So the graphics card in my laptop died. The laptop could not display anything to my external monitor or my laptop screen. So I found a disassembly guide on the internet and disassembled my laptop. I took out the graphics card and put it in the oven at 385 °F for 8 minutes. This melts the solder on the card which fixes hairline fractures in the solder, which is the most likely cause of a dead graphics card. I put my laptop together and everything works except the wireless card. I'm going to open up my computer again and see if everything is connected right. In the disassembly guide it said not to touch the connections on the wireless card because that could cause the card not to work. But I touched them anyways . If I can't fix it I'll just buy a usb wireless card so no big deal. The guide for putting your broken electronics into the oven is here in case some of you want to try this.


-x- Cliffs -x-
Put graphics card into oven and it works now.

sick brag sir. nice hand.


Were you baking cookies too?

:laughoutloudatthecomputerjoke:

No, just chips.

OMG, I have a bad laptop motherboard with a bad solder joint on a ball grid array chip that I didn't have the tools to fix. (I've replaced this motherboard several years ago) Wow, I wish I thought of this...

Nice job.

pics of laptop in oven or GTFO

This is awesome. Have you read anything about this being a actual good technique though. It just seems like the risk might be a little high. I guess if your graphics card is already broken and the worst that could happen is it gets more broken then it's a baller idea IMO

I'm guessing you don't want to try this with a board with components on both sides...

wireless cards are like $20-30 for internal ones. USB is unnecessary

LOL this is a genius move.

works on xbox 360's w/ E74 error as well...

From what I have read this is really quite safe. When they make computer components the lead solder is put on the card in a paste form apparently and then the board is put in the oven to flow the solder. So this is basically reflowing the solder. The boiling point of lead is something like 2000 Kelvin so there are no real fumes, because the only thing melting is the solder. Not only does this fix hairline cracks it also melts any whiskers that could bridging connections that should not be bridged.

Although from what I have read people have just recently started doing this, but it doesn't seem like a permanent fix. People have had their cards go bad again in as little as two weeks, but some are still working after a couple months.

It seems to work with all types of things. This has even been reported to work with broken cell phones, LOL. You just make risers out of aluminum foil and but the card on a cookie sheet on top of the risers It's not like the solder has time to get dripping wet, it just sort of resets itself.

trying this with the usb stick of my wireless mouse at the moment. it's in the oven now.

it worked! holy cow ovens are amazing

Yeah well I put my video card in a toaster and then put the toaster in the oven, and fixed my card twice as fast as you guys, so...

I just put my monitor in the dryer, there has got to be more of these shortcuts

Ahh, the old oven trick. It can work if you are lucky.

Using a heat gun directly on the chip is usually better than cooking the entire board in an oven. Infrared is even better if you have access to one. Basically, sometimes there are components on the board that are particularly heat sensitive, and so you ideally want to focus the heat only on the affected chip.

Some will say that boards are soldered in a reflow oven anyways, and so cooking the board in a kitchen oven is no different. But reflow ovens operate differently than kitchen ovens. They have circulating fans to distribute heat evenly and use infrared heaters.

Another household trick worth mentioning is using a tea candle filled with alcohol and placing it on the affected chip. Lighting the alcohol on fire can create enough heat to reflow the solder under the chip.

8 minutes at 385 degrees or 2 minutes at 1540 degrees.

I don't think you should do that......

Solid brag though.

lol

Haha, you guys asked for a shortcut xD