Fresh Off the Oven: One Repaired Video Card

Baking a video card (as in an oven) to repair it sounds like total idiocy, but there’s a method to the madness. As anyone with computer hardware experience knows, solder joints sometimes crack over time, cutting the connections between electronic components and causing hardware failure.

Expose those joints to constant heat, in an oven set to 200 to 275 degrees centigrade, and the lead will melt, clearing out any cracks and reconnecting the joints. After the card has seen enough baking, leave it to cool for a few hours, and it should be working once back in a computer.

At least, that’s the ideal. Advice to achieve optimum results includes not putting the card upside down in the oven, and keeping a watchful eye on the process. Melting solder joints increases the chance of gravity acting on the card chips, causing them to fall off, while it’s possible to melt the lead too much, leaving unstable connections that may cause short circuits. Oh and of course, don’t try this on a perfectly functioning video card!

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