Education I didn't invent this miracle fix but I still need to share it

I know I am not the first one to do this, but the more people know about this easy fix, the more awesomeness can be done (does that even make sense?)


A few weeks ago my laptop got killed by... Minecraft



The VGA output worked fine so I bought a new screen on ebay and hoped that was the problem. Turned out it wasn't so, before I bought a new motherboard, I just had to try this



Cramped space for minimal comfort






8minutes @ 330F (pre-heated)



Aaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnd....

...weeeeeeeee !!


I then upgraded the screen with an Inspiron 710m's (mine is an XPS M1210)



Voilà !



EDIT: I just noticed the "computer repair tips" forum in the background
I just wanted to know the temperature I had to set the oven to, I swear !

 

You... wait... you did what? Not sure if serious...

 

I've done this twice now, I was able to get them to boot, and recover the 2 laptops data, but it only lasted a couple of days. I used WAAAY more foil to protect other components though.

It was a common flaw with nVidia chipsets of that generation, I've seen several laptops with the problem, about half of them were Macs. They overheated more and didn't react well at all, but Apple will fix them. Took longer for the Windows laptops to break, at which point they were out of warranty, so few companies will fix them.

 

Nicely done! Re-flowing the solder like that is always a gamble, it's what a repair company would have done if you'd paid for it. Surprisingly easy repair, if it works.

 

Have heard of people doing this with nvidia 8800s, considered doing it myself but decided to just buy a new graphics card in the end, as the card was pretty much worthless by this time anyway.

I hope it keeps working for you

 

I baked my 8800gt like this and had it working for a couple of months but has just now packed up again. No longer have a spare system to test it on so won't be cooking it anytime soon.

 

He is serious. It's called solder rework or reflowing.

If you rework them properly, as in reball the BGA's that are affected and make sure that everything is heatsinked well enough the second time around, they will last another lifetime. I reballed the GPU in one of my own HP laptops two years ago after buying it for spares/repair off ebay. I still use it every week without fail.

It's a gamble when done like that, yes. But (and I mean no offence by this, not like I haven't done it before either!) only a small time computer repair company would do it like this. What all repair companies who get boards like this should do is send them to an electronics specialist to be properly reworked. IF it's worth that hassle, that is. I do ours at the electronics plant I used to work in up the road. The guys let me in for a couple of hours at the weekend or when the ovens aren't busy during the week to get what little reworking/reballing I have to do sorted out. I would buy a professional IR temperature controlled reflow oven myself, but they're not exactly cheap. The big Heller Mk III's up the road are six figure machines.

@ Knuck - You would have gotten away with a temp controlled hot air gun for that job. I'd guess that you only needed to hit the GPU and chipset for a couple of minutes.

 

The approach is VERY similar to what people use to fix the white X360's RROD (together with the "X-Clamp fix").
Reflowing solder like that is hit-and-miss in my experience. I used a heatgun for the same purpose on two xboxes... got one to live again for a good few weeks, and the other was just fail all round...

 

You, sir knuck, win the 'geek of the week' award.

 

Yep. Have rep Ghyslain.

 

I didn't mean literally in an oven on a baking tray More the general principle of reflowing/reworking.
This is an easy repair if you're not too worried about the results.

 

Yeah I know but I had nothing to lose so why bother. Hehe

I know it won't last very long but I'll try to keep it safe for as long as possible by making sure I don't over heat it too much ==> no more gaming

Thanks but, as I said, I didn't invent anything, I'm just sharing.

See this is why I changed name last year. I find it slightly disturbing that people know my full name haha

<3

 

I've had some reflow repairs last for the rest of the working life of the part, and they were done in the oven. Cheap=/=bad in some cases. Temp control would be nice, and I expect that lappy will do that again, but it's quite possible that it will be far enough down the road he'd have a new one anyway.

 

hey unicorn.. is it hard to reball? what kind of equipment do you have to do it right.. I used a heat gun myself but that repair doesn't always stick- even with flux

 

I'll be willing to do it one more time when it will (inevitably) break again. I just want it to last long enough for me to be able to afford a new laptop that is as awesome as this one was

 

Agreed..have some rep

 

yeah problem is.. after the first reflow- the flux will pretty much be gone.. have to reapply some before the reflow to help the solder bond right

reballing is interesting but my buddy was telling me you need expensive equipment to do it.. I've never did a reball but always wanted to try

 

Now the real question...

Is that a toaster oven?

 

My oven saved my 8800 GT

 

Yeah but it's totally overpowered