Baking hardware in an oven?

[MxPhenom 216]

I have a question about baking hardware in an oven. When you go to bake a motherboard or GPU are you putting it into your typical oven thats in your kitchen, or an old one you have out in the garage or something? I ask this because could baking electrical things make the oven toxic after while, making it so you can't cook food?

 

[Frick]

You don't leave it in for so long so I don't see how that would be a problem. Unless you frequently melt cards in them

 

[Outback Bronze]

lol i remember cooking an old motherboard of mine that gave me the shits and loved the sound of capacitors going "POP"!

I did this in an old wood fired oven outside btw and smoke was billowing out of the chimney.

Ahh that was a good night on the piss with me mates.

 

[Jetster]

A little Hazardous material never hurt anyone. Seriously though your fine as long as you follow the instructions

 

[ViperXTR]

i baked my GTX 460 SE on a toaster, seems to work fine and ate some heated food there as well '__'

 

[Phusius]

new to PC world... why do u guys put PC parts in the oven?

 

[Frick]

new to PC world... why do u guys put PC parts in the oven?

to make them work. if you have a deadish gpu or motherboard you can pop them in the oven for a bit so the solder will reflow. specifically, BGA chip solder. it depends on what the problem is and often its not a permanent fix but you get some more use from it.

EDIT: Here's a small article on the subject.

 

[Phusius]

hmm thanks frick... odd, all my parts have always worked fine new so far, this is my first build tho so maybe i just got lucky

 

[Frick]

hmm thanks frick... odd, all my parts have always worked fine new so far, this is my first build tho so maybe i just got lucky

Nah parts usually work fine but sometimes you end up with a graphic card or motherboard (usually laptop motherboard) that have weird behaviour after a few years and sometimes it's because the connections on some BGA is bad, then baking/reflowing might do the trick. I think it was a pretty common problem on the 8800GT's iirc..

 

[xBruce88x]

I can confirm the issue with the 8800GT... I've baked mine and so far its been working fine. Not bad for a card I got outta the dumpster... still plays most games fine. Crysis, Borderlands, Starcraft II, Red Faction Gorilla, Black Mesa, Duke Nukem Forever... to name a few.

If you do bake something you gotta remember to remove the heatsinks, fans, misc plastic things, etc, remove/clean off thermal pasts and its also a good idea to clean the part itself too. Then have the card/board supported in a way that its perfectly (as close as possible anyway) level in the oven. I think it ranges from 375-400F at 15-25min depending on the part. I always make sure its completely cooled off after baking before I attempt to move the card/board. I just open the oven after turning it off and have a fan blow inside to cool it back down. This way I don't get any chips that fall off lol. Disturbing the card while the solder is still melted can lead to all kinds of issues, like the ball grid not aligning properly. Oh and of course have the GPU and any other chips facing UP. DO NOT FACE IT DOWN OR IT WILL FALL OFF... unless you want it to fall off for w/e reason. Of course after all said and done you will need to apply new thermal paste to any components that had it to begin with.

I've still got an Xbox 360 board, and a couple 8600GTs to bake... just haven't really needed to yet. (don't have a use for the parts ATM)

Edit: oh yea... my 8800GT had a bit of a minty/cinnamon like smell to it while baking lol

 

[ViperXTR]

in my case, washed it first then baked it '__'

 

[droopyRO]

When i posted about my dead POV 8800GTX and got replys that i should bake it in an oven, firstly i said that they were making fun of me.
But then i tried it, heated the oven for about 30 minutes, removed all plastic things from the board including the GPU heatsink and then baked it for exactly 8 minutes, then washed the oven didnt want to eat lead cooked pizza or something
That was at Christmas 2009, the card still works (even with oc@ 621/1000) today(use it as abackup card).
You could take it to a professional and get it repaired though.