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That time I fixed a GPU by baking it in the oven
Honestly, last year I had an old GTX 970 that kept artifacting, so I tried the oven trick at 375 for 8 minutes. It actually worked for another 6 months before it finally gave out. Has anyone else tried this or was I just lucky?
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anthonymurray1mo ago
375 degrees for 8 minutes on a GTX 970 is the exact recipe I used too. It's a temporary fix but 6 more months is pretty solid for a dead card. Did you at least clean off all the old thermal paste first?
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bettys511mo agoMost Upvoted
Hey so 375 degrees for 8 minutes in an oven is not the way to go with a GTX 970. I tried it once on an old R9 290 and the card came out looking like a warped mess. The solder reflow trick is super risky because you can easily fry the memory chips or pop a capacitor off the board. Most of the time the card dies for good after that. Even if you get 6 more months out of it you are basically playing Russian roulette with the whole PCB. Plus that heat can mess up the plastic shroud and fans if you dont take them off first.
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joelwells26d ago
The solder balls under the GPU die itself are usually the issue on these, but heating the whole board to 375F is way overkill. I remember reading a guide where a guy used a heat gun on the back of the PCB right behind the die for about 3 minutes at 300C and actually got it working again. Still risky though, I baked a dead GTX 660 once and the PCB started bubbling around the VRM area after 6 minutes. You really gotta prep the card right like pulling off every piece of plastic and covering the backplate with foil to keep the heat focused.
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