This is why GPUs break too easy (long story)

[@FuriousFuria]

Fairly certain this is my card, you sir are a wizard. But really this took a lot of work and troubleshooting I was not expecting an hour long video, thank you for saving my card!

[@Akkillies]

Why did you fart on your card?

[@FuriousFuria]

@@Akkilliestoo much cheese

[@northwestrepair]

It was supposed to be 2hrs long but I managed to cut it to main points

[@Elinzar]

@@FuriousFuria no not the cheese

[@giantbellend]

I guess a re-ball wasn’t enough for you huh? Had to take things south east it’s fixed though.

[@tyrellwreleck4226]

"Where's the resistor?" >looking at the ocean of components "Yeah good luck finding that" I feel you man

[@scotshabalam2432]

boards are usually laid in sections for each circuit. It's rare to see a circuit run all over the board, not impossible but it's really inefficient and unlikely.

[@DevilbyMoonlight]

This one was a bit of a rabbit hole,, am glad you didn't give up on it whereas some people would, well done!

[@Samammie]

Any other person would have called it dead..but you are just a genius! Learning experience for everyone, thank you for posting this

[@The_Man_In_Red]

Well, that was a confusing problem to solve. I had no idea a less-than-optimal connection on a resistor could screw a power phase up so badly it caused the mosfet to go into lava mode.

[@TheBackyardChemist]

Modern controllers measure the current flowing through each phase and adjust the pulse widths to balance the load across the phases. But if the current measurement circuit goes bad, the balancing can get way out of whack.

[@The_Man_In_Red]

@@TheBackyardChemist Makes sense, thanks for explaining!

[@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking]

There hasn't been any lead in consumer electronics since roughly 2006: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restriction_of_Hazardous_Substances_Directive

[@MegaFUZZY2010]

You're underestimating the determination of Chinese factories to skirt the rules

[@jwg-dawg4436]

Love your channel too!

[@sketchiefello9002]

@@MegaFUZZY2010 god bless the chinese! Skirt those rules!

[@ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking]

@@MegaFUZZY2010 Yeah I don't think getting your product banned from sale in the EU and US is worth the increased reliability. After all if the product fails outside warranty it's not the manufacturer's problem. So any large "name-brand" manufacturer is gonna follow RoHS. Some random aliexpress seller not-necessarily.

[@peterlarkin762]

As the Beatles said, Lead it Be.

[@TheBackyardChemist]

Even in the absence of lead there are tons of solder alloys that they could have used instead, with varying ratios of tin/silver/indium/antimony. But when they can sell the cards with 1-2 years of warranty, they have zero motivation to care about long-term reliability and invest in figuring out what the best lead-free alloy is.

[@flankerchan]

Yea, and it's kinda sad and infuriating for the Graphic card of that caliber and cost.

[@christopherkidwell9817]

Or we could just go back to the leaded solder as numerous companies overseas have in recent years.

[@tyttuut]

​@@christopherkidwell9817let's bring back R22 and tetraethyllead while we're at it

[@peterlarkin762]

Totally agree, there are numerous lead free alternatives - this is bad procurement process/penny pinching. Large companies really can't go back to lead products, it's mandated in EU, US etc.

[@Nilsator333]

@@christopherkidwell9817 Pls no. There are already lead free alternatives that work just as well and lead is REALLY bad for you.

[@xNokko]

Wow 1h Long! Perfect for bed time. Thank you c:

[@northwestrepair]

1hr ? LOL i thought i was like 2hrs. Oh well

[@SianaGearz]

@@northwestrepair Double speed.

[@kevinschurman7021]

Note to self, ...DO NOT fart near my gaming rig! You crack me up Tony! What a great job, you are truly the master.

[@justinwilliams4380]

i hope you are keeping detailed records on all repairs made. would love to see a spreadsheet of which cards are worked on the most. also might would come in handy one day to hold the manufacturers accountable for the corners cut

[@northwestrepair]

I have the record but don't track any statistics. Only success rate to some degree.

[@justinwilliams4380]

thank you so much for the reply. It means alot to me that you took the time to read and respond to the comment. @@northwestrepair

[@Rotwold]

@@northwestrepair do you record failure mode eg. "Voltage rail designator + component designators + description of failure"? Don't know if it's useful for your operation, I guess it depends on the volume of cards you work on yearly.

[@northwestrepair]

@@Rotwold not in any way that can be tracked.

[@pjhb_microsoldering_portugal]

One of your best videos, thanks for showing the oscilloscope signals. No doubt, for me, you are one of the best techs in KZbin. Greetings from Portugal 🇵🇹

[@loverboykimi]

This is Top Level troubleshooting man.. Great stuff!

[@bulutcagdas1071]

Oooh 1 hour long video. I always get excited watching your repair videos for whatever reason :D

[@jayd8935]

You are right about dry caps, heh. Personally, when I do my own soldering (repairing old electronics from the 1970s) I will only use 60/40 Sn/Pb with an extractor fan and carbon scrubber. I've never had luck with Pb-free, they are all brittle, no matter how much silver is put in the alloy.

[@peterlarkin762]

Lead free solder doesn't mix well with any leftover oldoriginal solder, and like you said its hard to use and brittle. I also find the flux varies a lot in solder. Used to use cheapo tubes, now I use rolls of Stannol made in Germany. Vintage hifi forever! :)

[@ThatCasper]

I love you videos dude. I've never been interested in electronics, on this level, but you've made me very interrested. Also, to my ears, you have a similar accent to a chap called Nicholas Moran, "The Chieftain". Are you also from California, or haveGreek/Irtish descent? (Random, I know) lol Anyway, I enjoy watching your channel dude. Keep it up.

[@pelsiagasuki]

You never give up ! Excellent job 👏🏼 greetings from Italy

[@slimeck25]

dude. the commentary style = instant sub :)))

[@scotshabalam2432]

I noticed you were working on a mem tester and I saw Adrian's Digital Basement (Title:"It's so annoying when things fix themselves (but we made a new Diag ROM anyway)".) where one of his friends developed a deep memory tester for old memory but the technique for testing is essentially the same in any era so it might help or inspire you.

[@dannymitchell6131]

I left KY 4 or so years ago. Once I got to TN I saved 20k in a couple years...made more at Amazon in TN than in KY welding stainless all day. I felt your pain dude.

[@snailjail]

Ohh man, i'm late to the show....but...it has been a while since I had to giggle that joyfully (lack of words right there). I have to catch up on alot of your videos but i appreciate your obvious knowledge of alllll the tec. I got so many questions...I really love what you are doing!

[@svenhoff2653]

Lead free Solder is mechanically less durable compared to Leaded Solder. But i would think they are using Solder with a few % Silver (like in the Car industry) . This would make the Solder mechanically even more resiliant compared to normal Leaded Solder. It needs higher temps but it also helps with wetting. Thats why i use it especially for high power LED´s (in flashlights. . . ).

[@giglioflex]

Use solder with silver myself, stuff is great.

[@Junior_POA]

What a hard work pal. Amazing skills and aknowledge! Grettings from Porto Alegre (Happy Harbor), Brazil.

[@pascalgrison2399]

Amazing Video Again! You Rock! Greetings from France!

[@Aethelbeorn]

7:33 More relevant than ever. Kentucky must be absolutely thrilled to be going to the past lately.

[@Nobody_2024]

Love your channel, going through and giving a like on every video!!! Thanks for the amazing content and being a good human being!!! I appreciate your work ethics as I share your values. Had my own business repairing semiconductor equipment and had a very similar model. Still a million bucks shy of being s millionaire though. Keep up the good work!!!!

[@Zujanbre]

Great video. I love to watch repair videos. I'm very glad I found your channel.

[@PGW90RU14]

I'm not sure about the characteristics of lead-free solder, however I wonder if it causes cracking more than Zn-Sn-Pb solder. I was a digital circuit designer in the past and I didn't see any problem in lead-free solder except melting temperature and viscosity (self-alignment). If I could think the cause of cracking, it was the massive, repetitive temperature change in operational condition, I think. High temperature is a nature of high power consumption and it happened in mainly power circuit and power circuit had large foot prints in the past. But this assumption is not true in recent BGA large LSIs. Their solder joints are small so get cracked by swelling caused from temperature (e.g. think about bi-metal).

[@hyperstimmed]

lead-free isn't as soft, has less malleability, more likely to crack from any form of stress

[@sherlockholmes1121]

Excellent job mate.

[@Brunnen_Gee]

You basically described 99% of the jobs I've had. Every place is work harder, not smarter, and you're a bad person if you try something different that clearly improves things.

[@gazj]

hey bro watched you a while im loving the more recent videos watching you show more of you're personality come through

[@danielkuttel7867]

I believe that electromechanics will become increasingly important again in the next 10-20 years, because we urgently need to learn again (and the manufacturers need to make the products in the same way) that we need to repair broken things. With resources becoming increasingly scarce, manufacturers must also make all electronics more maintainable. When I look at the circuit diagram, the information overwhelms me and I realize that there urgently needs to be more specialists who are capable of repairing things. I sometimes repair smaller SNES and NEO GEO modules, but complete graphics cards or motherboards? Absolutely brilliant.

[@Blackbird46]

KY? Whereabouts in KY? I'm over in the bootheal side, Murray.

[@TheAndyroid]

At 1:06:23 in the bottom right of the screen, there seems to be a badly fractured resistor. Could have something to do with it...

[@Fergie6366]

amazing work as always but how can that labour time be costed you must love what you do

[@northwestrepair]

I don't charge hourly rate. I charge per fix.

[@Fergie6366]

what ever it is it is not enough as guys like you are in short supply@@northwestrepair

[@elmerellis999]

You showed yourself to be a true tech. I know what you mean about backward thinking in the work place, but it's not just the south that suffers from it. Good Job!

[@leso204]

I was trying to figure out why componants would change value' so all it was-was poor solder joint ?

[@QARepair]

You are absolutely right. I working in production 4-4 12hr shifts, I'm "dead" and repairing just more for hobby in my rest time, under microscope my hands shaking from factory job e.t.c., just for example I making complaints to management for over year to change button location higher not like now must bend body thousands of times up to 20k per day, for company that cost almost nothing just new mounts for assembly and rewiring but they just ignore, no body cares, people just keep coming and going and every one shit after self,we are just patch if ink

[@r3n846]

I'm curious, it's probably not ideal, especially for a professional repair, but could the good PWM signal from a neighboring mosfet have bridged to the other mosfet, and the bad signal pad blocked with conformal coating?

[@mjh17474]

You certainly earned your money for this one Tony 😍

[@biomagic8959]

the entire rant about kentucky is so entertaining 😅

[@nikolaskallianiotis8622]

Tony, I watched every second of this video and I knew from the beginning the answer on to "why GPU's break so easy" it would be the solder joints. Question: Would you consider a re-flow oven for such kind of jobs ? Do you think it will make any difference especially in saving time ? I don't mean to replace the reballing of a core with a reflow oven but only for this specific kind of jobs where you have to reflow every single component.

[@northwestrepair]

No I would not. How do you expect to reflow GPU with electrolytic capacitors and not blow them up or damage inside the oven . ?

[@nikolaskallianiotis8622]

@@northwestrepairLow temp I suppose...But anyway, this is not a good idea I agree. Just asked out of curiosity.

[@Killer344-ZxS]

​​​@@northwestrepair I remember reading about this method for more things than just GPUs, but in practice it takes a quite sophisticated oven capable of delivering precise temperatures on a given amount of time for each phase of the process, pre-heat, reflow and cool off.

[@zentechnician]

If you need a good strong metal table you can usually find table saws on your local marketplace for under $100. Also good as welding tables.

[@slami19]

One tip, when measuring resistance, do not hold the bare part of the DMM probes with your fingers. Although high, your body resistance can affect measurement.

[@barbarianzg8826]

this one just want to go where pharaoh goes after life..

[@renebartkowiak7122]

I don't understand the rant against lead free solder. Yes, there are really bad alloys out there but also really good. If someone takes the cheapest available than its his fault.

[@ltsmash7527]

6:06 its everytime the same, experienced this also a few times. if you say sth about making work faster or easier for everyone or if you have an easy solution for one of many problems at workplace, somebody else who has a higher position will come, claim that its his idea and do it. afterwards you will sometimes lose your job for saying the (sometimes unpleasant) truth and try to change sth and make it better. I always try to not kill some part of my personality. Just because someone else says you need to change or that you have a bad personality doesn't make it so. And if 99% of the people you deal with (including doctors and many other academically educated people) say something different, the person who made the comment or claimed you did something wrong may be wrong themselves.

[@quocdunglu6102]

i saw you was solder the original resistor at the wrong position 48:00 and 1:06:00 , can you exlain , that would helpful

[@Milo-id9qd]

Very very rough cooler, might help with heat absorption, as it provides slightly more surface area.

[@bodasactra]

I have a Power Color 5600XT ITX and a capacitor blew off with an air clean. It was two years old at the time with zero rough handling on my end. I used the opportunity to upgrade to a Sapphire Nitro 6700XT. Replacing the 5600XT used is as low as $40 so I don't think repair makes sense financially.

[@oynamalan]

Can anyone explain NVMT results ? what to look for in case of an malfunction?

[@Todestelzer]

20:47 why the surface is so rough? Because it cost money to make it smoother and when they can get away with it they will not care.

[@ovalwingnut]

I show up for the GPU REPAIRS but stay for the "life advice". Like my GF's bottom, this show is well rounded. Just saying. Thanks so much :)

[@panjak323]

Lead free solder is the biggest mistake in the industry. Is it really worth it to save few grams of lead in comparison to generating much less e-waste overall ?

[@Nintenboy01]

I thought it was done for health and safety reasons, mostly because the EU pushed it

[@trucid2]

The industry didn't choose to handicap itself.

[@hyperstimmed]

saving lead is not the purpose at all

[@giglioflex]

Lead is dangerous to humans even in small concentrations. No mistake was made moving away from it.

[@glenclark777]

Great Vid. Love the way you troubleshoot. How much did you charge the guy or is that don't ask kinda thing? I'm really curious how you work out how to charge jobs like this?

[@SpartanONegative]

I'm curious how much a hour you charge? I bet it's not enough. Excellent Work!! Thank you for sharing with us.. God Bless 🙏

[@ChrisGR93_TxS]

any idea why a new tuf gaming oc 7900xtx is not giving display on a rog strix z490-f gaming motherboard with the latest bios version. Set manually gen 3 speed gen2 gen 1 and auto does the same thing. Card spins fans and lights up. No recognize in device manager. Motherboard shows no pcie detection (white led)

[@rreiter]

lol I foresee manufacturer advertising claims of "Now with leaded solder!" becoming a new premium selling feature.

[@The_Man_In_Red]

I'd pay $10 more for that.

[@honeybadger6275]

Would need to rescind some laws to be able to sell that but yeah it would be nice.

[@SianaGearz]

@@honeybadger6275 Or you know they could be doing their job. Using better solder (unleaded, like 405), using heatsink subassembly for reinforcement, adding edge bond and underfill, using higher quality materials overall. Just adding lead isn't gonna help if the manufacturers are still hell bent on making things as shoddily as possible, they'll find ways to make it landfill fodder yet.

[@giglioflex]

You'd have to be mad to buy that. Lead was banned for a reason, it poisoned an entire generation of people in the 1980s. That's considering they knew lead was poisonous back then too. It was only the Romans that found out too late. Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

[@thesilverpittie9632]

Where in KY are you located? I am in Cincinnati and may be able to help with the table. Hit me up if interested.

[@alen2937]

Well I appreciate the openness with us, I just want to wish for you for your current work to fulfill you... despite the fact you throw so much bad stuff to amd cards :)

[@kikihun9726]

Crashing under load is 80% core, 20% power. Whem you hear an inconsistent coil whine before crash in furmark, that is a near dead mosfet or controller or components around them.

[@TheDigitalAura]

Lead free has been a pain in the butt since its inception. Red ring of death on original XBOX360's etc etc. I've never used the stuff and certainly don't plan to ever start. The lead allows a certain degree of flex in the joints essential for long term reliability. I've repaired so many Pb free dry joints at this point I've lost count.

[@Awesomes007]

Wild ass guess - a rough contact surface on a heat sink block might improve heat transfer efficiency?

[@mvargasmoran]

Why manufacturers don't use Pins instead of solder balls, like CPUs? I thought maybe because temps, but CPUs also go above 100ºC and I don't see them dying all around or having channels dedicated to repair about them.

[@gameplanet2087]

my sapphire rx 580 pulse 8gb doesn't show picture until sign in to windows. when i turn pc on it sounds 1 long beep then 3 short beeps at start. do you know what's the problem?

[@Nobbie248]

You are a master at your work

[@DemosthenesTOrtiz]

Hi you have a link to download nvidia graphic test, thanks

[@Zxays]

The absence of lead isn't the problem here. It's the fact that manufacturers use the cheapest stuff that barely does the job. And why shouldn't they? People will buy it anyway.

[@steve42069master]

No pride in making quality products, willing to cut costs at every single corner if it makes them a few dollars more.

[@brnmcc01]

That's pretty sad. I wonder tho if it's the manufacturer of the solder paste they buy that's cutting the corners. I'm sure board manufacturers do not make their own solder or solder paste, they just buy from whoever. Anyway that's beside the point, how much money is there in solder in even a large card like a 4090? $2?

[@Mandrag0ras]

People have no choice but to buy it anyway. What else could they do? Manufacture their own gpu or electronics? Unless remaining a caveman is considered a choice too.

[@RicardoSantos-oz3uj]

Too much Greed. Too little pride.

[@wumi2419]

@@steve42069master cutting corners makes them much more than few dollars. Faster breaking means faster replacing. And each replacement is a sale.

[@zondazerda2230]

Why don't they just install squat toilets? It is a lot more hygienic than just install toilets with out seat cover.

[@MrTwisted003]

You said you disagreed with your boss and got fired, and learned your lesson, "Don't disagree with boss".. Wrong, the lesson learned is, "Don't work there". Any place that is like that, deserves to fail, even if it takes time to do so.

[@kmortensen9312]

Hmm my Asus Tuf 3080 started doing the same going black screen full fanspeed when it reached around 65c on the core.. had to underclock it by 80mhz to make it stable.. fortunately its still under waranty so its at Asus' lab now and im crossing my fingers they will actually find a fault and fix int rather than send it back with some bs excuse

[@kmortensen9312]

@@Eric-rl3jlNo a week ago i got a mail from the company i bought it from and they informed me that i would be getting my card fully refunded.. no explanations on what was wrong with the 3080 in any way (didnt really expect it but was hoping there would be some short message from asus :D ) just got all my money back which is both nice and annoying.. nice that i can now spend it on a 40 series card instead annoying cause i have to find a good one that meets my requirements (noise/temperature/performance/build quality)

[@barttechcomputers1819]

Could you give a tutorial on how to find bad phases on a gpu, also best oscilloscope settings for card use please

[@hyperstimmed]

the comedy in this episode is great

[@herecuzimbored7057]

is there anywhere to check what GPUs have lead free solder to avoid those cards?

[@dipjyotichoudhury8816]

I have a WARNING on my GPU packaging that says chemicals like lead is used ... So does it uses lead solder or the lead is used somewhere else on the GPU...??

[@kunka592]

I'm wondering if that's just the hand-soldered parts like the power connectors, but I guess it could entirely be leaded?

[@chronickat5453]

we need to get you out of kentucky asap my brother

[@uniqueangel]

What brand and model are you using as thermal cam ?

[@cameraman2505]

Probably Infiray P2 or P2 Pro.

[@uniqueangel]

👍@@cameraman2505

[@zorandamljanovic6171]

Smart people dont need managers. Keep up the good work

[@broken1965]

I conferr Dr We shouldn't have to reball memory ect on newer cards. Be nice to know the percentage of cards having soldering issues.I think some CLASS ACTION IS in order😊

[@michalgajdos7575]

Product name for thermal camera please

[@MasterJediSean]

What city in Kentucky is your abode? I live in Surrey, BC which is very close to Vancouver. Cheers Tony!

[@pete0274]

You Sir, done an excellent job, if I could give you 1000 subscriptions I would . I've seen a video 3 years ago with guy reballing laptop GPU in South America- after 6 months GPU dies he said, maybe had same problems like you had with this MSI, but maybe, he failed to discover some stupid Pb free stupid brittle connections on other parts of the layout. Maybe that's why manufactures of mainboards now days are using 8 PCB layers, to overcome the rigidity(brittleness) of the soldering but, not sure is really enough. We put tension on our mainboards when use heavy CPU radiators, when we mount them incorrectly, we put to much pressure in turning the bolts excessively, even on AIO mounting can create pressure, DDR slots overused sitting several times the DDR modules. However the new alloys for soldering I think needs more silver %. Maybe 5-10%. High purity silver is good conductor but is also elastic. Still, Pb should have a good % in the the alloy. Your video description is equally precious and very important. BRAVO!!!!

[@toreediassen144]

At 36:51: Does a condenser also get hot?

[@northwestrepair]

I guess so after a discharge.

[@toreediassen144]

I see that google translate (and I) didn't do a good job, I meant an capacitor. 😀 @@northwestrepair

[@northwestrepair]

@@toreediassen144 same thing

[@DietMtnDew]

I was about to sub before your Kentucky rant bubba. Not sure what part your abouts but we ain’t all riding horseback haha

[@GeorgeTsiros]

Had a person argue with me about lead-free solder being fine. I tried to argue back that it _may_ be "fine" but it is definitely noticeably worse than normal solder. They didn't budge. Even though they acknowledged that in mission critical situations normal solder is still used. Their argument about that was "how many satellites are you planning to launch?". Oh well.

[@hanp2205]

My gpu was getting 2 hot i replaced thermal pads and paste any idea what i can do to further decrease temp?

[@vill2980]

You freaked me out with the intro. I thought my screen is garbled and memory is trashed.

[@n0n0n0n0]

Geesh ive been watching your channel for a long time i am trying to find a gpu repair course to no end and can't find any can you please help me. please point me in the right direction.....

[@SignedAdam]

great video, could i get the mods and mats software to try? the one you are using?

[@christang9406]

6:46 ~ never disagree with the manager 🤣

[@samjohn1754]

his chuckle is totally the "Paulie Gualtieri" chuckle.

[@ChrisFaulkner]

lead allows the joints to be flexible.

[@SunderMecha]

"next week you got herpes, oh I must've sinned, nope you sat on a dirty toilet." 😂

[@Mikomanus]

if you can't trust a simple resistor then whom can you trust?

[@iamdmc]

where did you get your NVidia MODS software? I'm having some weird issue with my RTX 4090 where I'm seeing fps performance degradation in every game and benchmark I've tried. GPU & mem report expected speeds (i.e. stock) and temps are low (under a water block). Any ideas on what it could be?

[@northwestrepair]

Discord

[@JohnChrysostom101]

This is 8 months old but tool auctions have metal tables amd anything else you'd ever want

[@TheCgOrion]

You will want to make the window higher resolution on some of those stress tests, if it's a powerful GPU, because you were CPU bound, and not pushing the GPU to full load. Obviously those tests aren't making use of every feature on the card, but in terms of 99-100% usage, it wasn't being pushed. If you weren't trying to stress it in that way, I get it. Just in case you didn't notice it, I figured I'd mention it.

[@Krzys_D]

furmark put the card at about a 90% load, which is good enough for the card to heat up and see whats going on with it.

[@tonict2302]

Ultra mega awesome video

[@esteban19h08m]

Thank you Peter! i will try to fart far away from my pc xD hope you have happy new year eve!

[@JohnChrysostom101]

I wonder if someone got ahold of this card before Tony that would make sense

[@Chebornek]

This information makes me wary of removing my MSI 1080ti from where it's been sitting since the summer of 2019. Was thinking I should clean then give it a fresh coat of thermal grease between GPU and heat sink - might be the beginning the end of it. You give these manufacturers 500 to 2000 bux for their shoddily manufactured equipment - thinking surely ASUS or MSI or Gigabyte, etc... would think enough of their product and workmanship that they'd take steps to prevent manufactured obsoleteness.

[@LoLxD-ze4wq]

its an older card before this stupid lead free movement happened