharp temperature changes "hot-cold-hot". One way or another, the connection between the contact on the chip and the contact on the board disappears. The solder balls remain either on the chip or on the board. Multiple contacts not working and causing video cards to malfunction.

As a rule, this is found in "hot" (ie, with high heat dissipation) video cards and usually appears after a year or two of using the video card. For example, the well-known series of video cards GeForce 8800GTSGTX (both on the first "hot" G80 chip, and on the subsequent "colder" ones). But in my practice there were also colder video cards, for example, nVidia GeForce 6600GT, GeForce 8600GT, Radeon x1600Pro.

What are the symptoms of a chip "dump" (loss of contact)? The symptoms are as follows: artifacts - vertical colored stripes on the screen, colored porridge (a mess, as some call it). Also, several times the following was encountered: without the installed drivers, the picture was displayed normally, with the installation of the drivers, either there were artifacts, or the system went into BSOD ("blue screen of death").

(Sample photos were taken in this entry .)

How to treat such an ailment? Here, in fact, we come to the most important thing - roasting a video card.

I will first talk about unsuccessful other people's examples frying video cards. So the most common way to warm up video cards is roasting in the oven... Yes, in the oven of an ordinary gas (or electric) stove. This method is very popular, probably thanks to the resource from his Personal pages , where you can find examples of warming up video cards.It is not for nothing that I singled out this method in unsuccessful examples. I find roasting graphics cards in the oven a bad way.

Why bad, you ask. Because in this case the whole video card warms up, i.e. the impact goes to all components of the video card. Which I consider not acceptable. The simplest thing that can happen is the elements made of plastic melt. For example video connectors DVI, VGA and others, as well as power connectors. Naive users believe that if they wrap these elements in foil, it will save them from melting. As practice shows, this is not the case. Whether they are wrapped in foil or not, they will melt, since the video card will warm up evenly in the oven, the foil will only slow down this process. But slightly melted connectors are not a problem. Problems can arise when other elements of the video card overheat - various electronic components whose maximum allowable temperature is much lower than the temperature of the chip warming up. They will simply fail and we will finally add the video card.

Based on these facts, we can make some conclusions... Namely:

• Warming up of the video card must be spot-on, i.e. only the chip and memory microcircuits should warm up, and not the entire board as a whole.
• The temperature, in my experience, should not exceed 220 degrees Celsius to warm up the chip.
• Warming up must be carried out evenly, it is highly desirable with a gradual increase in the heating temperature.
• The warm-up time should not exceed 5 minutes for a relatively fast heating and 10 minutes for a smoother one.
• The video card should cool down smoothly, there is no need to blow over it additionally.
• During and after frying, it is highly advisable not to displace, move, or shake the video card. Otherwise, as a result of these actions, small components located near the chip may move or fall off, since the solder is melted.

Now about my experience in frying video cards. When I first decided to "repair" video cards in this way, I immediately gave up roasting in the oven. And in the absence of special tools, he did it over the burner (ceramic and electric tiles are also used), i.e. over an open fire.

This method has both pluses and huge minuses. The pros are that we can warm up the video card pointwise, smoothly heating and cooling. Cons - open fire, the possibility of darkening the video card or burning paper stickers (stickers) glued to the video card. Nevertheless, I worked out a certain warm-up strategy for myself - the video card was 20-25 cm higher than the fire, did not stay in place for a long time (it moved it smoothly, evenly warming up the chip and memory). In this way, many video cards were cured. For example, in my computer the free GF 8800GTS 640Mb still "lives" and works fine (about half a year) in overclocking mode.

My next step towards improving the quality, reliability and safety of repairing video cards by the frying method was the use of a hair dryer... For example, I use a Bosch hair dryer. It is convenient in that it has digital control, has several operating modes and allows you to set the required temperature, as well as the power (speed) of the air flow. Working with a building hairdryer, for repairs, it takes me about three minutes to warm up itself and a few minutes for a smooth natural (without additional blowing) cooling of the video card.

Using a hair dryer is the most optimal way to fry video cards.

You can arrange holivars on the topic of whether it is worth warming up video cards or not. When contacting a service center with similar symptoms for a video card, you will probably be advised to throw it out. I know that the SC masters are categorically against such a "repair". In fact, they are right that having repaired the video card in this way, they will not be able to give any guarantees for the duration of the work.

By the way, about the duration of the video card after frying.Depending on whom at what temperature the video card was warmed up, how long it was warmed up, and the normal operation time of the video card will differ. It can range from several days, weeks, months, up to several years (at best).

Now let's look at a few examples of frying video cards, both successful and unsuccessful.

A good example. My video card is GF 8800GTS 640Mb. In the photo before frying. Unfortunately, there are no photos after roasting, or rather there are, but only the sides with the chip. After frying, nothing melted over the burner, only the stickers that could not be peeled off darkened. The video card had to be fried several times. The last time it was a long time ago, I can no longer remember. Now the video card is cooled by the SVO, so there are no problems with overheating.

On the Personal pages of Overclockers.ru you can find several examples of roasting such video cards. And almost all of them are made with an oven.

Here's another example roasting the XFX GTX 280 graphics card in the oven ... In principle, the video card worked, but some of the plastic elements were melted.

And then completely unsuccessful example of frying a video card in the oven. Subject Palit 8600gt 256mb sonic +.

As you can see, the person "slightly" overdid it. As a result, he killed the video card. Not only the electrolytic capacitors, but also the solid-state capacitors (which can withstand high temperatures) swell from the video card. The protective frame on the chip around the crystal, DVI connectors, and the fan power connector are also melted.

Not long ago, one person also ditched the excellent 9800GTX + video card. But I told him not to heat it up in the oven. Eh, sorry for the vidyushku. Unfortunately there is no photo. Perhaps it will be.

So, everyone decides for himself whether to warm up the video card or not. If you think it's worth it, then I advise you to contact a person with experience who has the right tool in stock.

In addition, I would like to say that for a more efficient, correct roasting, it is necessary to use a liquid flux, which is introduced under the chip.

All the subtleties and nuances in this post are not described, since this is not a guide to action, but an introductory article.

I recommend paying attention to this article about frying video cards .

UPD I recommend reading the article Problems with nVidia chips .