VOGONS


First post, by Unrealdevon

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Hiya!
I just got a 5900xt card and it worked fine until i removed the old VRAM heatsinks.
They were glued on so i heated them with a hairdryer and then very carefully applied pressure to get it to snap off.
The sound it did when snapping off was kina scary.
I used isopropanol to clean off the last of the glue and a razor, very carefully.

Anyway i did this and took my time doing it too.
But now after reinstalling the card it shows these typical dotted lines on bootup and then it's black screen.
Doesn't get past the usual bootup screen and not into windows at all.

So i know this is probably the VRAM that has gotten some damaged connection?

I'm sure it's the ram that's the issue as i never touched anything else, so it can't be broken.

Reply 1 of 13, by Doornkaat

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Press the chips to the board one by one with your fingers during POST or BIOS and see wether the patterns change. If they do you have bad connections on those chips where it changes when you press them to the board.
If not you most likely damaged the card or chips in another way.

To repair the connections you need to reflow or reball them. With a cracked solder ball a reflow with flux is often enough.
The kitchen oven method will often not work well because it heats the card too slowly and fries it. Usually you'll need at least a hot air soldering station and ideally also a heating pad.
See if you can find a laptop/phone repair place that'll reflow the VRAM for you if you haven't got access to those tools.

Good luck!👍

Reply 2 of 13, by Unrealdevon

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Doornkaat wrote on 2023-02-07, 11:14:
Press the chips to the board one by one with your fingers during POST or BIOS and see wether the patterns change. If they do you […]
Show full quote

Press the chips to the board one by one with your fingers during POST or BIOS and see wether the patterns change. If they do you have bad connections on those chips where it changes when you press them to the board.
If not you most likely damaged the card or chips in another way.

To repair the connections you need to reflow or reball them. With a cracked solder ball a reflow with flux is often enough.
The kitchen oven method will often not work well because it heats the card too slowly and fries it. Usually you'll need at least a hot air soldering station and ideally also a heating pad.
See if you can find a laptop/phone repair place that'll reflow the VRAM for you if you haven't got access to those tools.

Good luck!👍

Thanks!
I'm gonna try that out.

Reply 3 of 13, by Unrealdevon

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Doornkaat wrote on 2023-02-07, 11:14:
Press the chips to the board one by one with your fingers during POST or BIOS and see wether the patterns change. If they do you […]
Show full quote

Press the chips to the board one by one with your fingers during POST or BIOS and see wether the patterns change. If they do you have bad connections on those chips where it changes when you press them to the board.
If not you most likely damaged the card or chips in another way.

To repair the connections you need to reflow or reball them. With a cracked solder ball a reflow with flux is often enough.
The kitchen oven method will often not work well because it heats the card too slowly and fries it. Usually you'll need at least a hot air soldering station and ideally also a heating pad.
See if you can find a laptop/phone repair place that'll reflow the VRAM for you if you haven't got access to those tools.

Good luck!👍

Btw do you happen to know of any video tutorials on this?
I got a soldering station with digital thermal meter.
Will need flux and some other stuff tho i guess.
Never done this before,reflow gpu that is.

What i have done before is replacing caps both big and small.

Can't i use a heatgun and a thermal thingy to see how hot it gets?
What is that thermal (see temp on component) called anyway?

Thanks!

Reply 4 of 13, by acl

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Unrealdevon wrote on 2023-02-08, 15:21:
Btw do you happen to know of any video tutorials on this? I got a soldering station with digital thermal meter. Will need flux a […]
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Doornkaat wrote on 2023-02-07, 11:14:
Press the chips to the board one by one with your fingers during POST or BIOS and see wether the patterns change. If they do you […]
Show full quote

Press the chips to the board one by one with your fingers during POST or BIOS and see wether the patterns change. If they do you have bad connections on those chips where it changes when you press them to the board.
If not you most likely damaged the card or chips in another way.

To repair the connections you need to reflow or reball them. With a cracked solder ball a reflow with flux is often enough.
The kitchen oven method will often not work well because it heats the card too slowly and fries it. Usually you'll need at least a hot air soldering station and ideally also a heating pad.
See if you can find a laptop/phone repair place that'll reflow the VRAM for you if you haven't got access to those tools.

Good luck!👍

Btw do you happen to know of any video tutorials on this?
I got a soldering station with digital thermal meter.
Will need flux and some other stuff tho i guess.
Never done this before,reflow gpu that is.

What i have done before is replacing caps both big and small.

Can't i use a heatgun and a thermal thingy to see how hot it gets?
What is that thermal (see temp on component) called anyway?

Thanks!

I'm not an expert, but i have some (good and bad) experience fixing faulty joints.

I would not try with a heat gun without precise temperature control.
Oven can work (190C° 10min. It can take more than one attempt) I've actually repaired a GeForce256 and a X1950XTX that way.
A hot air station with temp control is probably the best option.

Not sure about the temperature. It depends on the solder. With the oven i've witnessed solder that melted at 190C° and on the other hand, when I solder things, for electronics projects, the iron temperature is more around 350-380.

"Hello, my friend. Stay awhile and listen..."
My collection (not up to date)

Reply 5 of 13, by matze79

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Oh well don`t bake your hardware in a oven.
Thats not a proper fix, and may also harm you as it will poison your oven..

https://www.retrokits.de - blog, retro projects, hdd clicker, diy soundcards etc
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Reply 6 of 13, by Doornkaat

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Sorry, I don't know any video tutorials.🤷‍♂️

A soldering iron won't help you with BGA chips, sorry.😕

You can in principle reflow an SMD chip with a regular heat gun but most of them aren't precise tools. It's much harder and risky with high hot airflow and imprecise temperature settings.

Do you mean an infrared thermometer?

10min @ 190°C in an oven will not fix cracked BGA joints.

Reply 8 of 13, by Unrealdevon

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Doornkaat wrote on 2023-02-09, 00:31:
Sorry, I don't know any video tutorials.🤷‍♂️ […]
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Sorry, I don't know any video tutorials.🤷‍♂️

A soldering iron won't help you with BGA chips, sorry.😕

You can in principle reflow an SMD chip with a regular heat gun but most of them aren't precise tools. It's much harder and risky with high hot airflow and imprecise temperature settings.

Do you mean an infrared thermometer?

10min @ 190°C in an oven will not fix cracked BGA joints.

Can't you use heat resistent tape around the rest of the card? That should make it work with a cheaper more basic heat gun?

Reply 9 of 13, by Doornkaat

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Unrealdevon wrote on 2023-02-09, 22:16:
Doornkaat wrote on 2023-02-09, 00:31:
Sorry, I don't know any video tutorials.🤷‍♂️ […]
Show full quote

Sorry, I don't know any video tutorials.🤷‍♂️

A soldering iron won't help you with BGA chips, sorry.😕

You can in principle reflow an SMD chip with a regular heat gun but most of them aren't precise tools. It's much harder and risky with high hot airflow and imprecise temperature settings.

Do you mean an infrared thermometer?

10min @ 190°C in an oven will not fix cracked BGA joints.

Can't you use heat resistent tape around the rest of the card? That should make it work with a cheaper more basic heat gun?

Sure, but it's still much harder to get good results because you have way less control.
Think of it like assembling furniture with small nails and a sledge hammer.

Reply 10 of 13, by Unrealdevon

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Doornkaat wrote on 2023-02-09, 22:43:
Unrealdevon wrote on 2023-02-09, 22:16:
Doornkaat wrote on 2023-02-09, 00:31:
Sorry, I don't know any video tutorials.🤷‍♂️ […]
Show full quote

Sorry, I don't know any video tutorials.🤷‍♂️

A soldering iron won't help you with BGA chips, sorry.😕

You can in principle reflow an SMD chip with a regular heat gun but most of them aren't precise tools. It's much harder and risky with high hot airflow and imprecise temperature settings.

Do you mean an infrared thermometer?

10min @ 190°C in an oven will not fix cracked BGA joints.

Can't you use heat resistent tape around the rest of the card? That should make it work with a cheaper more basic heat gun?

Sure, but it's still much harder to get good results because you have way less control.
Think of it like assembling furniture with small nails and a sledge hammer.

Ok!
Thank you 😀

So do you maybe happen to have any suggestions on what kind of equipment i should get, like more specifically?

I don't have a very big budget, unfortunately I'm atm kinda poor.
I did a search on heat stations and guns etc.. it's all a jungle for someone who haven't used these tools before.

Reply 11 of 13, by acl

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I use this one : https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/10050042814947 … ayAdapt=glo2fra
To be honest, it was also driven by the budget. But it's OK for my use (a few times each month)

I know there are electronics professionals here. They may have a better advice.

"Hello, my friend. Stay awhile and listen..."
My collection (not up to date)

Reply 12 of 13, by Unrealdevon

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acl wrote on 2023-02-10, 14:40:

I use this one : https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/10050042814947 … ayAdapt=glo2fra
To be honest, it was also driven by the budget. But it's OK for my use (a few times each month)

I know there are electronics professionals here. They may have a better advice.

I was actually looking at this exact on, or very similar.
Guess if you aren't using it very often it will last a while. My needs will most likely be once a month at the most.

Reply 13 of 13, by Doornkaat

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I can't recommend anything because I only ever worked with some random SMD rework station at a nearby hacker space that closed down during the pandemic. It was generic, nothing fancy, and worked fine for smaller ICs.

If you don't have a lot to spend try seeing if you can find something second hand.