Service manuals for GPUs. Is this a thing?

[silentbogo]

Yeah :\ i did some tests yesterday and found more bad capacitors. Probably i'm going to spend a couple of hours taking those off and measure them. Could order them on Mouser though, i don't have any stock of MLCCs.

Just from pics I see lots of oxidation. The issue may be not just caps, but the PCB itself. BTW, the cheapest source of caps is donor boards. Also, it's the most reliable source of information, if you don't have schematics (or PCB pics off internet, if you are lucky enough to find hi-res pics of your specific model).

Regarding the topic of schematics and service manuals, it's like pink unicorns nowadays. OEMs themselves rarely fix hardware issues on GPUs, and because of that employees of said OEMs (or authorized third-party service providers) rarely leak these docs 'cause they don't get those either. At least not as often as motherboard schematics. I think over the past 3-4 years all I managed to find, is a couple of boardview files for GT730, some GTX950/960 and one variant of GTX1080. That's about it. I don't think I've ever seen a schematic or BRD for anything AMD-related since 7000-series.

 

[VR Snowcrash]

Interesting to see all the interest in electronic repair but there is a general lack of knowledge about SMDs in general. For instance, people believe you can "brick" a GPU by having a bad VBIOS flash or corrupt file. Your VBIOS is just an EEPROM and can be erased and reprogrammed on the GPU with a clip adapter without having to even replace it. More importantly, a standard multimeter should not be used to troubleshoot a GPU. The leads alone on a multimeter are too wide and make probing the PCB dangerous as you can easily end up shorting components accidentally. Always use an Oscilloscope to probe and test. IT is much faster than any method of tracing with a multimeter. Simply walk the circuits from front to back and if your signal drops before the output you know where the problem is. This applies to ALL electronics. I learned it in the 80s then joined the U.S. Army to work in aviation electronics (Avionics). I suggest anyone who is serious about repairing their own GPU or purchasing broken GPUs to repair and sell to purchase a book on basic electronics so you can learn the fundamentals before heading blindly into trying to repair a GPU based on feedback in posts. Once you understand basic electronics you can expand your knowledge easily. With the present E-Waste problem and a shortage of semiconductors to replace these GPUs it only makes sense to stop throwing your money in the trash and learn how to deal with the problem yourself. At one point you couldn't use a PC, you played FPS and lost a lot, you couldn't change the oil on your car, etc... It's not that hard nor does it take a lot of money to build the tools and knowledge to fix anything. It takes patience and learning that's it. Now go make yourself rich selling crypto miners and gamers GPUs you hand pick by the symptoms in the description and fix in 20 minutes to an hour. Then turn it around and make 5x your investment.

 

[AsRock]

Sadly yes, how ever with the push of Right To Repair it might change one day. If only more people would complain.

All so

Let's get Right to Repair passed!, organized by Louis Rossmann

My name is Louis Rossmann; I run a laptop repair store, advocate for Right to Repair… Louis Rossmann needs your support for Let's get Right to Repair passed!

www.gofundme.com

 

[VR Snowcrash]

Sadly yes, how ever with the push of Right To Repair it might change one day. If only more people would complain.

All so

Let's get Right to Repair passed!, organized by Louis Rossmann

My name is Louis Rossmann; I run a laptop repair store, advocate for Right to Repair… Louis Rossmann needs your support for Let's get Right to Repair passed!

www.gofundme.com

Louis is a great technician and definitely is fighting for Right to Repair on the front lines. You are correct that more people need to stand up and demand the Right to Repair so things like service manuals and components will be readily available for everyone. I don't see what the problem is anyway. Most people would rather pay for a new GPU than spend hours repairing the one they have. It's the way of the world now. Replace, don't repair, and it's killing our planet.

 

[Shrek]

If it was profitable to repair, repair shops wouldn't be shutting down everywhere.

 

[VR Snowcrash]

That's hilarious considering I had 56 work requests in 10 hours the last time I posted this service. It takes me about 20 minutes to diagnose and maybe 20 to rework something difficult. I charge $50 to $150 depending on the service and it's not difficult compared to what I was trained to work on. So how is it not profitable? Oh yes, that would be because everyone is not capable which is the point. Not profitable for you. Extremely profitable for me. Especially when a crypto-miner wants 15 GPUs reworked at a time. Do you know who made the most money during the gold rush? That would be the guy selling the picks and shovels. In this current age of crypto mining, GPUs are the picks and shovels. Not only can I keep my hash rate high I can also make money increasing the capability of others. I'm a game developer and I'm doing this on the side to fund the game. So far it's been nothing but profit so you might want to advertise your services to the correct demographic? Best of Luck

 

[Shrek]

I wish there were more people like you around; I repair my own stuff, but there are some things I could not have diagnosed.
Securifi Almond 3 Repair (SMD capacitor) | Electronics Repair And Technology News (jestineyong.com)

Crypto mining might be in trouble
Coinranking: Cryptocurrency Prices Live - Rates List Today

But the unfortunate truth is that there are not many computer repair shops left; I wish this were not the case.