Resurrect Dead Video Cards

[Damnidge]

Hello All,

Haven't been around in a while but wanted to share a quick tech tip that really helped me out recently. About a week ago my vid card started going on the fritz. My card was out of warranty so I thought all hope was lost... until I read about "baking" up a fix.

I'll break it down for you: about a week ago I began getting green blocks during post and then patterns of small, tiny dots all over the desktop and windows environment on my main gaming box (with the 8800GT), and was then only able to get this image on one of the two monitors. When I tried to watch video the screen would turn all pixelated with bright violet and magenta tones, and the screens would either flicker or shut off. I did some research online, tried to update the drivers, etc., but with no success.

So then I called eVGA tech support who were kind and helpful, and who also informed me because I did not register my product within 30 days of purchase I do not get the lifetime warranty but rather a 1 year warranty. WTF? That's crappy BS games in my opinion, but he was right it did say it on the box once I checked. Long story short, after everything we could try, I was staring at a brick... specifically a very expensive brick that I could not afford to replace with a new house and a 17 mo old baby.

So I did some more research and found an overwhelming amount of people have had this issue with the 8800GTs, GTXs, etc. The trick to fix it, as was posted on an nvidia forum as well as on various enthusiast sites, was to remove the heatsink/fan, and bake it. Yes, that's right, bake it in the friggin' oven. I figured, I'm looking at an out of warranty brick anyway, so what the hell I've got nothing to lose (except maybe a finger if the capacitor explodes as I'm taking it out). The forum replies seemed to post a very high success rate, so that just peaked my curiosity.

I was careful to take the heatsink and fan off, cleaned all the crappy generic heatsink materials and putties off, and put the card in the oven for 10 minutes at 385F with the processor side up. I took it out, let it cool off for half an hour, and slapped it into my desktop. Unbelievably, I got a normal post. I shut down quickly, and then proceeded to put arctic silver on the GPU, and then place the heatsink back on. Slapped that puppy in there, AND IT IS WORKING WITH NO ISSUES! I tested video, ran benchmarks, etc. and no issues as I was having before.

Now, obviously time will tell if it lasts or not, and I'm sure it's life is limited, but damn, I could not believe it worked.

Once in and working, I took the tech guy's advice and downloaded their approved control program to manually override the fan from 30% and put it up to 70% as he suggested. It's noisier, but he said the issue was probably overheating. I'm also hoping the arctic silver has an improved affect on it.

Anyway, I don;t know if anyone has an old brick card somewhere, but give it a try, you may find a rebirth of the card! :cheers:

[DW_Ant]

I think the most difficult challenge is how to explain yourself when your child asks you, "What are you cooking, Daddy?"

[DW_Bomzin]

Very interesting , anyone post on why this actually works ? The logic behind it maybe?

[DW_WailofSuicide]

Yeah, and the recipe.

1. Bake eVGA videocard in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
2. Turn and repeat.
3. Remove and let cool for 15 minutes.
4. Enjoy!

[DW_Bomzin]

OK went looking myself . Makes perfect sense now . The problem with these some of these boards, like alot of electronics is cold , ie bad , solder joints. Baking it resets the joint instead of finding the problem and fixing it with a iron.

This would also work on other things with the same problem . Although if you do have a faulty part you will still be sol.

[Damnidge]

So my card officially died this morning. This time it was an epic fail. The bake method gave me 5 more months out of the card though, which isn't bad!

Now I'm left with the issue of finding a new card to replace my current one. I need to replace a 8800GT superclocked. It is a PCI-E x16 slot. I assume the PCI-E x16 v2 card are backwards compatible so I'm looking for a V1 or V2 PCI-E x16 card.

I mainly game on my PS3 and Xbox 360 now so I don't game much on my computer, except to play UT2004 and HL2 occasionally. At this point I just need a card to play DVDs, play light gaming, and run two DVI monitors. The budget is as cheap as possible without buying crap. Any suggestions on what models I should check out would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Damnidge]

Considering this one:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0030L1BPO/ref ... B0030L1BPO

It's a bit more than I was hoping to spend, but I cant seem to find a good lower card $50-$100 that has two DVI ports. I read online good sub $100 cards are Radeon HD 4670, 4850, and 5670 but again they usually come with one DVI aand one VGA.

[DW_ChocoCake]

That's funny. I don't know why I didn't see this post earlier. My 8800 GTX failed in the exact identical manner as Damnidge's card, I got the same violet green textures and wavy lines and dots on the screen. Also I didn't register my card, however eVGA did allow me to RMA it (that was nice of them) and they returned a 9800 GX2 which is what I am using now.

[Damnidge]

Sorry I have not replied sooner.

nightmorph - thanks for the tip. I ended up seeing that it was way overpowered. I went with the Sapphire Radeon HD 5670 from Amazon. It also has the HDMI, Monitor, and DVI plugs, and it comes with a HDMI to DVI adapter already so I can hook up my second monitor. It will be $65 after rebate w/ free shipping. Tom's Hardware and a few other sites seemed to give it good credit for what I needed.

ChocoCake, I am glad they gave you the RMA, but kinda pissed that they were so solid in their position not to help me. Were you still in the first year?

I'll get it on the 11th or before and I'll let you know how it works!

[DW_ChocoCake]

Actually I think it was just barely out of the first year. The person on the phone seemed to know what he was doing so that's why I think I was successful.