# Oven Baking a 6870 - [Success!] (And more cards!)



## Mussels (Apr 29, 2015)

So my waifu was playing reign of kings on her reference 6870 when poof, black screen.


Sadly the card appears to be 90% dead - i get an image in the BIOS and the windows loading bar, but as soon as drivers load/changes to native res of the monitor i get a black screen and the system freezes (no sounds, etc)

I'm happy to oven bake it, but last time i tried this i kinda melted the card and had no success.

Please advise on what temperatures to use (IN CELCIUS), and for how long - and any neccesary steps (remove cooler etc)


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## RCoon (Apr 29, 2015)

Mussels said:


> So my waifu was playing reign of kings on her reference 6870 when poof, black screen.
> 
> 
> Sadly the card appears to be 90% dead - i get an image in the BIOS and the windows loading bar, but as soon as drivers load/changes to native res of the monitor i get a black screen and the system freezes (no sounds, etc)
> ...



@Toothless is our resident baker.

Advice, remove *everything* that isn't screwed down. Ideally you just want the PCB only, no soft plastics liable to melt. Put alluminium foil over any heat sensetive components (video inputs are plastic, need covering). Wipe off any TIM and thermal pads.

Temperature, 195C - 205C, 8-12 minutes. (Ideally 210-215, but don't do this unless you're relatively experienced)
Open the oven and allow the fumes to aerate out of the oven for 5 mins. Don't make any sudden movements (or a cap might fall off if you bump it). Allow the solder to harden up again *do not fan cool. 

EDIT: Solder solid to liquid temperatures*
Sn-3.5Ag                     219.1C
Sn-3.5Ag                     219.5C
Sn-3.5AG-0.7 nanoCu 215.0C
Sn-3.5Ag-3.0 nanoCu 213.6C


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## SKBARON (Apr 29, 2015)

Might I add: don't forget to clean the card of any thermal paste residue and remove any thermal pads and remove the support bracket.

Maybe you could post pictures of the process? It would bring back lots of nice memories


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## Toothless (Apr 29, 2015)

@RCoon has it down, but do skin and clean before baking or bad things will happen. 

Somehow I knew I'd be brought into this thread.


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## Mussels (Apr 29, 2015)

Toothless said:


> @RCoon has it down, but do skin and clean before baking or bad things will happen.
> 
> Somehow I knew I'd be brought into this thread.




skin and clean?


oh and one question: should i be pre-heating the oven, and then putting this in on a hot or cold tray?


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## Toothless (Apr 29, 2015)

Mussels said:


> skin and clean?


Heatsink, thermal pads, plastic, and clean the paste off.


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## Mussels (Apr 29, 2015)

Toothless said:


> Heatsink, thermal pads, plastic, and clean the paste off.



yep, too easy. i'll do it in a few hours as we're about to cook food in the oven, will take pics along the way.


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## RCoon (Apr 29, 2015)

Mussels said:


> skin and clean?
> 
> 
> oh and one question: should i be pre-heating the oven, and then putting this in on a hot or cold tray?



Cool tray, pre-heat the oven. put tray in (GPU die facing up, so solder is along the bottom face) after pre-heat is done, leave for 10-12 mins.


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## Frick (Apr 29, 2015)

Depending in if it's lots of plastic connectors on it and how they're located you can use rolled up thin metal foil to raise the card. Shouldn't be necessary on a GPU but comes in handy if you're doing a laptop motherboard.


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## dorsetknob (Apr 29, 2015)

card should be placed on oven tray so it sits level ......  in both planes   ie  level north /south   and level   east/west    you don't want solder flowing    just melting


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## Mussels (Apr 29, 2015)

Just in case she don't make it, heres the before pics


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## Ferrum Master (Apr 29, 2015)

actually you need soldering flux also....


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## Frick (Apr 29, 2015)

Good luck.


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## dorsetknob (Apr 29, 2015)

and if she Don't make it   this is how i imagine the conversation will go in your house hold

She "So its Still broken eh   Fat lot of good that Done"

He " I had to Try,  They Gave Good Advice"

She "So what now.  whats the use you being a moderator on that site if you can;t get a free video card    Does'nt   **** review graphic Cards   they Send him free Cards to Review"

He   "Hun   it dont work like that"  ( as he gets the sleeping bag sorted on the couch )


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## Iceni (Apr 29, 2015)

you shouldn't need flux, your re-wetting dry joints. All flux is going to do is cause your solder points to run.  Chances are they used a eutectic solder. Meaning it'll go solid to liquid at a very specific temp. then go back to solid again at a specific temp. It should not have the semi solid phase.

The European standard would be one of the Sn 95.x solders. The most common been Sn95.5Ag3.9Cu0.6 having a melting and hardening point of 217 Celsius (eutectic). The Asia standard is a little different and is 221 Celsius (eutectic).


Setting the oven to 225 and keeping an eye on it should yield good results you still need to go past the liquid point, but you only want it there for as short a time as possible, And you want the airflow over the board to be as even as possible. The reason you know it'll be a eutectic solder is because anything else will aid component slip on surface mounts, So they avoid it to increase yields.

Keep an eye on the board (clean your oven door). When the larger points go bright silver or start to deform slightly your cooked.


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## Jetster (Apr 29, 2015)

Use a heat gun. It works better. And flux if you have it. On the back of the chip. Heat until you see the silver shine


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## dorsetknob (Apr 29, 2015)

Not every one has a Heat gun   Most of us have Ovens  even single men (they may not know what they are for)


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## Toothless (Apr 29, 2015)

dorsetknob said:


> Not every one has a Heat gun   Most of us have Ovens  even single men (they may not know what they are for)


I can make a real mean roast for being a single man.


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## dorsetknob (Apr 29, 2015)

Toothless said:


> I can make a real mean roast for being a single man.



Being Able to Cook is a good thing 
That Bird you pull  if you impress her with your cooking  may result in you no longer being single 

@Jetster Try cooking a roast with a Heat gun


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## Ferrum Master (Apr 29, 2015)

Yes, yes... food


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## Jetster (Apr 29, 2015)

You should have a heat gun. $25. Its a vital tool for many projects. And it makes great grilled cheese


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## Ferrum Master (Apr 29, 2015)

Jetster said:


> You should have a heat gun. $25. Its a vital tool for many projects. And it makes great grilled cheese



Without underneath preheater that heat gun is useless killer tool, it will pop up the PCB layers. Heatgun can only be used with preheating.


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## RejZoR (Apr 29, 2015)

*Basic baking guide:*
https://rejzor.wordpress.com/2013/10/12/baking-computers/

I've successfully baked ACER laptop graphic card module. But essentially the same applies to everything else afaik.


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## Jetster (Apr 29, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> Without underneath preheater that heat gun is useless killer tool, it will pop up the PCB layers. Heatgun can only be used with preheating.


Done it a few time with sucuss. Never could get the oven method to work


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## Ferrum Master (Apr 29, 2015)

Jetster said:


> Done it a few time with sucuss. Never could get the oven method to work



Well as you see I also don't do oven method at home, just put the board over electrical heater for 15mins and take it off as soon the soldering iron melt. I am retarded enough to touch the GPU and poke it a bit too when it is all liquid. At work - Infrared preheater and hot air from above... otherwise the death ratio is way too high, the PCB pops if too much energy is applied in one point, it depends on the treated subject thou, but some boards are prone to burning.


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## Mussels (Apr 29, 2015)

i really should buy a heatgun one day.


frying up some chips while the oven preheats


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## Mussels (Apr 29, 2015)

this look good for being ready to bake?


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## SKBARON (Apr 29, 2015)

Mussels said:


> this look good for being ready to bake?



Yep, go for it! I love the smell of baked electronics in the afternoon


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## RCoon (Apr 29, 2015)

Mussels said:


> this look good for being ready to bake?



Keep your eye on it while it's in there. Your looking for the solder turning a shiny silver, that means it's melted and will reflow.


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## Mussels (Apr 29, 2015)

RCoon said:


> Keep your eye on it while it's in there. Your looking for the solder turning a shiny silver, that means it's melted and will reflow.




couldnt see anything like that, oven doors kinda dirty. had it at ~200C for 10 minutes, turned it off for another 10 min, now i've opened the door and letting it cool down. If this doesnt work i'll just try again at 210C


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## Toothless (Apr 29, 2015)

Get all the smells in while you can.


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## Folterknecht (Apr 29, 2015)

Be cautious - your girl might get strange ideas with you staying longer periods in the kitchen ... .


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## Devon68 (Apr 29, 2015)

How long should he wait before putting it back together and back into the rig?


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## Mussels (Apr 29, 2015)

success bitches 
it smelled rather bad, but its worked and booted succesfully.


as for temps, i just waited til i could touch it. temp probe said around  35C, it gets a lot hotter than that while running so i knew it'd be fine to move around.


i'll stress test it for a bit i guess, but its looking good.


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## RCoon (Apr 29, 2015)

Mussels said:


> success bitches
> it smelled rather bad, but its worked and booted succesfully.
> 
> 
> ...



I've baked about 10 cards that way, and it only succeeded on one lonely 9800GTX. Glad it worked first time for you!


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## Mussels (Apr 29, 2015)

technically its second time, as the first was an 8800GTX that failed horrible - plastic melted and the card was still dead.


I believe its all about what failed in the first place - because i still had an image on screen with this one, i had much higher hopes.


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## dorsetknob (Apr 29, 2015)

Mussels said:


> success bitches
> it smelled rather bad, but its worked and booted succesfully.
> 
> 
> ...




@Mussels, So   its not the Sofa/couch for you tonight then


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## SKBARON (Apr 29, 2015)

Good to know it worked! I've revived my old 4870 3 times in a row by baking it before it finally went up in flames (the vrm put out a fantastic display of fireworks while I was powering up the system).


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## GorbazTheDragon (Apr 29, 2015)

Pretteh naiz

I wonder how that affects the life span of the caps


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## dorsetknob (Apr 29, 2015)

GorbazTheDragon said:


> I wonder how that affects the life span of the caps



The Card Died !
The card was brought back from the Dead  

How long does a Zombie body last before it rots away ?


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## GorbazTheDragon (Apr 29, 2015)

Well who knows, maybe in 100h the caps blow -_-

And BTW, was more like the card got rlly sick, then he kinda fried it and its fixed OuO


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## Iceni (Apr 30, 2015)

GorbazTheDragon said:


> I wonder how that affects the life span of the caps



That would depend on the caps and how long they were heated for and how the board was soldered. Wave soldering is used where you have holes through the board like on a motherboard. Reflow soldering is used where you have surface mounts. Although those rules are not strictly true its best to think of them as not been interchangeable.

Wave soldering, You put the board on the track pre made but not soldered, It then fluxes the bottom of the PCB, Heats the board and all the components to a high temp. Then the board passes over a wave of solder.

Reflow soldering is actually just an oven. All components are made with either solder already on them, the ability to add solder balls and blocks or a paste of powdered solder and flux. The board is slow heated to a temp near the melting point of the solder, then flash heated to push the solder to liquid quickly. Typically when using this method the PCB will only be heated for a couple of minutes and the time over liquid will be short 3 seconds. It's a precision solder operation designed to meet high yields and low failure rates

Both styles will mean the caps get hot. They will go over the melting point of the solder for a few seconds in both cases as soldering doesn't work on cold components.


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## OneMoar (May 7, 2015)




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## Mussels (May 7, 2015)

Card is working just peachy in a crossfire setup in my secondary PC, highly entertained me that in heaven DX11 (default settings) it managed to match the performance of my primary system almost perfectly.


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## Folterknecht (May 7, 2015)

Today my faulty GTX570 Windforce went into the oven. Seems to work again


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## Mussels (May 24, 2015)

going to try this with an android HDMI dongle that has died suddenly - already ordered a replacement, so no loss if it fails.

Dongle died after a netflix binge (overheated?), rebooted and gets stuck at the splash screen (which is animated and loops forever) so i figured this might give it a chance at repair.


edit: this one was a bust, zero change.


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## Aquinus (May 24, 2015)

Are all of the temps on your 6870 good? I know that mine acts super strange when paste starts drying up and temps start rising. I also had to replace one of the fans on my non-reference 6870 because it had seized up and once again, behaved super weird when temps on one side of the GPU started going up.


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## R-T-B (May 26, 2015)

RCoon said:


> Cool tray, pre-heat the oven. put tray in (GPU die facing up, so solder is along the bottom face) after pre-heat is done, leave for 10-12 mins.



Then serve?


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## Cvrk (May 26, 2015)

What does this baking do ? And when one should use it ? I had a x1990 once that had lines on screen when in a 3d application like this 





If i bake it will it be good again ?


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## Mussels (May 26, 2015)

Cvrk said:


> What does this baking do ? And when one should use it ? I had a x1990 once that had lines on screen when in a 3d application like this
> 
> 
> If i bake it will it be good again ?



possibly, yes. solder can dry out on the cards and especially with heavy ones as they bend and flex over time, the solder eventually breaks. Heating the cards to the point the solder melts but before the rest burns to a crisp can potentially repair cards.


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## OneMoar (May 26, 2015)

if it boots its probably not a hardware problem might just need to be re-flashed heat affects the NAND more then anything


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## Mussels (Feb 16, 2016)

just followed this thread again to recover a dead 5870 1GB. Worked fine


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## SnakeDoctor (Feb 16, 2016)

My 560 lasted about 3-4 months after baking, had to rebake again a month ago increase the oven temp 10c . Seem to be running fine for now 

Upgrade time is due


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## Mussels (Oct 9, 2016)

time to try again with a 5870 and 6850 

5870 was black screening in games, 6850 green artifacting in BIOS


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## Toothless (Oct 9, 2016)

I smell smoke.


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## Recon-UK (Oct 9, 2016)

Oh nice!

I like to see this stuff lol, anyone oven baked a Fermi GPU?


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## Mussels (Oct 9, 2016)

the smoke was due to laziness and not cleaning the tray, you can ignore that.

They're cooling down now, we'll see how they go in about 15 minutes. One catch is that the 6850's fans have a severe rattle, so even if the baking fixed it, thats only part 1.


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## Mussels (Oct 9, 2016)

no luck - the 5870 is still blanking out (even before hte OS now) and the 6850 still has green artifacts (at least it reaches windows now)


Oh well, cant fix em every time.


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## Countryside (Oct 9, 2016)

Mussels said:


> no luck - the 5870 is still blanking out (even before hte OS now) and the 6850 still has green artifacts (at least it reaches windows now)
> 
> 
> Oh well, cant fix em every time.



How much was your baking temperature


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## Mussels (Oct 9, 2016)

Countryside said:


> How much was your baking temperature



about 215-220C, hard to tell with an analogue dial. slightly hotter than i've succesfully used in the past since my first attempt on this 5870 did not work either.


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## Countryside (Oct 9, 2016)

Mussels said:


> about 215-220C, hard to tell with an analogue dial. slightly hotter than i've succesfully used in the past since my first attempt on this 5870 did not work either.



And yeah forgot to ask for how many minutes ?


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## Mussels (Oct 9, 2016)

Countryside said:


> And yeah forgot to ask for how many minutes ?




12 minutes, then heat+ fan off to let it simmer in the residual heat for a while.

to cheer you up from the GPU fails, heres what i did next: a GT240 with an accelero S1











57C load, totally passive in an open air test bench


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## Mussels (Dec 5, 2016)

about to attempt this on an EVGA 670 2GB that works perfectly with no drivers installed, but BSOD's or reboots the system once they're installed


taking pics, i'll upload when its all done. Interestingly, this card looked full size at first glance - but its downright tiny once disassembled.


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## Toothless (Dec 5, 2016)

Mussels said:


> about to attempt this on an EVGA 670 2GB that works perfectly with no drivers installed, but BSOD's or reboots the system once they're installed
> 
> 
> taking pics, i'll upload when its all done. Interestingly, this card looked full size at first glance - but its downright tiny once disassembled.


I must see the after pics.


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## Mussels (Dec 5, 2016)

Toothless said:


> I must see the after pics.



the during pics will be the exciting ones, as i cant be stuffed re-attaching the shroud and stuff to see if it worked, it'll be ghettod up with a 120mm fan during testing


edit: hah it worked! i'm running heaven on the card now, previously i couldnt even get the desktop stable with drivers installed. pics will be uploaded shortly, once i reassemble the card.


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## Melvis (Dec 5, 2016)

I have used a heat gun on a 4870 1GB of mine and it works for a day of gaming then the next day it has to be reheated again for it to work again, might oven bake it one day and that might fix it for good.

Seems to be a trend with AMD cards here lol


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## Toothless (Dec 5, 2016)

I really really want one of your baked cards @Mussels


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## Mussels (Dec 5, 2016)

Size comparison between a windforce 2 (custom mussels fan solution) and EVGA 670 2GB. PCB difference is huge, then EVGA made the cooler shroud bigger to even them out for some unknown reason.













card works, what can i say?


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## peche (Dec 5, 2016)

i have a GTX 660 which is giving me hard time, dont supports drvier, i install the card on the PC without drivers and it its recognized by bios and shit, when i install drivers computer does not show any signal....or video


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## qubit (Dec 5, 2016)

It's weird, a lot of these cards seem to have failures which show up when the drivers are installed, or the resolution is turned up. I'd like to know why.


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## Ferrum Master (Dec 5, 2016)

qubit said:


> It's weird, a lot of these cards seem to have failures which show up when the drivers are installed, or the resolution is turned up. I'd like to know why.



Because HW acceleration kicks in. Thus triggering to use internal card resources - VRAM and all compute/controller blocks at the supposed P state.


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## peche (Dec 5, 2016)

well, should i bake that 660?


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## Mussels (Dec 5, 2016)

peche said:


> well, should i bake that 660?



yes. use the instructions on page 1 of this thread - 210-215C, 12 minutes.

All removable parts removed, all plastic parts covered in foil. take pictures.


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## peche (Dec 5, 2016)

Mussels said:


> yes. use the instructions on page 1 of this thread - 210-215C, 12 minutes.
> 
> All removable parts removed, all plastic parts covered in foil. take pictures.


well gotta recognize that im afraid to fry my card lol...


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## Mussels (Dec 5, 2016)

peche said:


> well gotta recognize that im afraid to fry my card lol...



if you're considering baking, its because the cards already unusable.


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## peche (Dec 5, 2016)

Mussels said:


> if you're considering baking, its because the cards already unusable.


agreed, the card has problems when installing drivers, so dunno what the h*ll its happening with it... i have an small electric oven dunno if it works 

Regards,


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## Vario (Dec 7, 2016)

but how does it taste?


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## Mussels (Dec 7, 2016)

Vario said:


> but how does it taste?



smelled pretty nice, probably gave myself brain damage.

670 has been handling desktop idle, heaven benchmarks and sleep mode for the last few days... seems fixed.


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## m&m's (Jan 9, 2017)

I oven backed my 6870 3 times already, it lasted 1 year the first time then 8 months and then 8 months again. It started to act weirdly once more about a month ago, decided to "repair" it today but this time I used a heat gun (without flux) aiming the die and doing circles around it for 5 minutes, don't know if it'll last longer. I guess I'll see.


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## SnakeDoctor (Jan 9, 2017)

m&m's said:


> I oven backed my 6870 3 times already, it lasted 1 year the first time then 8 months and then 8 months again. It started to act weirdly once more about a month ago, decided to "repair" it today but this time I used a heat gun (without flux) aiming the die and doing circles around it for 5 minutes, don't know if it'll last longer. I guess I'll see.



On my first bake card lasted about 3-4months,next bake about 2months then 1 month .Slowly degrades it seems .... bake 10 times btw  but think I've given up now upgrade.
Baked a friends gtx780 yesterday aswell,now will have to see how long it lasts


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