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Geek Culture / Baking a GTX 290

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Isocadia
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Posted: 23rd Dec 2011 19:39 Edited at: 23rd Dec 2011 20:14
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So, my friends GTX 290 died on him last week after a few boots with strange lines across the screen and he gave it to me for me to experiment with. First thing I want to try out is baking a GPU. I'm currently disassembling it, but now I noticed it has PCB's on both sides. I removed one of them where the main chip is connected to ( the PCB you connect to your PCIE x16 2.0 slot ). The other one is really stuck on hard. Should I bake both at the same time or only bake one and then test with that or bake both?

Edit: Got both of them seperated from the heatsink. What do you recommend cleaning the thermal paste with? Just alcohol or something like thinner?
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charger bandit
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Posted: 23rd Dec 2011 21:04
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I guess you mean GTX295,there is no GTX290. Yes,you should bake both at the same time. I think about 200°C for about 8 minutes did it for me. For cleaning the paste,just use small amounts of alcohol and a nice paper towel or toilet paper and clean it off.


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Isocadia
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Posted: 24th Dec 2011 13:31 Edited at: 24th Dec 2011 13:33
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One more thing. Should I remove the 6pin and 8pin connector from the board ( they're soldered but the plugs are pretty big and away from other components ) or should they be safe for those 8 to 10 minutes?

Also there are some parts which I do not know the function for. One of of the cards there are 5 pieces of rubber glued to the board. And some solder points where covered with a black piece of plastic as wel as the 2 cables connecting the 2 cards. What are they for?
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TheComet
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Posted: 24th Dec 2011 14:05
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Some photos would certainly help us

TheComet


Don't click.
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Isocadia
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Posted: 24th Dec 2011 14:10 Edited at: 24th Dec 2011 14:22
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Coming up. Also, there are some very small chips with quite alot of thermal paste on them which I haven't effectively been able to remove with alcohol. Is it ok to break the thermal paste of and only clean the small leftover bits that are there with alcohol?

Edit: The pictures:







This black plastic was also covering the PSU connectors and the DVI connectors. Some kind of isolation material?
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Agent Dink
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Posted: 24th Dec 2011 16:02
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For the record, I baked an HP copier formatter board at 400F for 10 minutes and it fixed it. I can safely say that there is a good chance it will fix your video cards. Be careful to remove everything you can from the boards though. The battery could not be removed from the copier's formatter board, so it ended up popping.

No more accurate date and time for that copy machine...

http://lossofanonymity.wordpress.com
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Isocadia
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Posted: 24th Dec 2011 16:32 Edited at: 24th Dec 2011 16:55
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Well, I removed all the thermal paste, all that is left are those rubber things which seems glued on to the boards so badly.... they're really not coming off with my hands only and I don't want to remove them with tools if I do not have to.

@Agent Dink: It's 1 video card. Not cards xD

Edit: Should I also remove all the stickers?
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Isocadia
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Posted: 25th Dec 2011 10:35
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Alright, cleaned the entire thing, got the rubber things removed and I'm ready to bake it. One small problem, on the DRAM there were some kind of white cooling pads which got completely ripped apart when removing the heatsink. Is it safe to replace those pads with normal thermal paste or should I use something else?
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Isocadia
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Posted: 25th Dec 2011 16:52
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Well, I've baked it, assembled it without any thermal paste/pads and put in in for 20 seconds just to see POST appear . I've gone from no output at all the way to getting trough POST. Now I need to figure out how to replace those thermal pads. The gap between the VRAM or whatever those black chips are and the heatsink is under 1 mm, I'd say 0.8. Can I simply use thermal paste or are there other things I can try, because there isn't a single store selling thermal pads
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charger bandit
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Posted: 25th Dec 2011 18:28
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You shouldn't have removed any of that stuff. But you can easily replace the pads with some new thermal stickers. Some electronics or very good computer stores should sell them.


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Isocadia
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Posted: 25th Dec 2011 18:43
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Well, I kinda had to remove the pads. My brother decided that the heatsink was something he wanted to inspect from up close and let it drop resulting in the thermal pads being filled with my carpet and his hair. I still have all the pieces lying here but they're in a really bad shape.

Also, I've searched for thermal stickers but I cannot seem to find them. All the stores seem to only be selling thermal paste. I think I'll call one of them. Maybe they can order it from somewhere. If all else fails I think I could also put some kind of copper between the chips and the heatsink and apply thermal paste to both sides to bridge the gap, though that's really my last resort
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charger bandit
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Posted: 25th Dec 2011 21:54
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Maybe buying a new heatsink? But might be hard to find and expensive for such a rare beast.

Heres an Ebay link to some pads: CLICK


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Isocadia
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Posted: 25th Dec 2011 22:49 Edited at: 25th Dec 2011 22:50
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I'm not gonna buy a new heatsink xD. I still have the old pads though. They simply are a little bit dusty and misshaped, but I'm sure I can put them back in a straight line. Also, since I'm from the netherlands, ordering from amazon is alot easier. If I'm gonna buy thermal pads, do you have any recommendations:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/280-1147718-3791831?url=search-alias%3Dcomputers&field-keywords=Thermal+Pads&x=0&y=0???

Also, is it really that bad if I put some kind of copper plate between the two parts with thermal paste put on both sides? I have quite a large 0.7mm thick copper plate lying around and if I could use it to fix this it would be even better for me. It's been the first time I've baked a card and I'm not really keen on spending any money on fixing it since I already owe my dad 180 euro's
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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 26th Dec 2011 02:36
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When i baked my 9800m GTX, i removed the thermal pads carefully by slicing them off the chips. Then after i baked the card, i just put them back where they were. I also keep a bunch of thermal pads that i get from other computer laptop parts that are broken and stuff. Never know when i might need those. Well i guess i have an advantage here since i work repairing computers and sometimes i get free or broken hardware out of it which i can harness for materials such as thermal pads.


dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
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Isocadia
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Posted: 26th Dec 2011 10:02
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Well, the biggest question actually is, do the VRAM chips really get so warm that stuff can get broken which isn't helped by some not perfectly fitting but still making contact thermal pads? Cause that means that I could simply reuse the old pads and only put some thermal paste between the chip and the pad.
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bitJericho
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Posted: 26th Dec 2011 13:29
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thermal paste can act as an insulator when there's too much, so if there's any kind of gap, you should close it. Copper sheeting should be fine if you paste both sides, but it's conductive so be careful that it doesn't like, slip off or something.

I'd try and find thermal pads though. I wouldn't reuse your hairy ones though

I know my aftermarket cooler I bought for an 8400gs came with little baby heatsinks for the ram chips that sort of pasted on, so i don't think they got very hot or else that wouldn't work very well.


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Isocadia
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Posted: 26th Dec 2011 13:47
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Alright, I think I know what I'm gonna do. There isn't a single store in the whole bloody region which is selling thermal pads. And ordering them from the internet is a no-go. I could use copper sheeting but I found out that copper sheets are quite expensive and the part I have lying here is slightly to thick. What I think I'll do is wrap the pads with aluminium foil and thermal paste those small "bags" to the chips and heatsink. From what I've read they're not getting all that hot so I think this should conduct enough heat to the heatsink to prevent damage... I hope.

Anyway, thanks for all your help. This has been a great learning experience and because I got this card working a friend has offered me 2 8800's that I'll bake too to see if I can get those working again

Isocadia
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Quel
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Posted: 26th Dec 2011 14:10
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This method sounds a bit anti-capacitor...

Anyways, i'm just shocked that there are no comments about this being an unusual act that someone wants to bake an electrical device. Is it really that 'anyday' stuff? I've never heard of this.

The most obvious things tend to have dozens of people acting stupid, but everybody here just accepts the fact, that a GPU will be baked.

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Isocadia
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Posted: 26th Dec 2011 14:31 Edited at: 26th Dec 2011 16:28
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Quel, google it. It has working for many people and it has worked for me. And the reasoning behind it is quite logical.

The constant heating and cooling of the solder make tiny fractures appear in the surface. Over time the fractures, though still invisible to the eye will be big enough to completely disconnect itself from the pin it was soldered to resulting in a non working GPU. Slowly heating and cooling the entire card makes all the solder flow back into place closing all the fractures and therefore contact that has been broken has been made anew resulting in a working GPU. The leds, still working, now contain all kinds of air bubbles and are funny to look at when lit cause of the strange dispersing of the light ( gives some sort of disco ball effect )

Edit: Ive looked at my current GPU ( ASUS GTS250 ) and there is absolutely zero cooling on the VRAM of that card. I guess I could also leave the ones on the GTX295 cooled with a homemade system if the GTS250 ones are running without.
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bitJericho
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Posted: 26th Dec 2011 18:59
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Have you tried ebay? Do you have ebay?


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Isocadia
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Posted: 26th Dec 2011 19:22
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Well, I've got new pads from a friend. Assembled the thing, booted my pc..... and after 5 minutes in windows lines started appearing and now it doesn't start anymore

Guess it failed... sad
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charger bandit
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Posted: 26th Dec 2011 21:33
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There might be some busted capacitators or your VRAM pads are doing worse as they should. If you want to throw this GPU away,dont,I want to mount it on a wall


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Isocadia
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Posted: 26th Dec 2011 21:45
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Already mounted it on a wall
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