My brother in law got a non-function 8800GTX out of a dumpster, gave it to me to see if it still works. It was dead as a dodo. It was amazing there was no physical damage because it was put in a GT 240 box, and was uncomfortably poking out. Remembered this thread over at [H], gave it a shot, and it works!!!!!  :o  :-?  ;D

I've just been playing Crysis Warhead in SLI for the last half hour or so, no artifact, no performance problems, it works! Cranked up the quality settings too!!

I did it slightly different, I ofcourse took off the cooler, put it on aluminium foil balls, cookie sheet on the tray and here we go.

9min 200c
30sec  230c
last 30 seconds on Max (think it's about 250c)
1 minute on 50c cooldown
2 minute fan only
Take out, blow on card to cool down.
Put near window to cool down even further.
Then 4 min in fridge because the PCB was still a little warm.

Put it in, plugged in PCIe power connectors. Fired Crysis up, wham! It works!

Thanks so much to the OP at the HardOCP thread.  ;D ;D

Now.....as for that V5 6000 of mine....  ;D  :o

j/k, there is something else the problem with that one.


**original thread**

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1421792

Got to be worth a try on any faulty video cards/laptops. Its amazing the amount of people who just throw laptops away when they break.

Well, I have just tried it with a Voodoo3 PCI with graphic artifacts; 200°C for 10 min. Now it is cooling down near the window.

60 minutes and I will tell you more ;D

P.S. I have just taken a look at the card; it is not good looking :D

EDIT: As I was expecting, card is permanently dead. There are burn traces on the PCB, maybe I bake it a bit too much :P

I think the trick only works on newer cards. Those cards are ROHS "compliant", they don't use Pb. Older cards, like V3 still use Pb and the chances to fix it in owen are very small.

But even for newer cards I don't think the trick ill last long, the card will die again.

RaverX wrote on 03.05.10 at 21:48:51:

I think the trick only works on newer cards. Those cards are ROHS "compliant", they don't use Pb. Older cards, like V3 still use Pb and the chances to fix it in owen are very small.

Yeah, they are lead-free and for this reason they die so easily. It is a dog chasing its tail...

This is the classic fix for out of warranty Xbox 360s.  I've never seen it done with a video card before.  The only thing I would do differently is flip it over with the GPU face up.  It would suck to over bake it and have the GPU fall off the PCB

As a side note, the 8800GTX is an awesome video card.  I think it was king of the hill for over a year.  I still have the ASUS version w/the Zalman cooler on it in my server upstairs.  I would love to get a 2nd one to mess around with SLI.  Oh well, I guess I'll just have to settle for my new EVGA Superclocked GTX480 that is due to arrive tomorrow  ;D 

I use a temperature controlled heat gun myself - bought a £60 YLOD PS3 launch console and baked the CPU and GPU and RAMs - works FLAWLESSLY! 8-)

paulpsomiadis wrote on 05.05.10 at 21:19:57:

I use a temperature controlled heat gun myself - bought a £60 YLOD PS3 launch console and baked the CPU and GPU and RAMs - works FLAWLESSLY! 8-)

Good stuff, that's nice to have, temperature controlled gun, that way it takes a way some of the guessing.

A PS3 for £60 is excellent.

paulpsomiadis wrote on 05.05.10 at 21:19:57:

I use a temperature controlled heat gun myself - bought a £60 YLOD PS3 launch console and baked the CPU and GPU and RAMs - works FLAWLESSLY! 8-)

You mean an hot-air soldering station?