GPU Reflow Do's & don'ts

GPU Reflow Do's & don'ts

[kittykittylicization]

"Dont repair your engine yourself, you could break it in the process.." well no shit.

You have to know your market man. If you charge $40 to reflow a $60 GPU no one is going to do it. Considering GPUs last a couple years even a $200 gpu brand new is only going to be worth about $50 by the time it breaks. Thats why these methods exist, if you could just take it to the GPU Fixer store for $20 no one would dream of doing it themselves. If you wanted to help people tell them how to improve at home methods. Not just "Dont do anything but take it to my store"

[poptartmcjelly]

This video does have a lot of don'ts, but not many do's.
When manufactured the board goes through a reflow oven, yes - an oven.
the SMD components are manufactured to withstand up to a certain temperature with minimal damage, that temperature is called the relow temperature, that's the temperature at which the solder melts.
Applying heat only to the GPU area will cause that area to expand and will make the board bow up.
I do my reflow repair with an oven, in a controlled manner, of course, and thus far all of them worked out and are still working to this day. Heck, the laptop that i'm using right now would be dead if not the oven reflow.
Since motherboards have many copper layers in them they do conduct heat away from the GPU making it hard to reflow, this can cause frustration and overheating of the BGA fiberglass substrate, which will bubble up and destroy all chances of repair without replacing the chip.
Motherboards will bow in the oven only when they are poorly supported.
Solder surface tension is plenty enough to hold the bottom components in place, the board needs to be above any surface when reflow soldering in the oven, components are easy to knock off when solder is molten.
Any batteries must be removed from the board as they will blow up in the oven and possibly knock all of the components loose if the temperature is high enough.
Flux is not necessary when reflowing, the solder fractures are microscopic and will get quickly soldered back together once reflow temperature is reached.
Talking about the temperature, it is crucial that care is taken when oven reflowing, too cold and the board won't reflow, too hot and the board will bubble up and components will start blowing up.
The oven cannot the used for food after oven reflow, this is why it's not popular to do so.
The laptop i'm using right now does get alot of abuse, i push it to it's limits and keep it there for as long as i want, so far it has been performing very well with no issues what so ever.
This comment is long as it is, i could make it much longer but i won't.
TL:DR - this video gives bad advice, don't take it for granted.

[kondor]

I rescued my notebook GPU using the heat gun method and it's still running fine 2 years later. 99% of the time with these things, it's an old piece of equipment that isn't worth investing a lot of money into. If it works, it works. If it doesn't work, well - It wasn't working to begin with.

[EllieLight]

Don't do this, don't do that, and definitely do not do it that way. Very unhelpful.

[Smithyi]

Utter BULLSHIT ! An expensive machine is NOT required. I reflow GPU's with a heat gun.

[FeroxX_Gosu]

Yesterday my MSI HD6850 got bad, and did the green vertical lines problem even in the BIOS no matter how many times I've tried or how much the GPU was cooled down. I've tried a simple re-silicone pasta method but that did not work it was permanently damaged.

I never did GPU cooking, and I was skeptical, cuz i was afrad of the things you've said in this video, that everything could become loose, warped, and be damaged if you put it in the oven, cuz the heat is all over the place (Im a BSC graduate on engineering). So I searched on google, and found out that the hair dryer method is the least risky for me, because I could focus the heat only on the GPU.

So I've took my girlfriends 1400w Philips hairdryer, got rid of the fan and cleaned off the badly dryed out (ouch!) silicone pasta with her nail polish remover aceton (what would I do without my precious gilrfiend?? lol).

After that I positioned the hairdryer on the GPU close up about 3-4mm distance, and shoot it on max heat setting for about 10-12 minutes (I didnt count the time..). I've read on forums that people are sceptical about hairdryer methoud cuz it doesnt generate enough heat for the melting points, saying that they couldnt even get it up to 100 Celsius, but I can confirm that it did go above 100 Celsius cuz I've poured a water drop on the socket and it evaporated instantly.

I let it cool down for about 5-6 minutes, and after that I put on new silicone pasta, put on the fan and took it back into the PCIe slot of my motherboard.

And to my astonishment, it did work! No green lines, Its stable since 1 day, no problems yet :)

So I just wanted to share my story with you guys.

[christianjohnplacido]

What if my gpu is already reflowed, it can be reflow again?

[benyoung]

Well the best way is to bring the computer to vendor for a repair services!!!
Another way is buying a new graphic card and replace it, but that will involved risk of not putting it right as well! Unless you wanna open a shop for reflowing the chips, otherwise the $230 might cost twice more than a new graphic card.

[brenty]

If you are using foil on the board and then using a heat gun properly, the small componets falling off isn't a real problem unless you are using WAY TOO MUCH heat.

Here's a DO that wasn't mentioned. Analyze the board that you are reflowing at home, and look for reasons as to why you need to do a reflow in the first place. If you didn't have a bad fan or cooling system and if the problem is common enough, then you likely have a tiny design malfunction that you might be able to remedy which will make your reflow actually last. Although sometimes, you just get a board with a little less solder than most other people (badluck). I'd recommend home users to read my solution below regardless though, since it could help with both situations.

The most common design flaws I encounter, are boards not being 100% level, (screw stand offs being too high or low) or missing back support behind the BGA. If there is no support beneath the BGA you are repairing, then this could be the cause of your problems. Many companies don't add this when a device is only designed to work for a few years. The reason you want support behind the BGA, is so that small degrees of warping are prevented from occuring over time from the heating and cooling of the board during normal use. When the BGA has good enough support behind it, it will keep the area directly behind and around the BGA flat, even when the board heats up to higher than normal temperatures. This warping over time is typically the main cause for this to happen to devices that run hot regularly (example: graphics cards, soldered CPUs, soldered RAM chips, etc).

An excellent cheap at-home solution that I came up with in my garage 12 years ago, is to make cardboard cut-outs that are just slightly larger than the BGA, and cover those completely with electrical tape, and then adher it to the chasis directly behind the BGA for the board to rest on (make sure it's thick enough to fill the space and make contact with the board, you can also stack additional cut-outs on top of each other). I also sometimes use shipping foam cut outs (example: styrofoam) but cardboard from moving boxes have also served me very well, usually at least two cut-outs stacked. I typically make them just thick enough to where they slightly use more space than is available between the back of the board and the chasis. When the board is mounted/installed again, the pressure from that will flatten the cardboard to the perfect amount automatically.

A professional engineer or shop will tell you that I am crazy. They would also tell you to spend $100s to completely replace the BGA instead. For anyone at home that wants a free solution, this is usually it. Oh, and make sure to get just a little melted flux under the BGA where the solder joints are (look up examples on YouTube), this will help a ton, almost like magic. If you can't afford some electrical flux, you can use a little petroleum jelly instead. Just don't use plumbing flux; it's too strong and will degrade the board later.

[FernandoCarpio]

Thanks this video was very helpful! It helped me to know what not to do.

[j.lietka]

If you do a proper, safe, controlled reflow, is it a good idea, after the board is cooled down, to replace the corner sealant? Might do a controlled reflow on a laptop m/b, but taking precautions, & not sticking it in an oven! Thanks

[Franklin-fpnk]

Hi man, i see this clip was posted long time ago so propably u won´t be relpying to me but i still have to ask, do companies like Asus reflow broken GPU´s when they r sent back to them under warranty?

[shanetune]

First off, you should change the title, as there are no "do's", second, If someone comes across this looking for reflow instructions it's because they don't have $600! Why anyone that doesn't have a business repairing electronics would spend that much on a reflow machine is completely beyond me! I've used the heat gun method half dozen times on my old ps3(fat) alone and spent a grand total of about $40 or so (on thermal grease, Arctic 5, if anyone's curious) then there's my old Sony Vaio, which is working 100% because of the heat gun method! (Bought both in 2008! ps3 still games and laptop still fine for internet browsing, and older games) For $600 I could just get a new ps3(or 4) and have plenty left over! ...or a cheap laptop, maybe use it as down payment on new(ish) laptop! Thanks for the "Captain obvious" tips though
You mean I shouldn't stick my MB in the oven @ 350+ Degrees?!?.

[insist-itllc]

I mentioned the torch since I have actually seen small torches used. They put foil around the board and hit the die with small torch. I couldn't believe it, but you can also find YouTube videos with people using a torch.

[frankthots]

Are you doing a part 2 video for the DO's? B'cuz all I've learned in this video is that I should buy a new GPU and inflate the prices for John Gebman.

[FroztiProductions]

A lot of cautionary tips that would be helpful for someone who doesn't want to ruin their gpu. However a lot of people doing this are doing it on a cheap or older card, where paying a repair service would cost more than replacing the card.

[fugeeohu]

Let's say I was doing it with the hot air wand, how would I know I'm doing anything right, is there a point where I can see the solder flow? Let's say I flux all around and then heat the chip Do I ever get to see solder flow?

[jos]

Just have baked the gtx 780 ti, And it works

[darattaqwa]

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

[johng]

I'm sorry you feel the video doesn't meet your expectations. The "Do's" is to use a machine. I won't show a video that could potentially cause catastrophic failure as I would become the responsible party for any damages. A $230 machine will work, but like you stated, a lot of people are simply trying to fix it themselves without spending a lot of money. It is only an opinion, but my opinion is if you can't afford to buy the correct equipment to fix it, then take it to a shop that does have the correct equipment and have them repair it. most will repair it for $60 to $80 and have the correct machine. If you are going to spend $40 for a heat gun and attempt to fix a reflow issue that you have a greater chance of ruining permanently, than my opinion would be to have it repaired correctly for the extra $20 to $40 and you won't have to worry about any mistakes. I know I give a warranty with my repairs as well, so that tiny bit extra comes with that piece of mind that it was done correctly and will continue to last longer. Using any other method besides the correct me method comes with risks and no guarantee that it will last at all, and my need to he repeated regularly.