- 19 Jul 14, 11:30#408768
Hey guys,
So a few days ago we had the start of some unusually hot weather and when I went to my computer it was unresponsive and screens wouldn't come on.
I rebooted and saw a quite obvious graphics card failure with green lines, distortions and artefacts. I removed the graphics card, put it back in, tried a different power cable but nothing worked.
I removed the card, took the heatsink off and replaced the thermal compound, plugged it all back on and still it was broken.
I then noticed that the fan wasn't spinning round fast at all. It seems as though the heat made the plastic on the fan expand fractionally which resulted in the fan failing which lead to the GPU processor to quickly overheat.
I took it apart again and used double upped foil to protect/shield all components of the graphics card. I then cut a hole into the foil so that the GPU processor was exposed and then got a heat gun to heat up the chip for 3-5 minutes at about 180°c.
This is called reflowing and it works because the graphics card overheated when facing downwards which meant the solder melted a tiny bit and gravity pulled it downwards out of the small holes where components sit so when you reflow it the graphics card is facing upwards and you have to melt the solder just the right amount so that it effectively reverses the damage caused by the overheating.
I did this yesterday and so far the graphics card is working fine, it will more than likely fail again within the next few months and I'll have to reflow it again.
Hopefully though it will last and hold up.
Sent from my Nexus 4
So a few days ago we had the start of some unusually hot weather and when I went to my computer it was unresponsive and screens wouldn't come on.
I rebooted and saw a quite obvious graphics card failure with green lines, distortions and artefacts. I removed the graphics card, put it back in, tried a different power cable but nothing worked.
I removed the card, took the heatsink off and replaced the thermal compound, plugged it all back on and still it was broken.
I then noticed that the fan wasn't spinning round fast at all. It seems as though the heat made the plastic on the fan expand fractionally which resulted in the fan failing which lead to the GPU processor to quickly overheat.
I took it apart again and used double upped foil to protect/shield all components of the graphics card. I then cut a hole into the foil so that the GPU processor was exposed and then got a heat gun to heat up the chip for 3-5 minutes at about 180°c.
This is called reflowing and it works because the graphics card overheated when facing downwards which meant the solder melted a tiny bit and gravity pulled it downwards out of the small holes where components sit so when you reflow it the graphics card is facing upwards and you have to melt the solder just the right amount so that it effectively reverses the damage caused by the overheating.
I did this yesterday and so far the graphics card is working fine, it will more than likely fail again within the next few months and I'll have to reflow it again.
Hopefully though it will last and hold up.
Sent from my Nexus 4