Well, if it's like that, then sure. It's a waste of time/money to do it just to have a working card. But if you're really interested in learning, it's a good project.
Don't forget the hot air blower! So helpful for removing components and dropping in all sorts of things. Half of the time the soldering iron is secondary to actually making the joint. It's more used to apply or remove solder from/on the pads, and for cleaning up joints. For what you're going to do, you're going to be using the hot air blower a lot to actually get stuff onto the board. You can use just an iron or a pen in a pinch or when working near heat-sensitive components (such as the GPU, or a chip that you don't want to have slide off,) but generally it is not optional. You'll pull your hair out trying to go without one.
It's hit or miss, but the manufacturer may just have schematics for you. It'll be easier than hoping that 3rd party ones have been made. I couldn't begin to tell you where to look for those. Somebody here might know. But if not you may have to wait a little while and sometimes getting to the right people is a pain, but tracking down a manufacturer schematic a good starting point. 9 times out of 10 there's somebody over there who can get you one. Those schematics and part sheets save a lot of time. This might save you from sniffing out and buying a donor card, which is probably gonna be a waiting game. If you know what all the components are on the board, you can just buy them yourself from one of the many vendors out there and follow the schematic. It's just... man, having a donor makes life so, so much easier. That's the ideal.
I have no experience with GPU's, so I honestly can't tell you where to start. Of course you'll have to replace the obviously damaged stuff, but going forward from there I can't tell you what's likely to be bad if that doesn't fix it. A good starting point is to take your diagram and follow the power rails from point to point, checking for resistance/continuity. Since you have a PC to drop it in, you can also put power to it and check to make sure the voltages are right from point to point. A lot of times that's the only way to diagnose an issue. As you go along, that'll tell you what else needs replacing or if a trace is damaged somewhere. If they're not matching the voltage specified for that rail, something is wrong on that circuit. Look at the circuit on the diagram and try to narrow it down from there. When I was repairing iphones, that's how I learned how everything worked to a point where I could just kinda look and know it's gonna be one of a few things with minimal probing. It's not rocket science, it's just tedious to have to probe everything when it's most likely to be one or two specific things. If you can do 2+2 you can do it - that's the level of logic to it, it's just... ...how many times do you wanna solve that same equation before you give up, you know?
I mean, it gets more complicated than that sometimes... ...components along the way are going to change the power moving down the line, and sometimes you're going to need to know how it should be behaving. THAT stuff is going to take research - you will likely have to ask people as it's not stuff you can sum up and take in over the course of one repair. It's helpful to know how all of the common components work. I would start with the main circuits and make sure everything is getting power before going down to that level. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. That will be very hard to just jump into doing.
I could give you a lot of tips on technique and things like that, but there's a guy on youtube who does it better than I could in one post... ...I don't know if you've heard of him but there's a guy called Louis Rossmann who does a ton of board repair videos. He does apple laptops but a lot of the techniques are the same. The general process/approach is the same. He's very good at what he does, and has over 1000 unedited videos of him working on this stuff where he breaks down everything he's doing and why. You'll learn a lot about how to troubleshoot circuits and trace the logic back. And along the way, you'll get to see all of the techniques you'll need to learn to fix what you need to fix. He even breaks down equipment that's in reach and sort of just what to look for in a few videos. Good stuff. He's one of the few people out there teaching real, like serious nitty gritty board repair. I think you'll find it interesting if you have a mind for this stuff.
All I can really say is good luck man, hope you find what you're looking for. Ime repairing stuff like this can be fun, but it can also be plain torture. Be patient, take your time. If you're stuck, stop and research more. The answer is always there somewhere. But sometimes the answer is "This circuit will never work." There are some things you can't just "figure out" even knowing what the components are doing. Also, don't ever do this kind of work to make money. Even if you like doing it. Trust me
Again, thank you.
Ebay as a dead/repair Sale ( no warranty/returns ).
