Fix Your Graphics Card By Baking In Oven

By Nakodari on Feb 01 2010 87 Comments

A few years back while using Windows XP, I was seeing weird red lines across my monitor, the same happened with Vista. At first I thought it is an issue with my monitor but on further research it was revealed that the graphics card has gone broke.

What happens when your graphic card stops working? Either you will throw it in the trash, save it for ‘old memories’ or sell it on eBay, but it turns out most of them can be fixed by simply heating in the oven.

The small micro-connections between the chip and the board gets fractured over time by constant heating and cooling. By heating it in the oven, they will expand until they reconnect and then upon cooling they will be permanently reconnected again.

Reader Cod3r explains,

The concept behind this method is simple: Reflow Soldering.

Commercial Electric circuit boars are made of SMT IC’s (Surface Mount Technology). These IC’s are soldered on the board by placing a layer of solder on the board, placing the ic’s and then passing the entire thing through a Oven or a hot air blower. The places of electrical contacts get attached, while the rest of the solder melts and flows away.

Over time, these electrical contacts may develop “HairLine Fractures or cracks” that are not visible to the naked eye. If any such crack disconnects a electrical line or a chip’s pin, then errors occur, depending on the place/chip on the board.

Graphic cards, and Laptop Motherboards are very prone to this, because of the stresses they take, but this can happen to any electrical item.

By “Baking” the card in the oven, all u do is to remelt the non-visible solder, in the hope that it would automatically reflow and repair the connection. (its still pure dumb luck, but with an educated style 8) )

Please note that the cooking oven(NOT the microwave oven) has to be preheated at 385F before putting the card in it. Recently, my friend over at MBL forum baked the cards for 10 minutes before taking them out, but the time can vary. According to most users 8 minutes will do the trick.

The procedure requires you to lay an aluminum foil beneath the card so that heat can be reflected, also make sure the card is raised using small aluminum balls. Aluminum foil keeps the oven safe in case anything goes wrong.

You need to disconnect everything from the card and clean the dust before inserting it in the preheated oven. Head over to MBL Forum and Hard Forum for full screenshot tour and details. This method can be applied to fix your Laptop as well by baking it’s motherboard.

Windows Xp graphic card fix

tools used

aluminium balls

Baking Graphic Card in Oven

Editor’s Notes: This guide is for those who have lost all hope. Do not try it unless you know the risks. Many users in various forums have had success with this method. If you are having any other problem, make sure the drivers are updated and the card is not defected on purchase.

It turns out this method is quite popular, one person has made the whole video guide on YouTube(embedded below).

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Graphics Card
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  • Patrik

    Just tried it yesterday with my NVIDIA 9800GT and it worked! Cant believe it I was going to buy new card after weekend… This just blowed my mind :-D

  • Nate

    Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    It worked!!!!!!!!! thanks a lot for tut.
    8600 GTS

  • Bruce

    As someone who has spent 3 years involved in SMT PCB manufacturing, all I can say is, this is only a last gasp idea. In theory, yes you can resmelt the solder, but what the author doesnt include is how to use anti static wristbands etc, to prevent damaging the (hopefully) working components on the board. If, you do try this, never ever handle the board by the components, always grip it on the edge of the pcb to prevent static discharge, or if you can, get a wristband and earth it.

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  • Tom

    It worked for me on a 8800GT in a MacPro. I baked it at 200 degrees C for 10 minutes, reassembled with thermal paste and the card has been working for weeks. I tested it running games on high for extended periods with the fan kicking in and all is fine.

    Great tip!

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  • JW

    @ coil

    onzin ??? haha dit werkt gewoon idioot, heb er al over de honderd gemaakt op deze manier !
    Jij snapt er niks van he ? 200 graden na 8 minuten doet solderingen smelten ? is dit moeilijk voor jou ?? LOL !

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  • Krazeee

    I just tried this today on my HD4850. It had previously been giving me odd characters during boot and would never get past the Windows loading screen. The card was literally on it’s last day of warranty (assuming I had even registered it when I bought it) so I figured, what the heck, why not. Put it in my gas oven at 385 deg F for 8 minutes. Let sit for about an hour afterwards. Plugged it in and everything is golden. I can turn some graphics back up now!

  • cybik

    the idiot who did this with a microwave should be shot on sight.

  • jaw

    @cybik: I’m guessing the guy who did it in the microwave was just joking…no one can be that stupid right? I laughed like hell when I read it though. Good sense of humour.

    I have an inspiron 9400 with a…I can’t remember what it is. 256 megs ram. Anyways, I got it off ebay, everything’s cool until a few weeks later the vid card fries. I managed to somehow get another replacement vid card sent to me. 8 months later it fried bad too. I put both identical vid cards for the laptop in the oven tonight, and they both work! Pretty cool if you ask me. (actually, hot.) I’ll probably end up selling one of those cards. Ha ha ha!

  • Sdafasfas

    i love this guide man.. You really saved my day when the hope was over and i was just gonna throw my Graphic card in the trash.. A friend send me this guide and i was like wtf what do i have to loose?..

    Thanks Again!!

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  • Zulboy45

    I ‘m also have the problem.. but how long hsould i put in microwave?

    • Michael

      Never use a microwave.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZEOLBLEYNOH2ILENCBKNTBEVUU Dr. Hatheist Camping

      Fucking idiot

  • Me

    I had a problem with my HP Touchsmart TX2 (and my TX before it).  I tried the copper spacer trick and the heatlamp over the (NVIDIA) Northbridge chip of my TX several times but this didn’t work.  Sold it on ebay for parts and bought a TX2 (yes I didn’t learn from the mistake that myself and thousands of other people have made).

    Then I saw this post after the same thing happened with my TX2 a month after the warranty ended AAAARGH! Blinking caps lock and number lock lights, Blinking HP.

    I stripped the motherboard of foam and the lithium battery only, then put the motherboard on three balls of aluminium foil (one of which was supporting the heatsink over the ATI Northbridge chip) on a flat tray and stuck it in the convection oven for 8 minutes preheated to 200 degrees Celcius. I then let the motherboard and oven cool with the door partially open for ten minutes then took the tray out to cool for another 15 minutes (the smell was not good, and the fan wires had melted).  Otherwise the board looked fine.

    I put the board in the computer and fired it up and WOW it worked!!!

    Well,ok, it worked for 6 months of hard use then the black screen of death reappeared.  I’ve just repeated the process again which takes about an hour and a half each time. I also take the opportunity to clean the crapoff the fan and heatsink.

    If you’re considering selling a knackered HP laptop (that has the black screen of death) for parts I would have a go at the above.  Remember to let the board cool slowly to avoid stressing the parts and soldered joints. What have you got to lose apart from an hour and a half of your time and a kitchen smelling of melted plastic? :o )
     

  • hooper

    Lol theres a much easier though “unethical” way to get you card back to normal. Buy a new card of the exact same model and send your old one back to them for a refund. This works if your old card had wear and tear or was fried altogether. You can do it to sites like newegg but they charge a 15% restocking fee if your card was not fried. 

  • Baker

    I was shocked but it worked for my dead video card in my HP Touchsmart computer.  

  • awsmsos

    I don’t believe it: Baked my GeForce 8800 GT last weekend and it WORKED LIKE A CHARM! Still running perfectly 6 days later. The lines across my monitor had been similar to what is pictured in the article.

    Took it apart and cleaned off all dirt and heat transfer paste
    Lined a cookie sheet with tin foil and put the card in, sitting up on tin foil balls
    Baked it at 385 degrees farenheit for 9.5 minutes
    Let it cool and reassembled

    Voila!
    Awesome!!

  • Anonymous

    My two and a half year old Sapphire Technology HD4830 video card would have a hard time starting. The monitor would always say check video cable. I didn’t have any lines or bsod’s when it worked. I think i jumped the gun baking it because now the display is all screwed looking and the computer blue screens. I baked it at 385 for 10 minutes on each side. After i baked it i realized all i probably needed to do was replace the 3 bulging capacitors on it that are most likely bad and preventing the video from starting all the time. I will replace the capacitors and rebake it for 30 minutes if i have to.

  • Anonymous

    My two and a half year old Sapphire Technology HD4830 video card would have a hard time starting. The monitor would always say check video cable. I didn’t have any lines or bsod’s when it worked. I think i jumped the gun baking it because now the display is all screwed looking and the computer blue screens. I baked it at 385 for 10 minutes on each side. After i baked it i realized all i probably needed to do was replace the 3 bulging capacitors on it that are most likely bad and preventing the video from starting all the time. I will replace the capacitors and rebake it for 30 minutes if i have to.

  • Scooter

    9-dec-11 8800GTX had blue lines on boot, wouldn’t go into windows. Cooked it @ 395oF for 9 minutes and…… IT WORKS! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

  • John Pcbdesign

    I used this process on a geforce 460 that went dead after about 1 year of use.  Before I did this, I did a little research on the solder.  The card was identified as No Lead Solder (circle slash with PB inside).  The melting point for this solder is typically around 380 degrees F (180c).  I placed a small piece of solder near the processor (safely on the solder mask) as an temperature indicator.  When the solder balled up, I timed the process for 1 minute then turned the oven off to let it cool (slowly) with the door open.  BTW I placed the board in a cold toaster oven for 2 reasons, 1st the thermal shock going from room temp to 300+ degrees would be bad, and second its much easier to position the board in the oven and make sure everything is stable before turning on the heat.  End result, it worked.  Saved me $200 on a new card.  :D

  • Toshiba Victim

    worked great! after being told by everyone else that it was a simple heat issue, I was glad to find this page. I knew it wasn’t heat by the fact that it would crash while sitting on ice, outside at 16 degrees F, with the heat sink completely exposed(by way of cutting away much of the underside case) and in direct contact with the ice. And this was not for a moment but for weeks on end. So having read this page I took this nasty old Toshiba satellite A75 apart and cooked the mother board in a gas oven at 375 for 15 minutes. I ended up re-soldering the volume knob and it did melt melt the media card ejector and wifi switch, but once stuck all back together it hasn’t crashed in 30 hours. Whereas before cooking it, 30 minutes was the best I could hope for.
    Thanks so very much

  • guiller

    will oven roaster do the job?? please i need reply please please anyone

  • guiller

    can oven roaster do the job?? please i need reply please please anyone

  • Anonymous

    Insane… After no other options with my GeForce Go 7950 GTX 512MB NVidia card, I thought why not try this. Before trying I did attempt to clear out all the dust in the heat sinks, fans, and new thermal paste. No improvement. So, I proceeded with baking. Heated oven to 395 F, baked for 8 minutes, let cool for 50 minutes, reapplied thermal paste Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound.  

    To my shock and amazement, my video card worked in full resolution mode. No more boot up artifacts either. Only time will tell how long this lasts.

  • Chrisneru2

    I tried it on my 8800gtx card and it worked a treat. Is now running like new. I baked it in the oven for about 10mins den let it cool down, installed it back onto my pc and wa la its working.

  • Bruno Couto Ferreira

    Reflow Soldering: Brings burned laptops back to Life XD. I was sceptical about this method but my laptop works like a charm after this.

  • Karl

    I just did this with my 9800GT which started to crash when in games and eventually prevented Windows from booting and showed artefacts on the BIOS screen. Followed the instructions, baked in a semi-pre heated oven at 195 degrees C for 8 minutes, let it cool for a few hours, repeated again for good luck.. let it cool for an hour. Installed into my PC and bingo! she’s working again! Ran a full run of 3Dmark and temps were very good. Hopefully this will last as I don’t really have the $ to spare on PC gear right now. Does anyone know if doing this emits anything toxic? It kinda smelt bad even after I opened up all the windows and turned on the exhaust fan. Would hate to think I had breathed in toxic fumes..

  • Tdydyk

    I have a Dell Inpiron 7505 with the video problem.  How do I cook the card with out take the whole board out of the laptop.  I have been searching online for a fix for hours.  The only thing that looks like it will work is to heat it up with a blow torch on light heat obviously.  Any other way to fix this?

  • joel

    thanks. this saves me a lot of money. i was thinking of buying a new one when my 8600gt nvidia card just “died” on my windows xp box last week.

  • Julez

    Just baked my 8800gt with success, i preheated the oven to 196c faced the card upward and cooked it for 10 minutes, then left it in the oven to cool with the door open for 1 hour all is good playing risen for 40 minutes now.

  • James Ivan Ad

    Thanks :) seemed to have worked on my GTX 260 :D

  • chris t

    really does work amazing trick

  • E. Radler

    Is it possible to use a heat gun (hot air) if you identify the chip?

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