Most people think repairing a defective or otherwise malfunctioning video card requires an experienced computer hardware technician with a soldering iron, but did you know you can repair most common video card issues just by baking it in your oven at home?
It’s true, and in this guide I’ll explain how it works and show you step-by-step how to do it yourself.
How it Works
Have you ever turned on your computer only to find it displaying horizontal lines across the screen or possibly go to play a video game and you’ll see various artifacts and the graphics are messed up? Then chances are the circuit connections on your video card are damaged and need to be repaired.
When video cards are made they have circuits on the board that are soldered together and then the video card is put into an oven to attach the electrical contacts and to melt the solder. Overtime these circuits may become damaged or get hairline fractures and cracks, thus causing the issues you see on your screen.
Baking a video card in your oven is basically doing the same process the video card went through when it was first created, melting the solder and repairing the connections, thus fixing the cracks and broken circuits.
What You’ll Need
A defective or malfunctioning video card
Aluminum Foil
A baking pan
An oven
A screwdriver
Getting Ready
First, go ahead and begin preheating your oven to exactly 385F (196.11C). While the oven is preheating, find the baking pan that you’ll be using and cover it with aluminum foil.
Now, you’ll need to take apart your video card. Using your screwdriver, remove all the screws on your video card and remove the fan/cooler. Make sure everything that can be removed or detached from your video card is completely removed before continuing.
You’ll need to wad up some aluminum foil into small balls, as you’ll be placing these under your video card to keep it raised up from the baking pan. Depending on the size of your video card it should take about 4-6 balls of aluminum to keep it fully elevated.
Now you’re ready to move on to the next part…
Baking the Video Card
Place your video card onto the baking pan while using the aluminum foil balls to keep it elevated and off the pan itself.
After you’re video card is settled onto the pan (It may take a bit to balance it on the foil balls), place the pan into the oven and bake it for 8-10 Minutes. Any shorter than 8 and it wont melt the solder, but any longer than 10 and you may fry your video card.
When I bake video cards, I usually go for 10 minutes and they’ve all came out fine so far.
After 8-10 minutes, take the pan out of the oven and place it somewhere to let the video card cool. After the video card has cooled off, begin re-attaching everything you removed earlier.
You may now place the video card back into your computer and test to see if it worked or not. If it did work, then congratulations! If it didn’t, then you may try baking it a second time, but if it still doesn’t work after the second bake then it may just be a lost cause.
Conclusion
Hopefully after reading this guide you now understand how baking a video card can fix common issues with them and how to do it yourself.
However, you should always remember that baking your video card isn’t guaranteed to work, and if you’re ever not 100% sure of what you’re doing it’s best to consult an expert.