nVidia GeForce 8800 ULTRA Repairation

[Salmonella]

Hello Forum,

Yesterday i've gotten my hands on a non-fuctioning 8800 Ultra. I bought it for 5 euros from the dad of a friend of mine. He used it for 3 months and then it stopped working. He's tried a lot i geuss, but i'm gonna give it another try. I've never repaired a video card and am unsure if such thing is possible. Therefor i'm asking for your help. It would be a waste of the video card to not even try to repair it. This videocard is considered heavier than the 9800GTX, It requires around 200 watts from my power supply, so the first thing i'm gonna do as soon as i can get outside again ( long story ), is buy a 500Watt power supply. More info about the card, for the curious people, should be on google.

Thanks for reading, looking forward to a reply.

Greetings - Salmonella

[Bilbo]

Set oven to 190 degrees (Celsius), remove any heatshinks and thermal paste from the card and put it on tinfoil balls into the oven. (so it won't touch the plate).
Cook for 10 minutes, then let it cool down (do NOT put it in a freezer), assemble it again and try it out.

And yes, I'm serious.. most 8xxx and even 9xxx cards have problems with the inner connections, which can be fixed by cooking the graphics card.
But, obviously this should always be the last way to fix the card.

[Salmonella]

Yeah Icy, was planning that too, any other options? XD

[DellStorm]

Hi Samonella,

Go With IcyAero's suggestion for sure as that will also remelt the solder on the connections, I dunno about 10minutes! but anywhere between 7 and 10 should be fine! Don't forget to put it on an aluminium foil sheet with some type of bricks so on top so its *hovering*.

As for other suggestions, there are not that many on a died card, if there is any life left in it at all, if you have the options available, i suggest you try and use all of the connections on it, whether it has DVI x2 etc you never know what part of the solder might have got fixed!

I dont know the exact details an the card, but if you could find out what the person you got it off was doing with it (for example heavy gamer etc) most common faults are generally heat realated. So I would suggest that you, before you try the oven technique, as that is a last call method, that you reapply all of the thermal compound from the heatsink

Ever thought it could all be down to a dodgy fan ! Make sure that the fan works! Heat is our computers number one enemy!

Good luck & Happy Gaming

Regards,

DellStorm

[Salmonella]

DellStorm,

Thanks for that message. To reply ;

The previous owner most likely has gamed a lot with it past 3 months ( even although he's over 40 years old ). He basically tried everything but doing the oven thing. He allready reapplied new coolpaste to try, that didn't help. This evening i'm going to do the oven method. past hour i've been busy taking off thermal paste ( god damn thermal paste ). There's still some left in sticky places. But i'll take care of it.

Does it matter if there's a little of it left on the card? does it have to be 100% cleaned from thermal paste?

I'll post some pictures in 1 hour most likely.

[Bilbo]

Well, depending of the thermal paste it can actually "fry" on the card itself.. and I bet you don't want that to happen.

And yeh, I know like 20 guys who've fixed their broken 8000 -series or 9000 -series card with 190C for 10 minutes.

[duffman]

Salmonella just 'Deal with it' 

[Salmonella]

Well i've been cooking it. Didn't work. Will try again later. I think it might've been 150 degrees accidentally. Still having hope

[Bilbo]

You may even want to have the oven set for 200C, as usually the melting point may vary between 180C and 195C

[Salmonella]

I think the card didn't work because of the old motherboard i tested it on. today i tried it on my main computer, but this monster, didn't fit in my mini atx case.

[Todor]

Just get a GTX460, for the love of God lol  What you could do is take the mobo out of the case.

[Roadkill]

Nvidia cooking ftw!

[Fuzzy]

Nvidia cooking ftw!

[jdixo17]

Nvidia cooking ftw!

The guy on there looks kinda hot  :redface:

[Salmonella]

Just get a GTX460, for the love of God lol  What you could do is take the mobo out of the case.

8800 ultra is better imo. I'f i'd ever buy a new card it'd be nvidia's best : GTX295

Nvidia cooking ftw!

Hahaha, saved onto my computer xD



I bought DDR3 memory, so that i can test the card in my new project! :P Updates about it will come later when i've got the ram. I wont give up y'all!