Spoilt 8800GTX - Bake or solder?

[MedullaOblongata]

Ok, I have a really old MSI 8800GTX that I stopped using about 2 years ago due to artifacts.

I recently discovered to my bemusement that baking a graphics card with artifacts has a high success rate. My friend's card died a week ago, he baked it and now it's working again.

The theory is that artifacts occur because of micro-fissures in the solder joints, so baking it at 200celcius for 10 minutes will melt and reconnect the solder. If the baking fails you end up with a dead card.. Not a problem since it was faulty in the first place.

Since I'm somewhat deft at a soldering iron I'll try to melt all the solder joints and hope that it works.. Rather than baking and praying that it works.

So the question:

Any electrical engineer or professional knows which are the common points where these fissures often occur? Otherwise I'll just heat up every solder joint I see (and there's a crap ton of solder joints). Or I'll just bake it, will save me a lot of time.

 

[Unolocogringo]

Baking is your best option. The chance of getting all of the BGA solder points "UNDER" the memory and GPU die is almost impossible.

 

[Houndsteeth]

A heat gun would also work, but baking is the best option. There are too many points to go back and resolder by hand.

 

[JDFan]

When baking be sure to use an old toaster oven that you do not plan to cook food in anymore and work in a well ventilated area or outdoors -- as there are toxic fumes released during baking that can make you sick if you cook in the oven afterwards !

 

[ionut19]

Is this for real? I was going to suggest a frying pan(ha ha). Doesn't that damage the GPU or memory?

 

[nforce4max]

Wow most of you are morons <.< this has been brought up enough times and yes it works and does so very well. Getting the right temp is key and yes preheat the oven then bake for about 8-10min but no longer. It does melt every solder point but only enough to seal the micro fissures, I have done this my self and it does work. look on other forums for the right temp. You can use your normal oven for this as most card are ROSH compliant and don't give off toxic gasses in quantity that could cause harm. The solder used in these older cards is a lead tin alloy and is soft at lower temps than what is used in more modern cards that use a silver tin alloy that require a higher temp. Cards using a silver tin alloy have a lower success rate than older cards. Usually when the micro fractures occur is in an area that is near to a hot spot or the alloy is of substantially lower quality than the surrounding points. Any way this would take you no more than half an hour to 45min to do and the 8800gtx is actually one of the easiest cards to repair and have one my self.

 

[MedullaOblongata]

Thanks for your advice people I'll give the oven trick a shot.