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8800GT r.i.p? 1st Gen Mac Pro Graphics Question

R

Ralion

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 23, 2009
16
0
Hello All

I have a 2006 Mac Pro 2.66. I purchased the 8800GT Upgrade Kit from Apple's Online Store in early 08 when it became available.

Several months ago I installed the 10.6.2 update, and upon restart I got to the Apple Icon and spinning progress wheel.. Then jagged horizontal lines. No further progress.

Now to my question. Is there anything I can do? Is it possible that a reflash could remedy this issue? I have read many threads regarding flashing newish ATI Cards for use with the MacPro. I would consider purchasing a new card for reflash purposes.. But If there is a way I can fix my current 8800GT, that would be awesome.

Thanks in advance for any help any of you can provide!
 
Wow, this seems crazy. But, what the hell. I'll post results...
 
Cindori said:
Bake it.


http://www.torquepowered.com/community/blogs/view/18161
Click to expand...

I second this.

You have literally NOTHING to lose and everything to gain.

Will make kitchen smell VERY BAD for a couple hours but with a FREE 8800GT to gain, why not?

I had a couple bum 8800GT cards I tried. I had a 50% success rate.

You will need to remove 12-14 screws on back and pop the fan off. Be carefull to unplug cable by hand, don't just yank fan away violently.

I read of it here:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1421792

I did the foil balls and baked (in preheated oven @ 380 F) for 8-9 minutes. Don't forget as another minute or two and the component starts falling off like rain.

Also be VERY careful and slow as you remove baking pan from oven. If cad rolls off the foil balls it will smear components across face of card, DOA for sure then.
 
Thanks for the tips, Rominator.

I will try it tonight hopefully. Results tomorrow.'

Fingers are crossed!
 
It worked.

I'm amazed. Posting from the 8800GT right now!

Thanks again guys for the tip. Saved me a lot of $$.

Thank you again.

Edit: around 380-390f (my oven isn't very exact, even with a thermometer) for about 8.5min did the trick!
I was worried at first because i couldn't visually tell if the solder was getting "liquid" enough or really what if anything i was supposed to notice. I just let it cool for a couple hours and brough it to my shop this morning and here we are! :)
 
HOLY CRAP! I always thought heat was bad for them. Wow. That's pretty amazing.
 
I've been stress testing all day.. aka WoW and SC2 Beta.. No issues. Here's to hoping that it will stay stable.
 
what the hell! this is crazy!

awesome! and congratulations!
kudos for trying ...i can't even think of trying it out...
 
This has just worked for me!!!!
Thanks for the info.
Can't believe it, fingers crossed it lasts.
 
WOW,
just wondering, how on earth that solution came about. Did someone just bake their 8800gt one day by chance?

Perhaps it was the end of someones tether
 
Anybody thought about the impacts on your health if baking this thing "smells" funny?

There's a reason you shouldn't dispose of electronics in the regular garbage bin; they contain very dangerous and toxic materials.
 
Just baked my own 8800 GT (replacement 4890 is somewhere floating on a freighter in the Pacific right now) and I'm happy to say it works excellently. I almost didn't believe it would. :)
 
Are we sure that this doesn't lead to the emission of toxic fumes?

E.g., carcinogens.
 
Graphics chips in IBM ThinkPads

An interesting thread.

I'd guess that the baking is simply to reflow the solder. (The joints
having failed electrically after successive thermal cycling of the board.)

This seems to be a similar problem to the graphics chips on the IBM Thinkpad T42 (and other)notebooks. Some enterprising people provide a service of doing professional IR reflowing which is probably a little safer!
(e.g. http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=73945)

Perhaps with carefull inspection and a soldering iron, a more directed repair could be done but it would be difficult since the components are all surface mount (I'd think - I don't have a card to look at).
 
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