Fix your broken Geforce 8800 GTX By Putting It Into The Oven

Digerati · Rated NC-17 Joined: 07 Apr 2008 Posts: 111

LOL, that's pretty neat. I'd be interested to see if this actually works with other cards.

Enigmachine · Rated NC-17 Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 122

At 385 f, wouldn't the plastic bits start melting?

I have an ATI card that has the same unstability problems as he describes, so maybe I will try it too... Except I am definitely not going to melt lead and other toxics on the same cookie sheet I use to make food on! Smile

Oh and if this fixes my card, I'm going out to buy loto tickets...

zachig · Rated XXX Joined: 22 Mar 2005 Posts: 313

Bojamijams · Rated PG Joined: 19 May 2009 Posts: 21

You know, for every success story that you hear, I bet there are 50 other guys that tried something like this, failed miserably and of course didn't post about it so as not to be mocked into the stupid abyss.

The guy in this case got extremely lucky by having some solder fix itself and EXTREMELY lucky that he didn't short anything. I bet you any money, that if he tried this again, it would not work, the odds are too extreme.

Blake · Posted: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:29:20 Post Subject:

There is a bit of truth to such a situation however I dont recommend tossing hardware into ovens on a whim. My guess is that his component failure was due to a lack of connectivity on one or more components. Tossing it into the oven could allow for the solder to heat up and spread a bit better. However if your problem is due to a component failure, (i.e. voltage regulator, capacitor ect) no amount of time in your "easy bake oven" will bring it back to life.

Enigmachine · Rated NC-17 Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 122

I would think that the first step to this 'hack' is to make sure the hardware in question really is broken.

If you do it with stuff that works, then you deserve to suffer from lead poisoning - or maybe you already do.

My card is an old ATi 9800 pro that till a year ago was used in my PVR, but it started glitching frequently and it wasn't due to overheating. The problem see related to flex, so it might be a good candidate for this. It's just rusting in a box right now so hey, even if it melts, no big loss.

I don't really need it right away though so it might be a while before I try baking it! Smile

anonemus · Posted: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:52:41 Post Subject:

Hmmm. Another thought: how about deep-freezling it like what some do with defective HDD? Smile

Enigmachine · Rated NC-17 Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 122

Well, it would have to be deep-freeze vacuum like in deep space for the leads to flash weld themselves together... And in those conditions, you would definitely break something else.

Perhaps you were wondering what else could be fixed by putting it in the freezer?

BTW I tried the freezer trick on a HDD last week and it didn't work. Oh well!

(TSC)Bender · Rated NC-17 Joined: 11 Feb 2008 Posts: 162

I also tried a HD in the freezer a few months back and didn't work. Maybe it'll work better in the oven Laughing