Nice attempt, unfortunately these kind of diy repairs are very much dependent on the exact temperate, distance, airflow and time applied. Sometimes a few millimeters of distance, degrees, or seconds can mean success or a total failure as in burnt. Another issue is that after the "repair" under normal operating conditions the joints can become debounded again usually due to the heat generated by the graphics chip. Nonetheless, it's worth a shot. :)
Thank you. I'm typing from my resurrected computer :) Machine was crashing every ~30 mins to 1 hour for about a month until finally it showed artifacts on the screen during bootup process and would freeze before getting into Windows. I used a Porter Cable brand 1,500W heatgun with the temperature dial at around 85-90% power for 3 mins and 45 seconds. I see you only did yours for 1 minute but my chip is about 4 times bigger (Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 Dual-X). I also watched a 2nd video on this process which is how I gauged where to set the temperature dial (also - they did 5 minutes, but I decided to do only 4 because if it didn't work I could always go back and try again). Best of luck to everyone attempting this.
Great great video my friend! Simple and very good example of "Reflowing" from start to finish! I've spent HOURS looking for this EXACT process being demonstrated in practice / as well as before & after examples of the electronic itself and the effects of the reflow! Tyvm for this wonderful example my friend! Maybe add "Reflow" in the title and add a Reflow tag so it can be referenced because you seriously have the best example here that I have seen on RU-vid and it could help even more people than you already have. Thanks again :)!
Nice video and good job on the card! I have done similar repairs in the past, mainly on Xbox 360s because of the whole RROD. I also thought you may have applied heat for a little too long but if it works! Don't think it matters too much really, anyway. The only problem with these repairs is that, I find, they don't seem to last too long and the problem reappears weeks/months down the line... Another thing I think is fairly important, is that the board needs to be kept very still throughout the whole process and for at least half an hour afterwards. I couldn't tell if you did this because of the way it was edited but I just hoped you had, at the end of the day you got it working, though, so great!
+Oliver Huckstep thank you! The card still works for the moment, but as you say, sadly it's not a definitive fix in most cases. I don't remember how long I left the card unmoved, but it might be for less than what you said, so I will do that in future repairs for sure.
Not that good of an idea. 1. Solder on the chip? seriously? what if u short something like that? 2. Solder ON the chip will melt MUCH FASTER than solder UNDER the chip. Bad idea to "measure" this. What he did in the first place was ok. Just a bit longer and than test if it worked.
My mid 2011 iMac (27") stopped working completely after the graphics being all weird for a short while. I used that video to check the appropriate temperature and how long the heat should be applied. After un-mounting my iMac to remove the graphics card (which was hell), I did about 200℃ (looking at the indicator on the heat gun) for about 50 sec as in the video. It worked the first time. This saved my buying a new card (about 2万円) or Apple telling me to buy a new iMac instead. Only those old iMac can be used as a secondary screen for a Mac laptop which are so useful during COVID. Thanks man! You deserve my upvote!
OMG.....The HP TouchSmart 300 screen turned on....i heated the small gpu chip (next to the cpu) for 30 seconds. I replaced the power supply and was about to buy a new motherboard. THE VIDEO CAME BACK ON, WOW!!! This really does work man!
I’m glad to inform that two of my graphic cards are working again! Thank U! In details: I have Nvidia 8800GT (artifacts on the screen to the point that just after loading OS it freezes) and Radeon HD5770 (couldn’t even start the computer - black screen). I used exactly the same heat gun with 350°C settings only and for about 2.30 - 2.40 seconds. When finished I left both of them for 30 minutes to cool down and assembled again. That’s all :) Cheers!
A common fault >>> Caused by Video Card Sag. The Sagging happens over time with gravity and a low heat generated by the electronic processes running the card. This also happens with machines that run continuously ie: 24/7 without being used. The video card in a Tower is not vertical > this sagging happens over a long period. This is not common in Small form Factor Machines at all. The evidence points to 'Solder dry out' and softening by heat of the video circuit board and influenced by gravity, culminating in bending.
Sagging is a result of the gpu card tabs being much smaller than the slots they fit into on the case behind the motherboard thus they drop and appear as sagging.. Nylon screw or toothpicks in the slot where the tab goes after card is installed will fix it (Just hold card level and use non conductive piece in the slot to keep it there Nylon screw works best). Too many myths not enough new designs.
My card was dead, starting with artefacts, 24h latter black screan, nothing. Card was on my shelf last six months, i found heat gun today, it worked. Im typing from dead GPU...hahahah, hope will last some time, will see. I baked only GPU with heat gun for 30 sec. at 550c (heat gun spec), i used metal foil to reflect unwanted heat from other parts. I did not use flux i will do some testing and report if somebody is interested, Cheers
Youre a life saver!!!! Thank you so much! Didnt really have a heat gun used a soldering gun and inverted the gpu like cooking it and it worked. It fixed my gpu which had no signal.
You can put foil over the surrounding components to keep the plastic from melting and protect them generally a little bit. I put a D630 with the notorious nvidia card in the *oven* and it worked for a little while. I'm viewing this video because I have an older Dell monitor that I bought cheap because it occasionally blinks and has artifacts. Lived with it for 2 years but I'm thinking it's time to try a reflow. Only thing is I don't just open a spacious case and unscrew it.
"this is bloody working" great comment,! going to try this on a lcd tv main board. have mounted a CPU computer fan over the board and i no longer get my problem. normally the problem appears once the board is hot so i am thinking a bad solder joint. good video!
I was getting alot of artifacts & screen going off and on using a 5 yr old 560 ti I tried this but I pasted some reflux on all the sides of the processor & hovered the nozzle of the heatgun in a circling motion blasted it for a minute. Works like a charm no more artifacts & blinks thanks man I was ready to give up on my 560 ti I have money ready just incase it does not work I'll go ahead & buy a new 1 very nice so far I'm playing dota 2 on it for 2 hrs straight no issues will update you guys if something comes up.
I have a dead card that I suspect needs a re-flow, and I say that with some confidence, because it gradually got worse and worse. I was thinking about using an oven to bake the card, because people have been suggesting that recently on the internet. However, by heating only the chip, there's less chance of creating new faults on other components. The chip shouldn't take any damage from such treatment. I think I have to consider a heat gun instead, and yeah, they are cheaper too. Thanks for showing your success and make me re-think this!
@@UltimateDIY Well, it seemed to work! I just hope it lasts. I gently warmed the whole board a bit first to reduce any stress in the material, then I covered off the other components with a bit of aluminum foil like some others on RU-vid have done. Like you, I tried to gradually heat it up and gradually cool it down. It's hard to judge the temperature and time since the heat need to go through the whole thing, but a couple minutes of heating up and then about 4 minutes of the most intense heat period seemed to do the trick for me, with a little bit of motion to spread the heat. Older cards probably take less time to heat up. The gun I got has two settings, and I used the lowest one which is 300 degrees Celsius, which is well above the melting point of the solder, and lower fan speed. Good luck to others that want to try this!
Many say that this is not a good fix and it should not be done. But in my opinion, it's worth reviving a bad card even for a few months in the worst case.
This is a temporary "fix". The issue is the bumps that adhere the die to the substrate and not the solder balls between the board and the GPU. Heating the chip causes these bumps to make contact again. After some heating and cooling cycles the bump(s) will break again. This is usually after 30-90 days
After watching a few videos on this subject, that is also the conclusion that I reached in the end. The weird thing is that the GPU in my video is still working.
Ultimate DIY it really depends. Some may last for a good while and some won't. It depends on what part of the chip fails too. I mainly do motherboard repair for MacBooks... Check out my channel if you'd like
Great video. Just as far as I am aware reflowing should also be consisting of letting a nice amount of soldering flux under the GPU chip to remove all oxides. Also this isn't most durable fix for GPUs according to most people that work on this. Just a heads up :) Great video anyway. Really educational
I just managed to fix a Sapphire r9 280x with a heatgun. The card produced artifacts and went black during boot. I disassembled the card, cleaned it with alcohol and covered the circuit around the GPU with aluminium foil. Then I used a cheap 2kW heatgun for approx 30 sec directly on the GPU, with a distance of ~3 cm and moving in circles. After I let it cool I added a new coolant paste and reassembled it, and now it works!
Dunno why some ppl are spreading all this serious HATE! If it's your own card, and you will otherwise throw it away, what do you lose by trying it? DIY re-balling is MUCH more difficult, so best left to techs with experience - and that's gonna cost you plenty..
This terrifies me but I just know I'm going to have to do this at some point. Re-soldering components one by one gets old fast.Easy enough for old stuff like 70s & early 80s machines. But anything 90s+ gets pretty tight.
Other video that I've seen stick Kapton tape to the heart of the big chips. Also they apply flux wherever they could so they can see it it's melting. Flux also remove oxide from the old solder making them reflow more readily
So if you have decided to reflow a pc card then do it a little more efficient and professional.Use a flux paste like RMA223 that is somehow liquid to flow underneath the bga,use your electrical home barbeque grill for bottom preheating and for upper heat the same heat gun until the solder balls to melt and with the lightest poking the bga looks like floating on the solder balls.Floating the bga is the evidence that all the solder under the chip has melt and the chip resolders in its place.Greetings.
I did this while pressing down on the chip itself while in between heating the chip also used fluxpen and ran that underneath the chip. That was 5 years ago and the gpu still going strong even with overclocking
Sir Prancelot it seems to make the solder balls make better contact and puts more material where it needs to be. Just make sure not to over press it and do a even press
Faisal Ayub I’m glad it worked out fine for you. I don’t think pressing down is a good practice though. Firstly because is shouldn’t be necessary because the chip and the board should both be flat. If not pressing on the chip would bend the board even more possibly making things worse. Secondly it’s not done during manufacturing nog during professional reflowing and reballing. Thirdly and maybe most importantly, when you put pressure on the chip you might also move it slightly. The balls are very close to each other and even an offset of a fraction of a mm can be disastrous. The chip normally positions itself by the capillary force of the melted solder. Best not to interfere with that. Just my 2ct.
Funny enough, I came here to see if I could fix my own GPU from an old Core 2 Duo machine, it's a 7300 LE lol Going to attempt this repair, hope it work. Thanks in advance for this video!
@@illiakolosey4285 No, unfortunately not. I must've tried a dozen times and I was actually noticing some differences sometimes but was never able to get it back 100% to working state. As a last resort since trial after trial it didn't fix it and it was very time consuming, I tried turning my heat gun to a higher setting but that killed the card completely. It's absolutely worth a shot but I guess my card was too far gone.
@@DarkoPetreski not entirely true. In my experience repairing PS3's the NEC/Tokin caps are the problem *maybe* as high as 15% of the time. One reason people thought the Tokin's were the problem most of the time was because the heat required to remove and reinstall the capacitors had an unintended side effect of temporarily reflowing the RSX (since they are so close)
Is it still working? Any new video about the card working? I would add a few drops of flux under that chip, preheating the chip and not putting too close the nose and covering the other components with alluminium foil.
Ok good. I do have some gfx cards with almost same problem. It is kinda of annoying... Gfx cards should have sockets where we could put gfx chips like in the older days where socket pins were tightly with the pcb.
Well i got myself a heat gun recently and 100cc of flux and so far i fixed 3 gfx cards, im using one right now named geforce 8500 gt and it is running on windows 10 pro. and there is one 12cm fan with magnet installed vertically blowing air to the gfx and to the motherboard. so far so good. this 8500gt does really get too hot without any airflow. 80c with just the cooler,
@@UltimateDIY Well, it kinda worked on mine lol just dont move the screen hinges much, or else a big line shoots through middle of screen! Yeah looks like time for new chip, or new computer... nahhh it works good enough for me haha better than no screen!
This might be better than oven baking. Think about it. The oven may not melt the solder under the GPU. The videos on reballing GPU chips are the best way really.
My advice is to use a temperature gauge after I believe I cooked my card through overheating! It doesn’t work at all now after using the heat gun. I used baby wipes to remove the old thermal paste - could it have been that? Oddly it doesn’t smell bad
You heated it for about a minute, right? What heat gun is that - is that for taking off the paint with 2 speeds? I have a damn BGB with unlead flux and I tried so far several things (cooking in the oven at 190C does not help, this flux melt at 220 I think). I tried with heat gun for electronics too, nothing. I need more power :) but the trouble will be temperature control.
Yes, about a minute, an yes, it has two speeds and it heats up like crazy. You coud try some temperature control with a multimeter with temperature probe, but it will still be some sort of guessing involved.
Fixed GTX 580 artifacting by just heating up the concerned GDDR5 module. You can identify the problematic VRAM module using the MODS/MATS software. Heating up the core risks damaging it permanently.
Bro I have a weird question. I have a dedicated graphics card in my laptop that also has an APU, so i was wondering is there any way that I can pull out the dedicated card and put it on a pcb and use in my desktop?
I have no idea. But if you manage to do it, it does not make sense because a laptop gpu is much more expensive than a similar desktop gpu. You are better off selling it and getting a desktop one.
I absolutely love this video! Your accent is very ASMR-like too- it's great ^_^ (I only have a big gun like this, not a fancy one, so I'm glad to know it's a viable option!)
Nice video! i have some questions my laptop GTX1070 chip has no signal, so i wanna reflow it but my heat fan gun also has no temp. display neither, so how can i fix it, and how long did you heat it??
@@UltimateDIY i hope to do that but service centers doesn't wanna repair my laptop and they just said i should change all of motherboard and it will cost at least 1000$ so i just gonna reflow it. how long did you bake chips?
@@Lyagu it was too long ago, for me to be able to give an answer. In your place I would search on forums to see how long others did it on laptop gpu cips. Also, use flux.
With this fault will it give external vga out display? My dell laptop is black screen but gives external display, the lcd and lcd cable are definitely working
Hello everyone. On my 8th pc rig. Using all msi z390 motherboards. Have an issue with the first gen evga 1650 super ultras. The screen just went blank out of no where. I tried all the video outputs, and I've watched enough videos now that I know it can be done and we'll why not try haha. I have the time. My question is can you either I guess upgrade or replace the gpus processing unit.
it helped me my gpu is working dead pcs+ hd 7850 into working card by heating right into chip for i dont know 30to 50 minutes when it smeells burning near the core i stop heating and i heat with air dryer full heat thanks
+MarwinGaming that is up to you to decide. If you have other options, like a pro fixing it for cheap, then do that. If this is your only and last option, that what do you have to lose?
Salut! Am un Radeon 280x toxic edition de la Sapphire de aproximativ 5 ani. Acum 2 ani am fost nevoit să o duc în service să îi facă un reballing pt că îmi apăreau artefacte pe ecran. După reballing a mers surprinzător de bine și a ținut mai mult decât mă gândeam, însă problema cu artefactele a reapărut. Crezi că merită să îi mai fac un reballing sau să încerc metoda ta cu heater-ul? Țin să menționez că placa îmi stă între 55-60 de grade când rulează și încă face față multor jocuri de grafică bună. Ar fi păcat să nu o pot salva și tind să cred că merge salvată încă o dată.
Salut. Asta e intrebarea de 1000 de puncte si din pacate doar tu poti raspunde la ea. Personal nu i-as face reballing, pentru ca o consider o reparatie temporara pe bani multi. In schimb si solutia mea s-ar putea sa nu mearga sau chiar sa strice placa daca nu e facuta corect. Deci doar de tine depinde ce alegi.
Ultimate DIY mmmm.... Ders 1 prob.... I already heated and fixed the thing and tried turning d lappy on but ddnt happen.... Again im Trying to do that.... When i removed the second time it ws kinda stuck but it came out again after pulling little bit from the heatsink rod thingy.... Any opinions??
+bia shz not really sure what to tell you. Sometimes it-s not fixable and no matter what you do it will not work again. Keep us informed, I'm curious if it will work for you in the end.
Hey can this work on motherboard chipsets? When I let it work for a bit without the heatsink and it heats up it works until it cools down, then it doesn't post. I'd try this
Why would a reflow damage the PCB and a reball not? They both need to get at solder melting temperatures. Also, who would do a reball on a $5 GPU? The fix in my video is for getting a little more life out of a dying GPU.
hey my laptop condition is like this. everything just works fine, but when i played games with demanding graphics, the laptop will gives blue screen error. is it graphic card problem? ca i solve this with heat gun?
Hey , before i try this i have a radeon hd 7950 from gigabyte 3gb edition so this gpu when i start the computer on normal windows i get some red lines on screen ( the lines are very hard to see) the line are without driver , when i install driver i restart the computer i see windows starting icon then just a black screen after , if i go onto safe mode i have no lines , what's the problem of it , may be the driver?
What should i try? to mention the card is getting really hot in some places before i boot up , i opened the gpu too look i cleaned but same what should i do , i just bought this gpu so i don't want to trash it so fast
I got it from a friend he told me everything was working i even went to his home and saw the gpu has no problems but idk what happened when i plugged it on my pc
Just for everyone information this is not a permanent fix! It will likely only get you 1- 3 months use out of card! The cold joints below the chip are oxidized and a simple reflow does not get rid of the oxidation- only reballing will!
Yes, it's not a permanent fix. About the reballing, no, not actually, because the fail is in the chip itself. Louis Rossman has a video that explains this.
+ Ultimate DIY Yup, very, very good tutorial how to easily overheat and fuck up PCB... Heat guns are useless for BGA reflow because it applies too high temperature, so you put very high thermal stress on the PCB and chip, so you can overheat and damage them... To do this in acceptable way, you shout put card on the pre-heater, preheat PCB to around 120 degree C and then reflow using hotair gun... The best way to this is BGA rework station...
@@UltimateDIY yeah I am like reflowing once a week now , since it works great after reflow. Overclocking, heavy games, long hours, doesn't matter, but then the GPU kills itself and I'm like resurrecting it every week lol
I do not know, as the heat gun does not have temperature controll. Read trough the comments below, some people gave good suggestions for temperature and time.
oi acabei de fazer Reflow em uma r9 270x trez cooler 4 giga ddr 5 ,, fiz com aquecedor de cabelo ,,coloquei papel aluminio em volta aquecedor de cabelo por 50 segundos em alta temperatura ,,queima mao ,,montei placa tudo certinho coloquei no pc funciono normal ...placa nao dava video windos nao iniciava ,,depois de alguns testes pc inicio mais nao stalava driver de video so em modo video da microsoft com video cheio de listas na tela ...ai retirei a placa de video fiz o Reflow com secador de cabelo volta a funciona como nova stalei driver de video normal ...valeu ai pelo seu video ajudo e muito ...
Novices like me can't tell the difference between the first screen you showed when you said "you can tell exactly the problem " and the second one at the end and said "It's fixed the card". They look exactly the same to me. What's the difference?
I put my old gpu into oven 2 times... once it works for 6 months (every day used 5+ hours), second time was only for few weeks maybe month and half so it helps when you're out of money for new one but it's just temporary
Don't laugh but I f***ed up my acer aspire 5552 board. It was my first gpu reflow attempt and I forgot to take off the little film on top of the chip so it melted all over it! I tried to scrape it off but ended up disturbing the tiny pieces on top of the chip (not sure what they are called). To top it off, a capacitor came loose and because detached. Strangely enough, the board still powers up, I thought it would be totally dead. However it does turn itself off after about 3 seconds.
I have one more board which is the same to try this out on so any tips would be greatly appreciated. I'm using a 2000w heat gun btw. The lowest setting gets to 400*C
Auch....that's not good. Try to use flux on the second board. Also do some tests on the board that is already dead, just to learn how your particular heat gun works.
Well the word you was lookin for in the end for the thing you *heat shrink* over soldered wires are called heat shrinks :D hopefully it will work with my two faulty ATI graphics cards, I've got them nearly for free, so I think it's worth trying. BSODs on high resolutions, weird color stripes on desktop.
