HRALP-Graphics Card Issue

[Rejuvenation]

The idea behind baking the card is to get the solder to reset. This is assuming that the card has been heating up enough during daily use to eventually melt away a connection.

This really isn't a great idea, if you were going to try this, you should use a heat gun to properly heat the solder up, but then you can do even more damage unless you sufficiently isolate the issue to a small area on the board.

Personally I bet it is a video memory issue, in which case the card is pretty much FUBAR.

[Prefader]

I have seen this exact thing many times. It's a bad capacitor. You can probably even see it, if you look closely at the board. One (or more) of the caps will be "swollen". You can repair this with an el cheap-o soldering iron and a $5 (or less) replacement cap.

[toddfx]

Originally Posted by Prefader [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I have seen this exact thing many times. It's a bad capacitor. You can probably even see it, if you look closely at the board. One (or more) of the caps will be "swollen". You can repair this with an el cheap-o soldering iron and a $5 (or less) replacement cap.

Yeah I've lost two cards to popped caps. They physically ripped open and had brown dust coming out. The cards were not old but they were cheaper. It's true that the computer was kept in an area with poor airflow and high dust accumulation. In one case, the on-board fan failed due to dust cloggage, which then overheated the board and popped the cap.

The cards would operate intermittently but had graphic issues very similar to these.

[guineapig]

Those cookies do not look edible. Also it looks like they are topped with ground beef flakes and sausage.

I am skeptical...

[fishingme]

lol, id be sooooo worried about blowing the capacitors by tossing it in the oven. pop pop pop pop pop pop!

[Prefader]

Yeah . . . that baking idea seems like a bad one.

[Wizerud]

Well you did say "anything graphically intense" so you're probably still ok playing EQ [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Kimmie]

Originally Posted by Wizerud [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Well you did say "anything graphically intense" so you're probably still ok playing EQ [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

That's why I put "intense" in quotation marks. EQ crashes after 8 minutes or so explodes the computer as well, which is kind of sad...[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Wizerud]

Do you have any apps that measure whether your videocard is overheating? And I don't mean by putting it in the oven.

[Aasimon]

You run the risk of the GPU falling off the board if you try to reflow the solder with the ASIC pointed downwards.

However, looking at the PCB design, I can tell this is an NVIDIA card. Judging by the power connectors, a GTX 8800, maybe even a GTX 260 or 275. These cards are notorious for their failure rates after about 2-3 years, because the temperature fluctuations of regular use end up causing the solder connections on the bottom of the GPU to crack.

Baking these is totally viable: http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/de...ven-mad-owner/