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Tried to fix my own GPU with a hair dryer. That was dumb.
Last week my old GTX 970 started artifact-ing during a game. Looked up a forum post about reflowing the solder with heat. Grabbed my girlfriend's hair dryer and went at it for 5 minutes. Chip got way too hot and now the card won't post at all. Anyone else kill a part trying some DIY repair?
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spencer_ross1d agoMost Upvoted
You said "chip got way too hot," but did you actually check the temperature at any point with a laser thermometer or something? Hair dryers just blast hot air all over, they don't have any way to control the heat evenly, so you probably cooked the board way past what the solder could handle. I mean, those old cards were built like tanks, but they still have a limit on temp before the traces start lifting. Did you even take the cooler off and check if the thermal paste was still good, or was this a full send no prep situation? Honestly, five minutes with a hair dryer sounds like you were trying to bake a pizza more than fix a GPU.
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ryan_carr591d ago
You ever seen a buddy try to reball an Xbox with a heat gun and melt the whole HDMI port off?
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