We Bought 6 Dead GPUs. Can We Fix Them?

[@joonglegamer9898]

Old repair technician chiming in, he said "make sure no one else have attempted to repair it". Those words right there - spot on! The worst repair cases I ever had is from incompetent repair attempts and you will NOT believe the stuff I've seen. I've seen attempts where people have literally FORCED their soldering iron right through a 7 layer PCB board (that's unrepairable right there) and the unit is destroyed forever. It almost always pays to purchase units that no one has attempted to repair before, but sadly - so many dishonest people just sell their failed repair attempts.

[@Noah-or5gr]

you got a website to send in gpu's? i have someone who needs help swapping vram from one "DEAD 1080ti" to another 1080ti that is dead but that one only has vram issues the other 1080ti has a hole blown in the pcb about 4 layers down making it parts

[@genericscottishchannel1603]

That's just fucking abuse at that point

[@David_Quinn1995]

that's always my worst fear and I will say I never soldered electronics so I usually get a friend to do it who has I realy need to teach my self so I don't have to pay someone else to do a 30 second job

[@bingus7361]

someone put in all the screws on the magnet in an iPhone 6 I took apart for a broken screen, guess that was their little screw storage

[@xorinzor]

"so many dishonest people just sell their failed repair attempts." - To be honest, all of these cards are listed as "not working" or "for parts". So the seller never claimed it was working 🤷‍♂ It sucks if you do want to try and repair it, but yea.. that's the risk I guess.

[@polky4302]

The fact that a broken rx 580 in these days is more expensive than the one i bought used 3 years ago is nuts

[@gramathy999]

I bought a used vega 64 two years ago to replace a no-longer-compatible 980 for my hackintosh and sold it for twice what I paid a year after that when I managed to buy a 3080 for a new build.

[@mobrocket]

I was thinking the same. It's insane.

[@karoltofik8873]

GTX 970 cards go for $150 used, not $300. $300 buys you a used GTX 1080

[@F1reMaker1]

@@karoltofik8873 true or a new 3050

[@M33f3r]

@@gramathy999 where are you able to get used parts without being ripped off.

[@Phosphor66]

I like how Linus warned nearly every intel tech upgrade recipient that their PSU was a little underspecced, yet origin here is casually throwing in 850W for a 3080Ti and 12900K

[@Floydarn]

A true sleeper build 😪

[@windowsxpprofessional]

Faxx But I guess it ain't toooooo dangerous.

[@LegendaryFenrir]

Hard to imagine they couldn't manage a better one with that kind of budget Replaced 95% of my current build recently including psu and only spent $740 and it's a 1300watt

[@jake20479]

850w is enough for that spec of a build. its on the low side but in no way is it dangerous/sketchy.

[@xyzain_1827]

And they had problems too

[@mrz80]

"It's working but we've got no idea what we did..." Years ago, AT&T had an official resolution code for their techs, when we'd call in a line problem that just started working while they were troubleshooting: FWT = Foxtrot Whiskey Tango = Fixed While Testing :D

[@rrteppo]

I have a done this to a few computers. While testing to see what's wrong I accidently fix it, then have to go back and figure out what I did to fix it. The silliest is when you unplug and plug something back in and it magically works again. I have done it with routers, ethernet ports, internal laptop monitors, RAM, graphics cards, TV's, once a car.

[@Deetozine]

@@rrteppo I don't think that's silly at all - Remember that unplugging and plugging it back in loads every setting back to it's starting point. There are SO MANY ways that bits and stuff can be flipped unintentionally which stops the system from working.

[@embersaffron5522]

@@rrteppo explain the car

[@fractalmadness9253]

Dirty contacts on the car battery? Removing and replacing them is usually enough to clean them.

[@uzetaab]

​@@embersaffron5522 Computer chips have been common in cars for like 30 years. Aside from that, plenty of engine parts could be "fixed" after a restart because they pressurise and seal better. Especially if the engine has had a chance to cool.

[@SirUncleDolan]

"I just bought 7 dead gpus for _only_ $1700" Sir you and i are still on very different playing fields

[@aefilmsweddings]

I was gonna say, imagine paying $400 for a GPU that the seller says isn't working. Actually imagine selling a GPU that you think is broken and expecting $400.

[@lakimens]

The GPU marked is totally fucked, even dead GPUs are selling for a premium

[@ichigokurosaki7762]

@@aefilmsweddings yeah I noticed that, dude got scammed hard.

[@whitepaws60]

@@aefilmsweddings Well clearly someone got 400 for the totally dead one lol

[@tiarkrezar]

Lol, they're basically selling for the same amount or more that they'd be worth new in a reasonable market.

[@mihalis1010]

I worked at a computer repair store for awhile, and it seems that the "dead" electronics people brought in were almost always split into two categories: Not really dead and power-cycling brought it back, and so dead that we didn't have the time, budget, or equipment to fix it. I didn't really get any satisfaction out of either category.

[@sqlevolicious]

"we didn't have the time, budget, or equipment to fix it.", what kind of "computer repair" store were you then? Geeksquad? lmfao.

[@pascals5408]

Wow then you worked in a teribble store

[@KR4FTW3RK]

@@sqlevolicious There's two approaches to making money fixing dead electronics... either you charge a flat rate or you charge per hour... either way you gotta get shit done fast. If you take too long attempting to fix stuff, the company loses money. Fixing something like a dead GPU could take a day or more and no customer would pay that bill.

[@mihalis1010]

@Will actually KR4FT had it right. We charged both fixed and hourly rates depending on the job. The issue is that most customers didn't feel like paying $200 for parts and materials to fix a bad memory controller on a 6 year old laptop that sold for $700 new when they could buy a comparable new laptop for $300. I live and worked in Sweden, so taxes make any service like computer repair expensive while buying new stuff is only slightly more expensive. Of course, if it was a new and expensive electronic, we were certified to make quotes for people's insurance companies. The insurance companies write off electronics 7 out of 10 times. We didn't get to genuinely fix things often.

[@Phantogram2]

@@sqlevolicious You pay technicians around $20 per hour, sometimes it takes hours to fix a GPU, and the advanced repair stuff costs stupidly much (that microscope linus has is already few grand). Still don't see a flaw in your logic lmfao?

[@mickabrig7]

PSA : When trying to find shorts on either Vcore or Vmem, never ever use continuity tests ! You'll get beeps even on a 100% working card because the loads are so small (a couple ohms maximum). You should use normal resistance measurement and make sure that you get a "true" ~0 ohm reading

[@englandrasmussen3111]

This is true because there are 0ohm resistors xD

[@youkofoxy]

I recommend using Ohms law. to read truly low values the best is a 4 wire meter, also there the option of just using a external power supply and applying Ohms law again.

[@crussell1991]

Diode test is the fastest way to find shorts.

[@NFStopsnuf]

Actually differentially pumped thermocouples are the way to go

[@penguinswithdynamite]

Even when the card is off? I've never encountered a device that had transistors that have a closed circuit from V+ to gnd when the device is unpowered

[@abcdef20]

My job involves testing very sensitive electronics. When using a DMM in auto-range mode (for resistance or continuity mode), the DMM can actually put out quite a lot of voltage that can easily damage parts not rated for that voltage. When the DMM is set to a low resistance range, the output voltage could be sometimes as high as 9V. With modern chips using core voltages as low as 1.2V, 9V is way too high and can easily kill the chip. When the DMM is set to a high resistance range, the voltage will be much lower and will be at a safer level. When set to auto-range, which is the default setting, you really don't know what you'll be getting as the output voltage. If you don't know how much open circuit voltage your DMM has and you need to check for a short, it's recommended to set the DMM to the highest resistance range and use resistance mode. When in a high resistance range (like 1M or 3M), a short will read 0 and a non-short will read at the low end of that range like 1M. The beeping continuity mode on a DMM will likely put out max voltage so its not recommended to use. On many DMMs, the diode mode and beeping continuity mode are the same so only use it if you are checking for whether a diode is in series has the right voltage drop or if you are checking continuity on some passive wire. One thing you can do is check the open circuit voltage of your DMM to see if it's safe enough for general use without having to set the range first. We use really old Fluke 77 DMMs because they haven't low voltage.

[@rodrigoacosta9708]

I'm no expert in electronics but I always liked it, I repaired a couple of things and always asked myself that, when using continuity you are putting voltage in the components... if things are delicate or too sensitive you could damage them 🤔

[@j.yossarian6852]

How do you check the open circuit voltage?

[@abcdef20]

@@j.yossarian6852 use a second DMM to measure voltage between the positive and negative probes while in continuity mode and in the various resistance ranges and for autorange as well.

[@man_eating_monkey]

The DMM acts as a constant current source (typically around 1 mA) in resistance and continuity/diode modes. If you are measuring something low resistance then the voltage across your test points will be of proportionally low value, as V = IR. E.g. if your CPU resistance is 1 ohm then the voltage across it will only be 1 mV. If you don't have a load connected and try to use a second multimeter to measure the voltage across the probes of your DMM, then you effectively have an infinite resistance that your DMM is trying to drive at 1 mA. However, your DMM is only powered by a 9V battery, so that is the maximum it is able to supply. This reading is thus irrelevant. What you should be doing is setting your second multimeter to current mode, and you will see how much power (as a fixed current) your DMM is really outputting.

[@jeccdog7584]

@@rodrigoacosta9708 this isn't about you rodrigo, why do you have to make everything about yourself?

[@kmikkelsen]

Love this calm competent approach. Doing some "can we fix" themed episodes would be great. Aware hardware gets harder and harder to fix but what is worth giving a go instead of default to throw out out and replace.

[@cheeseburgerbeefcake]

I'd recommend watching NorthridgeFix, TronicsFix or one of the other for-profit repair shop channels if you want that kind of content, the LTT team don't have the same level of tools/spares/expertise as a dedicated repair shop.

[@tonycstech]

Competence does not mean a thing. He has no clue how to fix a video card.

[@tonycstech]

@@cheeseburgerbeefcake I'd recommend not. Northridge fix is good to do 5 minute repairs. Video cards usually take an hour at least even if repair is small. Most of the time you spend hours.

[@Kastigador19]

@@tonycstech Why do you say that? Who does on KZbin? Would like to learn just out of sheer curiosity of learning how these things die(it's not worth my limited free time to spend repairing these cards).

[@PaddockRadio]

@@cheeseburgerbeefcake that's kinda why I prefer watching here. I'm not a pro, neither are these guys. I feel like I could actually do it if they can.

[@cjkellner]

7:34 you gotta be careful of this... don't clean a card right away. Take note of all the spots with corrosion and look at them in depth before cleaning. they can be a good hint as to where the issue may be.

[@aythrea]

RE: Jono's issue. Had the same problem with a monitor falling off. Replacing the HDMI cables addressed it.

[@nemesis1588]

Was going to say, it sounded to me like a cable problem.

[@Sam-xu5nv]

He should bring in the cable to get it tested on site!

[@ayuchanayuko]

Having an AC cable intersecting or near the HDMI can also cause problems.

[@bonnome2]

I had the same problem with a displayport, I changed the cable and it fixed it

[@Codeidem]

I currently have this issue myself and can't pinpoint it. Sent my Strix 2070S in for repair after it's been doing this intermittently and it really pissed me off playing Elden Ring. The tech found no issues and I got it back yesterday feeling a bit mad. I bought new DP and HDMI cables, ones that passed the Cable tester video LTT did. They didn't fix it. I have a 750w Corsair PSU and thought maybe it wasn't enough? But I put a 1660Ti in and it had the same issues. I have a lot of plugs in my power bar so I split them between two bars, I'm currently testing this to see if this is the issue, just one power bar can't hold all of my devices at once. Anyone else have any ideas?

[@zollypop1706]

$400 for a damaged 1080ti is WILD 😅 I know the videos 8 months old but sheesh

[@gus29361]

Yeah man, looming online now used 1080s run like $300

[@gus29361]

Working ones

[@Bossfightmedia]

@@Kyomara1337 Thanks for the heads up! I actually checked that and you are completely correct. 👌 Thats super handy

[@desaturatedair]

holy shit that is just unreasonable pricing, you could get a brand new 6650 xt for 3/4ths of that price and wayy more performance like, wtf

[@Kyomara1337]

@@desaturatedair in what dream world are you living where a 6650 xt has way more performance than a 1080 ti? and the cheapest 6650 xt that I can find is 320€, you know prices aren't the same everywhere in the world, right?

[@McTroyd]

Would love to see more "Can We Fix...?"-type videos. With component prices all over the map, logistics shutting down every other month, and other... uh... geopolitical issues, this could really save someone's bacon. Odds aren't great -- it is eBay, and the parts are explicitly listed as broken. Still, you'll miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Also, even a bad board might be worth something to the would-be repairer, for practicing more advanced soldering techniques (like hot air reflow). It's not like you'll break it _more,_ right? 👍️

[@diynevala]

TronicsFix is the channel for you! :)

[@kalimaa999]

There's a dude called Bob who has a "Can we fix it" show, might be up your alley if you enjoyed this

[@diynevala]

@@kalimaa999 Must be a some kind of Builder ?

[@JayMaverick]

"It's not like you'll break it more" ah, stranger on the internet, you give me way too much credit. =P

[@dedelabinouze5110]

Man a "Can we fix" GPU vid and they declared dead any card that needed soldering work done. That was just a "Clean it and see if it works" vid

[@sushiinyourface293]

It’s still mind-boggling to me what has happened to the GPU market. Their broken RX580 cost them $150, meanwhile I spent $120 for my (perfectly fine) one a couple years ago

[@moe4b]

I bought a new one in 2019 for 150$, sheesh

[@chillhour6155]

Yeah same and I got a couple of free games to boot

[@truereaper4572]

I sold my old rx580 4gb for $285 a few months ago, it's awful lol

[@Phantogram2]

I bought used GTX 1080Ti for $300 just before the prices went to the moon.

[@hydrocarbon82]

I know, I bought my 970 years back for $50 LESS than I sold it for last summer. Then again the 3080 I replaced it with has already paid for itself...

[@buraburee]

2:38 The hardest failure to diagnose is 'intermittent' failure! If you fail to pinpoint the problem and decide to 'look around' and test components, you may end up bricking the whole thing. Most intermittent failures are faulty boards: cracked or semi fried... I always avoid touching those

[@beyondwhatisknown]

The only thing worse than an intermittent repair is an intermittent intermittent repair. Quote from President of Lear Jet.

[@echoo200]

Not really Intermittent failure, just Cascading failure. That's when you replace something that is shorted and failing to check another that is also shorted and just powering the whole thing up causing other parts and *adding more shorted ICs . Just pray those ICs and MOSFETs could hold more than the voltage that was incorrectly injected into the board. What a mess

[@jacksonlawson1025]

What’s funny about the sticker thing is they did a whole video about how to take those kind of stickers off and put them back on without the manufacturers being able to notice and deny a warranty

[@DarkAttack14]

In the US they cannot deny a warranty based off a voided warranty sticker funny enough, not sure if that applies in any other countries

[@Kazyek]

5:20 one thing to note is opening up netflix or any other service using HDCP will temporarly black out your screen as the protocol change, and some monitors might just have trouble with HDCP too

[@itsTyrion]

The weird thing: I don’t have that. My screen doesn’t even flicker and I could record Netflix with OBS

[@ohead07]

Agreed. It could also just be a crappy cable also. I see it with cable boxes and blu-ray players all the time.

[@oldfrend]

i have literally never seen my screen flicker when watching any video streams and i have 4 or more streaming services depending on what 's available.

[@ohead07]

@@oldfrend I understand what you mean. "If it doesn't happen to me, it doesn't exist".

[@nobody7817]

@@ohead07 I don't think a cable would cause a one time black out that could be re-created 100% of the time by a single event. This sounds more like a hardware / firmware / software issue. Maybe the drivers need updating, maybe the Monitor is too old, who knows. But if it were a cable issue, I believe that it would be noticed at other intervals as well.

[@TheAtariSan]

The first GPU seem to me like a Power Supply issue, by experience having the same issue before and knowing someone who had the same issue too, both of our PSU ended up dying.

[@PNWAffliction]

bingo 100%, that happened to me, and it was absolutely the PSU. The way it was explained to me, is that a PSU's rating goes down a tiny bit every year, so a 5 year old PSU and it wasn't cranking out the power it used to. New, higher rated PSU and zero issues.

[@raspberrypi4993]

My screen sometimes looses signal on 5m DP cable. More often with HDR or gsync turned on. Shorter cable is fine. GPU is gtx1070 on gsync compatible screen. Had no problem with old driver

[@shadowlord0162]

@@raspberrypi4993 i had that happen with my old 400w psu which died around a month ago. now that i have an 850w psu my monitor stopped randomly disconnecting. idk if those are related by any means but yeah.

[@patrickjeromeobaldo2450]

THIS. PC is all good just browsing the web, and non graphics intensive work. Monitor would just turn black after a few hours of playing, and still have game sounds. I ended up checking bios just to see if I messed up anything, and noticed that the 12 volt rail was reporting 11.4 volts! Replaced the PSU, and all is well. I'm pretty sure Seasonic is a reputable brand, and I just got unlucky with my unit.

[@ripleyhrgiger4669]

I had a PSU POP on me before and it scared living shit out of me. Thankfully my mobo and components attached to it were safe.

[@Secret_Takodachi]

Gotta love this 20 minute demonstration of how fixing broken tech is basically a D&D "skill check" where you roll a d20 and you can succeed or fail purely based on chance because at some point logic no longer seems to factor into the problem solving equation lol

[@Gift0r]

From Analysis I logics chart: "you cannot deduct anything from a false statmement" In the same way, you cannot expect consistent behavior from broken hardware.

[@st0nedpenguin]

If you watch actual repair technicians it's an entirely different world because they actually know what they're doing unlike Alex.

[@phyro4143]

​@@st0nedpenguin Yes, as someone who repairs graphics cards for a living this video was painful to watch.

[@yuikonnu5079]

@@phyro4143 I watched a lot of GPU repair from real technicians and and expecting till in the middle of the video "Where's the tools for soldering ? Are they gonna just check and see whether it's turning on or not or what?"

[@Myjacob99]

Imagine $400 for a dead gpu

[@zupergut3015]

Can't,never owned that much money

[@mfrfpv9079]

@@Myjacob99 giving back to the community

[@lee-on6920]

A short on the 12V input is actually one of the most fixable faults, most of the time a dead mosfet and a good chance the gpu itself survived.

[@firesurfer]

@Projit Well... considering you're a bot and don't exist. I'd say you're irrelevant.

[@itsTyrion]

@@firesurfer don’t interact with bots, might boost them or smth

[@firesurfer]

@@itsTyrion The good that is done by warning people this was a bot overrides any minor boost.

[@only_the_truth_]

@@firesurfer But the bot is right....

[@firesurfer]

@@only_the_truth_ Bot is dead.

[@bogosbinted896]

the thermal pads evga used for the "fix" for the FTW cards of 1070 and 1080 really seemed to leak grease stuff from the pads EVERYWHERE on the cards. I dont think something was spilled in that card. I recently replaced the thermal pads in my 1070 ftw and had the sticky stuff on it as well. It really let dust stick to it.

[@AoiRozlin]

I was just coming to comment something similar. I recently re-thermal pasted my EVGA GTX 960 and it's never had anything spilled on it but those thermal pads they use have some crazy fluid that seeps out of them over time.

[@fortayseven]

I have the exact same EVGA GTX 1080 and can confirm it's from the thermal pads, not from spilling.

[@Fusion05]

1060 zotac mini had a similar issue

[@indianboy0453]

Wanted to say that too. Buddy graciously gave me his EVGA Gtx 1070 SC and when I changed the thermal paste, I recalled the gpu being coated in an oily substance. Same with backplate and mid frame. Thermal pads were some greasy bois

[@ctskifreaks]

I had the same card and did the step up/swap to the FTW2 - I did do the thermal pad fix first

[@gsuberland]

The PCI-e differential pair length matching requirement you mentioned isn't as tight as you think. For Gen3 PEX you've got a 20-80 rise/fall time margin of 19ps (i.e. on a transition the the signal must go from a 20% voltage level to 80% voltage level, or vice versa, within 19ps), which means a timing skew budget of +/-9.5ps. On FR4 dielectric that means you're looking at about a +/-1.7mm length skew budget before you go out of spec. Keep in mind, though, that "out of spec" doesn't mean "not working". If you blow that budget by an additional 50% you might still get a perfectly functional card. Bodge wires should be fine here if you're careful about length and keep it close to the surface, so it's 100% worth an attempted fix. One thing to consider is that timing skew isn't just about length. The amount of timing skew in the transmission line is proportional to the impedance of that line, which is proportional to the distance AND the dielectric constant. When you've got an impedance-controlled PCB, the dielectric constant can be considered (unsurprisingly) a constant, which means (with careful design) the impedance of your traces, and therefore propagation delay through them, is largely just a product of length. I'm glossing over some details like fibre weave effects, copper roughness, etc., but the main thing here is that the trace is a fixed distance away from the ground plane, with a known material (the FR4 fiberglass) between the trace and the plane. Why am I bringing all of this up? Because timing skew arises from a mismatch in impedance, and impedance is affected by the dielectric constant, and the dielectric constant is affected by the trace's distance from the ground plane and the materials that are in the way. (Side note: one thing that a lot of people get wrong here is that the distance between the two traces of a differential pair DOES NOT matter anywhere near as much as you think it might on a PCB. In a twisted wire pair the cross-coupling of the fields between two sides of a differential pair is very important, but on a PCB those two traces aren't twisted together, so the majority of the field energy is between the traces and ground plane. The two traces act much more like single-ended signals, with a small amount of cross-coupling of the fields, than proper differential signals in a twisted wire pair. The signalling also isn't truly differential in most cases with protocols like PEX, LVDS, DDR, etc. - TL;DR the lengths of the two traces must be pretty closely matched, but a consistent distance between the two traces in the differential pair is far less critical.) When you lift a high frequency signal away from the PCB surface, through a bodge wire, you alter the impedance of that trace in a way that isn't just proportional to distance. As such the length skew isn't the only factor to consider. Lifting the trace into a bodge wire also creates an impedance _discontinuity_ (i.e. an abrupt change in impedance), which causes signal reflections that can reduce the quality of the signal and close the eye diagram. These may be small effects or large effects depending on a whole bunch of factors. It _may_ be a problem. It _may_ not be a problem. For a short distance like this, my intuition is that the discontinuity might be fine on Gen3 - if it were Gen4 PEX I'd be much more concerned. One of the main sources of impedance mismatch will come from the repaired trace no longer being closely referenced to the underlying reference (ground) plane, since it's now a floating wire. So, if you want to get real fancy, you can scratch a bit of the soldermask off next to the locations where a bodge wire is going to/from, then solder a second piece of enamelled wire to those exposed ground points and wrap it around the bodge wire (or rather wrap them both around each other like a helix), forming a twisted wire pair where one side carries the signal and the other is referenced to ground. This ensures that the return currents for the lifted trace remain in the ground plane, that you get excellent common mode noise rejection, and that the fields stay tightly coupled rather than spreading out and causing radiated EMI problems and cross-coupling. It'll also serve to slightly curb the problems caused by the impedance discontinuity. This might not be required but it's a good option to have in the toolkit. I know I braindumped a bunch here and it's a bit of a daunting topic, so if any of you at LTT want to chat more about this stuff you can drop me a DM on Twitter (gsuberland) or IRC (same handle, Libera network) and I'd be more than happy to talk through this stuff and clarify anything that's unclear :)

[@erichb4530]

IRC still exists?? Damn, some things never change.

[@FragTheFirst]

Would conductive paint be better than a bodge wire? That would lie on the PCB so maintain the distance to the ground plane, hopefully not changing impedance much. (how to solder the cap to it, and what the resistance of conductive paint is, I've no idea!!)

[@2ftg]

@@erichb4530 IRC is nice.

[@phyro4143]

It wouldn't have fixed the card. I've seen people do 10+cm rewiring jobs from last pcie lane to first and be fine. It would have detected a lane was bad and would have used the first 8 lanes instead. Something else is wrong with this card.

[@pistonsjem]

obligatory "Source: Im a brain surgeon with 100 years experience"

[@yncsNt]

15:06 love the them crooked vultures in the background haha -- also i just bought an rx580 for 55 bucks, theres no way this card was this expensive 2 years ago DDX

[@garageman2236]

I’d love to see this as a series, vocational engineers make things just work

[@staceyfunk9689]

Watch TechYesCity, all of the old hardware revivals your heart desires.

[@WasatchElectronics]

@@staceyfunk9689 Just please don't follow anything they do, just about everything they recommend won't actually fix cards, and often times it will damage them further - if not completely kill them

[@BustDaNinja]

Me too, if only because I love watching the childlike wonder on an engineer's face when they do something a tradesman has been doing forever.

[@staceyfunk9689]

@@WasatchElectronics I would gladly follow any advice Brian would give before I listened to Linus or anyone else he employs. I’ve been using the same techniques for 30 years and the track record that Brian has makes me trust him a hell of a lot more than you.

[@WasatchElectronics]

​@@staceyfunk9689 Not a single one of them knows how to repair graphics cards, is my point. There are many things wrong in this video, and there are many things wrong in just about every video TYC has posted about graphics cards. The only thing these videos result in is people wasting money thinking they can repair cards

[@wmopp9100]

can we briefly talk about how crazy expensive these broken cards are? it should not be more than 10% of the new card price

[@SianaGearz]

With this video out, they're about to get more expensive yet.

[@wmopp9100]

@@SianaGearz GPUs are crazy expensive for some time now, but the discount is way to low for something that is probably trash

[@forceofone]

thank scalpers for that....they showed gpu companies what people are prepared to pay

[@alexdieringer3510]

Cards seem to be way cheap where I'm at. There's working GTX1080 for sub $300

[@MrLTiger]

@@alexdieringer3510 thats because they're super old and outdated

[@nekomakhea9440]

A card that suddenly starts working just from taking it apart and cleaning it likely had a bit of metal dust or filings or corrosion sucked into it that shorted something, dust or other crud causing a support IC to overheat, or the thermal paste was so bad that the GPU die overheated nearly instantly and go into self-protection shutdown to avoid melting. Cards with shorted power rails are usually quite easy to fix; scrub the card down to knock lose any corrosion or conductive dust that could be shorting it, and replace a blown MOSFET.

[@ampdoc12vdc]

Or it's a small crack in a multilayer board, and reassembly stressed it in a different way so it makes connection. Or a loose via. Or cold solder you didn't find yet. Sometimes thermal cycling can help find these problems. Percussive maintenance is another sign. If you slap it and it works, it's not afraid of you it's a loose connection.

[@andrewb8809]

"I'm gonna zip tie this fan to it, hell yeah." This killed me.

[@josephshin9297]

I love watching videos like this. Seeing people troubleshoot GPUs and finding one dead component like SMT resistor or capacitor looks like wizardry.

[@The.One.True.B]

@@wayn3h I think you underestimate how many people even know what those words are lol

[@luqdude]

​@@wayn3h Most people dont know anything about digital electronics, so to them this is magic.

[@bxwolf163]

"A lot of the time, just, Disassembling and reassembling stuff that's dead, is the easiest way to fix it. You won't know why you fixed it, but it just does" I cannot POSSIBLY tell you how many times this has happened and worked for me. After cleaning, and rebooting, I just take stuff apart and put it back together, and then it magically just works. No answers, just solutions. Also, the number of horror stories of trying to work with something someone tried to repair in the past, only to find it completely destroyed beyond repair: Insurmountable. Thank you for this video. I absolutely loved it as a Professional Technician and Hobbyist Engineer.

[@khx73]

"Fluff up the parts" - term I heard for that case where taking it apart and re-assembling just fixes it. :D

[@myriadtechrepair1191]

This works sometimes with liquid damage as well, but if you don't clean well enough it will be broken worse in a couple of weeks. Had to replace both right side charging chips on a liquid damaged macbook because the liquid cleaning only lasted a week.

[@benwade9819]

I had an old dead 770 about 5 years ago and saw the video Linus made about putting it in the oven, I figured its a card I don't care about and had nothing to lose at this point so I gave it a shot. To my complete surprise the card worked fine and still works to this day.

[@NightMotorcyclist]

RandomGamingInHD and even Tech Yes City have been showing users at the (usually short term) success of such repairs, though Random has cards that sill work long after the oven fix despite it only being recommended as a temporary fix.

[@harjyots]

I heard it does something with soldering connection, repairs it with heat or something. It's a clutch move and when my GPU dies- I may try this before buying a new one lol

[@TechTinkerWorks]

During Uni I had a laptop that had a removable GPU. I put it in the oven regularly as it break all the time. I have baked it at least 20 times, it came back to life every single time then I saved up for a new laptop. The bakes were more and more frequent, at the end I have baked it every week.

[@harjyots]

@@TechTinkerWorks I can imagine someone putting their computer in an oven for their daily baking lmfao

[@Revan-kq7ih]

Similar story here. Six years ago the thermal paste on my 770 got bad. Replacing it fixed the card until 2020. Then the card started artifacting and died soon after. I've been using a heat gun to reflow the solder between the prcessor and the PCB. This fixed it for six months. Then the same happened again. The next two repairs were not as successful as the card only worked for three and then one month. After that disappointment, I decided to heat up the processor way longer than recommended as I felt I had nothing to loose anymore. The card came back again and has been in use for over six months now. My current plan is to wait for the 4070 to come out and if needed pay a scalper rather than buying of the still overpriced 30 series right now, when I might get a stronger card for the same money in october.

[@Winsomnia]

More of these videos please! They are incredibly entertaining while still being educational:)

[@fusseldieb]

I agree! This was super interesting!

[@Hackimaster]

My theory for the card with the excessive water damage: The CPU in the original system was probably water cooled aswell and may have leaked onto the GPU.

[@Sithhy]

But it looked like the water damage was on the side with the cooler, not the one that water would drip onto

[@somefish9147]

@@Sithhy maybe it ran all the way down the card

[@Sunny01331]

The amount of corrosion really looks reminiscent of bleach damage (dont ask how I know)...

[@NQUSTN]

I was thinking same thing as I have had a few systems where they would not boot..etc and it turned out the cpu cooler leaked, dripped down the tube, landed onto the GPU cooler and then made its way to the PCIe slot, nvme slot, and even the GPU die itself while leaving leaving just about everything undisturbed. And one of these was about a single drop every 18 hrs or so unless you actually saw it dripping you wouldn't of seen it or noticed it.

[@JokingJay]

@@Sithhy Yeah, so more likely a leak at one of the radiator fittings on an AIO. The card itself was an all-in-one liquid cooling solution, likely enough that's what was cooling the CPU. Given how much corrosion was on the card, it also seems like it ran for a while with a slow leak/drip on it until it died entirely.

[@thatcat7160]

Wow I didn’t know that spinning the fans that fast could be bad. I guess I won’t do that anymore. Thanks for the tech tip!

[@LinusTechTips]

It is ~probably~ fine, but holding the fans is cheap and easy insurance -AC

[@iniyan19]

i killed one of my laptop fans by using a vaccum and not holding the fan some time ago. hope i had known this before 😓

[@rajatgoswami3542]

Yeah, I damaged my laptop's fan when repasting and cleaning. 😪 Wish I knew this earlier.

[@rajatgoswami3542]

@@nobody7817 but proceeds to rotate at 5600rpm

[@wowinim]

Not to mention, fast spinning fan blades are a finger slicing hazard. It'll hurt quite a bit 😶

[@hmoham]

Bloody hell, we live in a time when a 4GB RX 580 sold as not working can be sold for $150 and considered a good deal if you can fix it, when just 3-4 years ago I bought a 8GB model for just £100.

[@NotAllAloneAgain]

what do you think a second hand rx580 would cost? prolly around 80 dollars right now..

[@PixelOverload]

22:47 my guess would be there was a slow leak somewhere else in the water loop that dripped onto the GPU over time, probably in the CPU block

[@runescapefan0001]

24:32 I could have used one of those when I bricked my card with the wrong bios! It was years ago, I had a r9 270 I was having issues with so I tried updating the bios. Turns out Techpowerup doesn't always label their bios correctly, they had a r9 290x bios on the r9 270 page. Always double check your bios before you flash it

[@ShockburnVR]

yes if the manufacturer doesn't offer an update be careful downloading one. Techpowerup gpu database is user generated so faulty bios images could get on there. if this happens you could also try running the card as a second one and have the main one be from the different team, that way it is more difficult to accidentally flash the wrong card

[@chrisharvie-smith486]

@@ShockburnVR Save what you've got a couple of times before you load the new. Check they match each other and aren't both all zeros or FF's. Then you can put something back if it goes wrong. deftdawgs guide for programming graphics cards BIOS chips is the Remastered one kzbin.info/www/bejne/haXXf2uthpZ7nqc

[@st0nedpenguin]

Or you could just stop flashing your GPU BIOS when there's almost entirely no reason to.

[@loteknomad5032]

13:46 Miracle Max approved. Interesting video. I'm continually fascinated by how many things can be brought back to life from "dead" with some simple disassembly, cleaning, and maybe a few bucks worth of components here or there. Would happily watch more of these. :)

[@josephmunyao6639]

Thanks for your feedback!

[@st0nedpenguin]

What this video is missing is two days later when most of the hardware that was "fixed" easily dies.

[@gorkskoal9315]

Mmm! Today I rescued a stereo. Just with new speaker wire. I know nothing about stereos, and was surprised that just new wires fixed. Before it wasn't even turning on!

[@josephwimerYoYoYo]

Alex: Nice tip on the fans,(cleaning) however, you didn't mention that the fans bearing has a specific rating based on lubrication and surface. You can very easily take a fan beyond it's speed/heat rating with a compressor. Start it back up and your fan doesn't work, or squeaks? Probably killed a bearing.

[@vikingaesir]

Never thought this was a real thing, cleaned plenty of PC's no issue... Until I did it. Then did it again to be sure lol. I always stop the fans from spinning now when cleaning! Also sub tip to the above... Get/use a moisture trap when using a compressor!!

[@Dracossaint]

@@vikingaesir considering all the money reported to the shop I'd be surprised if they don't have it in line

[@Megasteel32]

yeah from what i've heard it's usually not the fan generating current and killing the board but the fan spinning too fast and killing them bearings like you said

[@rkan2]

fan bearings are usually pretty highspeed - more than they usually run at normally.

[@thompsonschwabbel6622]

Turn off the Multimeter when putting it away after measuring. Not only will it preserve the battery but you won't use it in the wrong mode by accident (and possibly damage it)!

[@everythingpony]

No xD

[@420inportland]

I'd be willing to bet the one with severe water damage was in a system that had a custom loop on the CPU and THAT leaked at some point into the GPU, killing the card. All that white crusty shit is likely the algicide/minerals in the open-loop coolant.

[@CaptainScorpio24]

i hate liquid cooling

[@elu9780]

@@CaptainScorpio24 I agree. No matter how safe it supposedly is, I'll take fan failure on an air cooled setup than leakage any time of day. A failing fan is easy to notice and replace - a leak may kill the entire system or at least a GPU.

[@youtubeuser5875]

it looks like water damage, but it is not. It's the thermal pads being shitty. I took apart my EVGA GTX 1070, never spilled anything on it, never used water cooling, and it looked exactly the same, with weird sticky watery stuff around the partly dissolved pads.

[@420inportland]

@@CaptainScorpio24 , Man, water cooling has come a LONG way in the last 20yrs. I was a hydrophobe until I put in my first Custom loop, soft line on CPU, GPU, and VRM/VSOC, so nothing fancy, but it works well, and I've had zero leaks in 3yrs now. They do require some extra maintenance, but I would say its much "safer" than it used to be when everything was essentially plumbing fixtures secured by zip ties like we had back in the early 2000s, lol. Now I can push my 1800X all the way to 4g all-core, and I didn't even have to touch the voltage (which is still stock) because the EXTRA cool power delivery seems to have smoothed out the voltage ripple to my CPU. Might be time to give H2O a chance mate. :)

[@cl4ster17]

@@youtubeuser5875 Probably silicone oil from the pads.

[@Elkarlo77]

About the Solder Stove Repair: I did it while with the infamous Nvidia Series which didn't had flux at all and bad crystalisation Problems: You heat up to 50°C then to 80° when it reached it you shut the stove off and wait till it reached about 40°C that solves the crystallisation problem and helps for the Cracks. When it works again replace the thermal paste and it is good for some time. The solder cracks and crystallisation problems comes from uneven heating and cooling. So keeping the card better cooled may keep it save for 6 month to 1 year. Without renewing thermal paste: 3-4 Weeks.

[@yatox8]

I never considered that the fan spinning when cleaning could turn into a generator lol, good tip, I used to spin those suckers up with air at max rpm when cleaning because it sounded cool >_>

[@Rob-nv7ew]

@Projit You have 0 vids. Yes your content seems miles better

[@TristanVash38]

@@mistarbeanz 2nd this. Thank you. These are brushless motors. Won't do what was mentioned at 3:15

[@ilhamwicaksono5802]

@@TristanVash38 why brushless won't? I thought every motor can except those that doesn't have permanent magnet

[@General_Griffin]

IDK about the electrical current from fans spinning causing any issues, however spinning GPU fans at speeds which far exceed their intended limit can and does often destroy them. Most of these fans are cheaply made with plastic motor casings, glued construction and often *no* bearings at all.

[@SineN0mine3]

@@mistarbeanz I think its more of an over simplification. A fan won't make a very good generator, but it can produce current if it is forced to spin. It has little if anything to do with the fan speed, the point is that a fan turns electrical energy into kintetic energy by using electromagnets. If you provide kinetic energy instead of electrical energy to make the fan spin, at a certain point the electromagnets will eventually produce a current. The design of an elecrtic fan and a wind turbine share a lot of similarities. You can't use a fan to try to power your computer or anything like that, but you might be concerned about some of that current making its way in to your logic boards somehow. In practice its pretty unlikely thay the current would leave the fan controller circuits, but in some cases forcing them to spin could damage fan controllers. I am not an engineer, but I would assume that some if not most of the circuits to control and power the fans have some protection built in to stop them getting damaged, or at least naturally tolerate the low voltages that might occur from breezes. In general with complex technologies it doesn't hurt to err the side of caution, which is why people advise you to be careful with things like grounding yourself, keeping your workspace clean and so on. It is not necessary, and in most cases you can ignore it, but it is easier to be careful and follow that advice than it is to learn exactly when those rules are actually vital and necessary, which usually gets learned the hard way by destroying equipment.

[@wrongturnVfor]

I am a total rando with zero tech background but I love fixing old broken things around the house that would just get thrown away, I enjoy doing that and after I am done I take it to the nearby shop that buys second hand stuff and sell it hella cheap and get some cash for my troubles. I find videos like this very fun to watch for the same reason. I have learnt a lot over the years watching videos and just meddling with broken stuff.

[@youwot9021]

u want a gtx 770 that says its got no vram?

[@madr8b]

The "liquid" that you thought was spilled on it might be the thermal pads leaking oil. I have seem many cards that have those marks and they were from bad pads that were leaking all over the card.

[@josecr8613]

my evga 1070 leaked oil from the factory pads, seems evga goes cheap on those.

[@nykoedits]

Can confirm msi uses cheap pads too. They leak all over the place

[@myriadtechrepair1191]

Yeah, old pads of that style tend to leak a bit. Normal. If you spot any green crud though, you can be sure it was liquid damage.

[@badnewsbruner]

I can attest to this, my EVGA 1080Ti ftw3 had TONS of that wetness on it when I cracked it open. They should definitely NEVER use those pads again. I vape in my room, and the fact that the 1080Ti ftw3 has something like THIRTY of those pads on it, caused my card to die. I heatgunned it multiple times and that stuff just keep seeping out of the PCB. I hope EVGA learned their lesson on those pads....

[@bmxscape]

@@badnewsbruner you were kinda asking for it by vaping

[@anumeon]

To me, Jonos problem sounds like a grounding error somewhere between the monitor and the pc. (probably the monitor i'd wager) sending electricity where it shouldn't go and knocking it out for a few seconds. I have a similar problem with my USB cables at home, and anytime that my cat goes near my computer something disconnects randomly..

[@ayuchanayuko]

AC power/cables can do this. Mine was similar one day plus loud noise through my audio. I recently just changed to using a displayport cable to give space for my new vr headset that uses HDMI. I eventually found that I left the HDMI connected to the monitor, and that the cable's other end was on top of my AVR and power switches. Moved the cable out of there and all blackouts were gone. Havent removed the old cable yet as I'm testing out some other build.

[@MartijnPeek]

I had a problem like this with a DP cable that has the power pin connected.

[@reggiep75]

Throw the cat away, it's a problem causer! 😉... 😂

[@exi]

It could also just be the display port controller in his monitor. We have similar problems on our notebooks with docks from Lenovo. After some time they start to blank the screen to black in some interval. Lenovo issued several firmware updates for the dock which makes this occur less often. The solution is always to undock the notebook and remove power from the dock for 10s as this resets the DP hub chip.

[@MarshallSambell]

I would be willing to bet it was the cable between the monitor and the GPU

[@petere.8230]

I love these repair videos. Its always good to see abandoned tech brought back to life. Y’all should do more!

[@wretchedslippage3255]

I feel like sometimes the sticky shit on the pads gets all gummy and sort of runny after time. An nvme drive died on me once because the sticky foam pad that held the cover on got all gross over time and spread causing a short.

[@John-Is-My-Name]

About the oven trick: It's definitely worth a try. I've had 2x 780 ti for years where one of them stopped working, I fixed it with the oven method which made it last 3 months, fixed again and it worked 2 months more then it wouldnt work again. My second card stopped working later and after I ran it in the oven it has been working for 8 months right now, hope it will last more :)

[@augustoof13]

Is your card still running? -if so, you better go catch it-

[@Reliquancy]

I’d like to see if they could buy a few gpus being sold just for parts of the same model and try to make one fully functioning one.

[@Dragon22078]

I’m pretty sure they’ve got some videos like that.

[@writerpatrick]

You have to hope that they all don't have the same broken part.

[@jadamsnz]

That's what I thought they were going to do when I saw the title - getting in touch with their inner Luke Miani so to speak.

[@Decco6306]

same call it "frankenstien GPU"

[@Fusion05]

@@jadamsnz 😂

[@RickSanchez-st3mj]

kyle is actually great fun to have on camera, hope to see more of him in the future!

[@sonnguyen-iv7gv]

Kyle looks like a tech nerd that was forced to act on camera =)))

[@k9-punchline738]

same here

[@PaulM-is4ts]

Never had a gpu live past 1 year the day after running furmark. RIP my 2900 xt, gtx 460, and gtx 560. Definitely spent too much time blaming it on other problems and I've only done mild overclocking.

[@A-Wild-Frost]

Furmark murdered my HD7770 :(

[@joshnyou]

FurMark isn't made for old cards like that my friend. For those dinosaurs you need to benchmark with 3DMark99.

[@fridaycaliforniaa236]

I had a GTX 680 that was OC'ed and ran Fur Mark *a lot* and it's still working today on my secondary PC...

[@compsigh9275]

nah you def broke them in a diff way

[@syXykb]

Sure... Furmark is the culprit...

[@mini-_]

They sat they bought these GPU's, deep down we known Linus just dropped them all one too many times.

[@recordatron]

$1700 for 6 older busted GPUs...that's pretty rough.

[@dedavlade]

welcome to the current market!

[@steinarjonsson_]

Yea, $150 for a potentially broken RX 580 4gb...They are paying way too much for those GPUs!

[@boo_]

@@steinarjonsson_ rx580 is fine, 8gb model would be better, but it's still an ok card, especially for someone who doesn't care about the newest AAA games. Let's not be elitists.

[@steinarjonsson_]

​@@boo_ A used RX 580 8GB for $150 isn't perhaps a terrible deal but this was the 4GB version and more importantly, it was sold as a potentially dead card, still priced at $150, that is outrageous.

[@alexdylan9668]

@@boo_ somebody is still running an rx580

[@Neoxon619]

As if Luke fixing a dead CPU was bad enough. Leave it to Alex to take on the hardware jobs no one else at LMG would.

[@ApexOfThrottle]

I think its criminal that a broken piece of electronics is being sold for 400US

[@attiliobaldo9308]

Hey, i have some info that might help. If there is a short between the 6pin or 8 pin (or even the 12V or 3.3V pins of the pcie connector) it's very common that the card has a broken phase, in particular mosfets are the ones who fails the most, and you can test them probing the two sides (if i remember correctly, you have to probe between gate and source but i'm not shure). In that case, you have two options: replace the mosfet with a heat-gun or just cut off that phase by ripping off the broken mosfet. You have a chance that the chip is still alive, and if you choose to cut one phase the card will work but it will have some stability issues so you have to downlock it (it depends on how strong are the other phases). You can also try to make the remaining phases a little bit stronger by adding some capacitors or replacing the inductors with bigger ones. Anyway, hope I was helpful and I loved this video! (PS, the 1080 probably crahed because the broken mosfet doesn't make a short, but it's still not working so the card doesn't have enought power under load)

[@ayuchanayuko]

From what I remember: Low side mosfets usually also fail open while higher power mosfets usually fail short. So I can assume that the failed mosfet was a low power one that failed open and so didnt cause a short.

[@attiliobaldo9308]

@@ayuchanayuko Thanks a lot! I didn't know that

[@6DAMMK9]

12:11 Short circuit > blown MOSFET > blown fuse (probably exist) and everything else is fine. For best case sceanrio, there is a fuse / choke for each phase, then even the card is work in some level.

[@jasonhill9088]

Great segment! I really enjoyed learning more about the digital side of circuitry. I have a basic background in electronics. And what I like the most, was how you got right to the bones of the caus/ problem. You addressed when you should give up and why. I was very intrigued to learn caps, had to be equal distance away from the terminal. & probably best to leave that kind of fix to a machine or a professional perfectionist. I would very much like to see more segments about fixing computers, boards, & electronics in general. Perhaps you could add it to your upcoming test channe or do more of them on this channel. I could probably find a channel like that, but I usually tune out when it gets too technical & drawn out.

[@stewartanderson6433]

I love that these videos just feel like we’re secondary to him and David’s conversation. Like we’re the youngest sibling in-between a conversation of the older siblings, occasionally recognized.

[@tyr3759]

And with 'we' you mean you and your brother? Because to me these are just kids who are learning things I knew for decades.

[@flam8094]

@@tyr3759 you seem sad

[@tyr3759]

@@namebrandketchup2048 Sure, how about you? Been out of the bottle lately?

[@frimdaddy]

One reason that taking it apart and reassembling fixes stuff is that oxidation on connectors is scraped off when you unplug and plug again. For extra cleaning, remove and insert several times. You can also use a pencil eraser on edge connector fingers to remove oxidation.

[@immaturian9652]

Can we please get more content like this? I love this style of content.

[@JerziTBoss]

Jono's problem can easily be HDMI cable breaking... I had similar issue with my gpu so I swapped the cable to ps4 and then PS4 had the same issue so I replaced the cable completely... It also can be monitor firmware that also happened to me with brand new hdmi cable Or it can be caused by wrong setting in either monitor settings or gpu driver settings... Without his exact setup it's impossible to tell

[@randomuser6110]

My 1660s would not output anything untill it hit the windows login screen, so i couldn't access the bios menu. Swapping the cable fixed it and the cable looked slightly bent at the monitor end plug. Why windows could use it and the BIOS could not, I don't know.

[@PointlessMiracle]

I had this similar issue, with a screen flickering and something disconnecting. Turned out to be my phone laying below it, and interfering!! Was the weirdest issues

[@Smoofy92]

Just commenting on your last bit of the video (oven method). I bought a GeForce GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming 8GB for $100 on marketplace (labeled as used- good and promised that it was working- I knew it wasn't gonna work well). Lo and behold, artifacts! My PC crashed constantly. Would restart and blue-screen on me. I cleaned it up, applied new thermal paste, new pads, and still had artifacts. I did the oven method and it worked with 0 issues. I have done this to 3 different cards and they're still gaming strong with no issues a year+ later. It may be luck, or it may be that it actually works most of the time. Idk, but so far..It's been a good cheap method to fix GPU's that have been artifacting. I've never had any issues that people bring up to debunk it or that it stops working after a short time.

[@neowong5657]

2:33 Is that a black eye there on Jono?

[@Hulkeq2]

5:31: Mistake 1 . Don't update firmwares or drivers, not change monitors. You should have asked him what version of the drivers he was running , install that, ask him to bring his monitor. then HOPE it crashes. At first you want to reproduce the crash as a diagnosis. Best was to ask him to bring his own pc.

[@ravencorvus7903]

Or, you know, prove the card works fine in another pc..

[@matthewsneep9648]

Mine started doing the same thing. Changed the display port cable and problem was solved.

[@Hulkeq2]

@@ravencorvus7903 No. That's not how you diagnose issues. If it's not the video card you want to know what else is causing it. This is not an opinion flaunting debate. Goodbye.

[@Hulkeq2]

@@matthewsneep9648 Exactly. You need to find the problem by eliminating 1 variable at a time.

[@ravencorvus7903]

@@Hulkeq2 looks to me like he just eliminated the gpu so that's just as valuable

[@brianmckee3991]

Fun video! I'm glad you made this because I always wanted to do something like this and clearly it's not worth it. I also thought about buying damaged CPUs (AM5) with missing pins and having a jeweller solder on new pins. I wondered how cost effective that would be. You should do that next! I used to design video cards. I have one comment about the dead MOSFET. The MOSFET of a switching power supply cannot be shorted to test because these Switchers usually swtich from a higher voltage to a lower voltage (buck converter). If you short the high pulling MOSFET, it will tie the higher voltage input to the lower voltage output and kill what ever is attached to it. For example if you had 12VDC from the GPU power input, switching down to 1.5V for Memory, then 12V would short directly to the memory and they would all go pop! Please do not short across MOSFETS. If you find a board with a shorted MOSFET to the high input voltage, chances are other chips are dead. However, if you find one that shorts to ground (the low side MOSFET), you can often replace those and get things working again. Soldering them is tricky because they have large metal slugs underneath that have to be reflowed to remove and install the new one. They are really tricky and you need a professional rework technician with specialized tools to have a chance of doing the job right.

[@RAndrewNeal]

A hot air rework station ought to do it. But of course, you don't want to dwell too long or use too high a temperature. It's like a localized reflow oven; just make sure to check the datasheet, if available, for the max dwell times at given temperatures.

[@Jenuin]

That fan spinning tip. On point. ❤

[@Nevakonaza.]

This was great,Id love to see more attempting to fix dead cards etc,Especially more exotic and weird cards like Quadro,Titan,Radeon Pro etc.

[@jngdwe]

Finally someone backed me up on the fan spinning issue... Can't believe how many people will argue that it's "safe" to make fans spin rapidly during an air blasting.

[@CaptainScorpio24]

yeah its nt good👍

[@Eric-Robson-]

Yeah people just be ignorant about letting fans spin while they clean pcs or gpus

[@ViDeOMaStErPaUl]

tbf I had no idea myself, now I know, thats why I watch this channel.

[@rath6375]

I'm sure you're paraphrasing, but when people say "safe," unless they're talking about a prior event they _always_ mean "safe enough" since the word is a prediction of the future and everyone's risk tolerance is different. It's not worth arguing about unless you're talking about standards. Just don't let them work on your stuff.

[@CaptainScorpio24]

@@Eric-Robson- most ppl didnt knew that spinning fabs cud damage their fans and motherboard

[@10100rsn]

22:05 Looks like burned glycol from coolant. If it was a drink like Coca-Cola then its done, the acidity would become too high and destroy even the inner layers. You could clean it up and replace corroded components and it could work as long as the vias and inner layers are intact, but you'd probably be better off with external VRM mods either way. Would make a great video if you actually go into detail with datasheets. ;)

[@ClosestNearUtopia]

@12:40 its all dc not ac so low voltage.. dc doesnt have to be Lv.. in this case it is.. then my next question, what do you consider a safe low dc voltage?

[@filenotfound__3871]

In my expirience, a shorteg GPUs are the easiest to fix, find a shorted mosfet by removing the inductors or perform a voltage injection and just replace it, sometimes you can just leave it out and as long as you are not overclocking, you will be fine.

[@Finkelfunk]

The oven trick doesn't work by expanding solder joints. Louis Rossmann explained this in great detail after Linus made his oven-video. The problem is that the chip itself is actually dead, as in the structure of the chip is damaged through consistent heat cycles. By heating it up again you can temporarily shuffle around the little bumps in the structure of the chip to make it function again, the chip itself is VERY much dead still.

[@harryhall4001]

solder bumps aren't inside the chip but rather between the chip and it's substrate (the little PCB that the chip sits on). It's still impossible to replace for a consumer but it's good to know anyway. I think Nvidia actually got sued over defective solder bumps when they switched from lead solder to lead free because of this whole issue.

[@probablyyourneighbororsome8412]

When I first started learning about computers I bought a bunch of old dead gaming PCs for really super cheap just to practice on them, and that was way before I even had a remotely nice computer. I may have had my bedroom filled with inevitable landfill e-waist but I learned a lot and It was worth it. My parents thought it was really stupid but I did end up with many parts that worked like an old gtx 570 frozr ii and a core 2 extreme and in one of them. In my ventures I have found some really good deals on working computers such as a dell precision with a xeom e3 1220 v5 and 16 gb of ddr3 for $200. its actually the system I still use to this day. It surprisingly handles just about alot of what I throw at it. I just haven't felt the need to upgrade since. This video just kinda reminded me of my budget continuous ventures.

[@GODSPEEDseven]

You must enjoy watching RandomGaminginHD, as he does just that! Awesome down-to-earth youtuber and some of the most honest and humble content from him.

[@Decco6306]

Ben rocking my HP z600 workstation with two x5760s 24gb of ram, and a R9 380. have had it for 7 years now. still going strong. $250 ebay buy.

[@probablyyourneighbororsome8412]

@@GODSPEEDseven for a matter of fact I'm actually subscribed to him.

[@doug9176]

I got a free ps4, completely dead. What sat around with a mate, completely disassembled it, removed some plastic parts from the board, stuck it in the oven at max temp 250C for 30minutes. put it together again for a laugh and the bloody thing worked. still works to this day.

[@Thetoxicpeaceful1]

How is that possible

[@contemptordreadnought]

@@Thetoxicpeaceful1 The solder melts and reconnects broken connections

[@citizendc9]

You can also try a heat gun over the disassembled board.

[@mhavock]

With the watercooled card, sometimes there is anti-corrosion chemicals in the water (to prevent the corrosion from 2 metals touching in water, eg copper and aluminum). That chemical might have leaked onto the board if the water-cooler had a break and leaked.

[@4N5W3R5]

3:28 The primary reason to block a fan from spinning when cleaning is to prevent rpm exceeding the capability of the lubricant and bearing of the fan resulting in premature failure.

[@Blitterbug]

This as well, but back EMF is also no goodo!

[@backgammonbacon]

@@Blitterbug It will just put a tiny voltage and tiny current back into the system, it will be fine.

[@Blitterbug]

@@backgammonbacon Probs yeah, but you do hear stories, how true is anyone's guess tho...

[@flamingkillermc2806]

*When you realize that even dead GPU's are hard to find*

[@kazioo2]

Not true anymore. GPU prices are falling hard, because mining profitability is going down and ETH mining will end by July. 10 Million GPUs going to eBay soon.

[@august7324]

They paid the same price for a broken 580 4gb, that i paid for a new 580 8gb

[@CaptainScorpio24]

@@august7324 😰😰😰😰

[@LegionZGaming]

No its not they just pick randomly without considering the price

[@arnox4554]

@@kazioo2 Is it ACTUALLY ending by July, or is it one of those "We should have it done by July... Maybe!"

[@douggiles7647]

I like your attitude Alex, I think we'd get along lmao, I've always said the same thing about disassembling and reassembling stuff, it's crazy how many times you can fix something and not even realize how it happened

[@cdoublejj]

as some one who watches lousi rossmann and has dabbled in board repair, this has a lot of incorrect info. the wet spot on the spill GPU is actually oil form in the thermal pads. sometimes cleaning corrosion off can make it hard to troubleshoot bad caps shorts or to find the solder joints that needed reflowed.(sometimes you get lucky). also the corrosion on the first board he cleaned was actually flux form what they are made. yeah, really it looks like corrosion or white crap but, it's flux. i've seen it posted on forums where the GPU is new a number of times, as well as on my own GPUs

[@Fermi_Consistency]

Yup. That last one was a little fucked but I think it could be fixed. I've watched a lot of Rossman too and I fuck around w/ pcbs.

[@erickeith1466]

As an FYI, older cards are easier to fix than the new ones. The latest ones are on the bleeding edge of hardware performance so one bad component or under spec component and "poof"...expensive door stop. Usually what you get is bad memory models or controllers from thermal runaway or bad power phases from mosfets that can't keep up. In the worst case, mosfets fail closed and fry the core (12V directly on the GPU core). Or they fail to closed to ground and burn a hole in the PCB taking out entire phase, usually a couple from an avalanche of component failure. There are also time consuming mystery failures where the issue is something that looks visibly fine but isn't. Like a bad transistor gate/switch or power phase controller that doesn't fully fail but just enough to crash a card when stress testing. I have one of those. The best GPUs have power phase mosfets that fail open and simply replacing is all you need to fix the entire card. Good luck finding those these days.

[@phazonclash]

NorthridgeFix on KZbin, is literally the best at repairing these messed up cards with ripped pads and what not (and electronics in general). The guy's an artist with a soldering iron and a multimeter

[@ajohnson4811]

As someone who currently works in electronics assembly i can tell you a few things about the boards you should know. the video card with the ball of solder on the sideof the resistor is a normal process thing and is usually left here as it doesnt hurt anything. the "mossfet" blowing up you would be better off getting that off the board and just bridging it. leaving it on there you run the risk of the power going down the signal line. the "hail mary toaster oven bit" has real merit if you can control it well. typical leadfree solder melts at 221C leaded is 183C there are lowtemp leadfree but those are not usually on performance electronics. Optimal oven process 230c 45sec in a nitrogen atmosphere. This should be enough to Reflow the solder yes thats the correct jargon. If there are BGA parts on the board they need to protected from collapse _this is the biggest risk here. The nitrogen will prevent the oxidation due to missing flux. also leadfree solder is at risk for tin whiskars.. that is a huge conversation all by itself. aerosol pcb cleaners are your best friend here. soft brush and air to blow dry. have fun getting zapped!

[@Csf91]

This is how i got my 980ti, and my PC's motherboard, too! xD And no, i would not recommend doing this "gamble for parts", 99% of the time won't work. I've just been looking at the most promising ones and asking the questions that i felt right. Stay away specially from corroded or water damaged PCBs, not even board-level repair could fix that most of the time. For the motherboard i forgot to take pictures, but for the GPU you could find the photo of it disassembled after the cleanup in my twitter images. I will not post links since youtube hates me, and randomly deletes my comments even if they don't have any bad language or link. ㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏ

[@mycosys]

A short across the power isnt a 'gpu's never gonna come back thing' - much more likely a 'capacitor went short in the power stage' thing

[@mrouw]

I do have a question: The Fans of my gtx 1070 amp extreme stopped working by it's own. No spilling involved. I'm not sure if a update was involved. They start for a brief moment when the PC boots up AND you can get them to work when you use MSI Afterburner, but they won't spin without it. I tested it on another pc system and got the same result. Any ideas what could cause it?

[@thehawkk_]

The fans typically won't spin unless the card gets hot enough, i.e. when gaming on heavier titles. Try to see if they run while gaming as that would indicate the card is working normally.

[@mrouw]

@@thehawkk_ sadly my card doesn't have that function. Even when the card gets to 70C the fans won't turn on.

[@john_b4150]

Just use afterburner then my guy

[@mightym00]

@@john_b4150 you contributed just as much as I did with this comment my friend

[@InspireCreativity2023]

@@mrouw on-board temp sensor has failed/isn't working, the fans arent kicking on because the card cant read the temp.

[@pinetree7068]

Looking at this video now and the prices for dead gpus were crazy, I can buy perfect condition used GPUs for atleast 3 times the lower price currently.

[@PjAndree]

Jono's issue sounds like an issue I had with multiple monitors at different refresh rates on the same system, watching videos or loading games would cause it to cycle quite a few times.

[@Majima_Nowhere]

Huh, I have a 1440p 144hz monitor and a 1080p60 monitor hooked into the same GPU and I've never had any issues. Maybe only certain models have trouble?

[@pyrixn]

this can be easily fixed by using CRU

[@Roach_1907]

@@pyrixn what’s CRU ? I may have the same issue

[@pyrixn]

@@Roach_1907 Custom Resoloution Utility

[@3604marine]

Did you punch the first guy to get that card?

[@GenesisRasphotos]

I remember linus talking about starting your own tech retailing company and charging something like 2%-5% more to provide excelent products and customer service, maybe you could team up with GN and other tech channels to review a wide variety of products and those that dont meet your standards you dont sell. I think there would be major backing of those whod rather spend a little extra money to get a quality product and help support trustworthy content creators such as yourself! Maybe even take dead products and try to repair them (prehaps on an individual basis or even buying in bulk) to help cut down on e waste. Any devices that cant be repaired you could salvage all useful parts in the hopes of bringing another product back to life and properly dispose of the waste instead. Potential partnership with micro center? They could have drop off bins for electronics that are potentially worth salvaging.

[@CaptainScorpio24]

that's a very good idea. hope they will pickup 🙂

[@GenesisRasphotos]

@@CaptainScorpio24 so do i, hate seeing good tech go to waste. Especially in these hard times

[@nickcollins1528]

I'm pretty sure the ltt labs is going to be testing the quality of all electronics

[@CaptainScorpio24]

@@GenesisRasphotos yess absolutely. they shud open an another channel where they should buy dead components and work on them to make alive 🙂. 🙂

[@GenesisRasphotos]

@Sam Wallace have fun with getting scammed by newegg then

[@gonzo26nix]

as someone that knows almost nothing about computers.. this video was fantastic. every step was explained.. and why it should be done. even the most basics of "look for these temps", I had no idea what temps to look for.. even after watching loads of these videos. someone would just say, "it's running at X degrees.." and then move on. is there an entire series of these with this host? (nothing against Linus.. he's short and we short people need to support one another)

[@RabidChasebot]

I never knew about not letting your fans spin with compressed air....that's the most fun part lol

[@luthesouza]

6:05 aged like fine milk

[@akanay22]

Yep

[@GoldSrc_]

LMG: Has the best cameras for video work. Also LMG: Can't spare for a decent camera for their microscope.

[@masift1494]

Ok but realistically how often do you see them using a microscope in their videos? Almost never.

[@MatthewKodatt]

I wish there was a channel dedicated to this. Awesome video

[@NonLegitNation2]

I've had an issue kind of like Jono's with my 2070 Super. I'll be watching a video and suddenly I'll lose video, the screen will go black, but still have audio. I use my TV (4k 55") as a monitor, I would have to change my TVs input, then go back to the input for my PC and the picture would come back. The really weird thing is if I go back to the exact moment in the video where I lost video my TV will do it again. This happens on KZbin videos and just regular videos viewed in VLC or MPC Player. The other weird thing is my screen will just go black when it happens, I don't receive a message from my TV saying "No Signal" which is what happens if I change the input to something that doesn't actually have a device hooked up to it. If anyone knows what may be causing this I would appreciate the help. All Nvidia drivers are updated. all Windows 11 updates are updated. I've changed HDMI cables, changed HDMI ports on my GPU and TV. And afaik the software/firmware on my TV is updated.

[@PAcifisti]

I presume there's a lot of dead GPU's going as circulating "prizes" that aren't easy / possible to fix. Repair flippers buy them, try them and then relist it to try to get rid of it.

[@pascals5408]

I've been in the gpu repair business for a while and it is exactly like you say, but we've found ways tell those cards apart and avoid them.

[@erickeith1466]

Yup. At this point, it's not easy to find good candidates. In the past, you could find some cards that were basic fixes. Now, it's a lot of dead cores and completely toasted PCBs. Or difficult to trace issues, like only partially dead cores (memory controller is faulty), failed resistor or switches with no outward signs, or mosfets that not quite failed but failing, e.g. slowing down (rip and replace if you don't have a good oscilloscope)

[@2Syndras1Cup]

1:55 I would have laughed my ass off for like 1 week straight, if your PC died from static.

[@kalebbruwer]

11:55 "Yeah it still smells fine. Send it again?" A good entry for "worst things to hear if you wake up during surgery"