Crazy PC Repair.

[odj]

So my computer decided to become 'faulty' recently. (I have a macbook pro) Graphics buggered up and had to re-start, gradually getting less and less time logged on until I couldn't even boot it up.

Did a quick crack open and clean of the insides, replacing some messy thermal paste. Nothing. General consensus: graphics card fried. Damnit. Considering the graphics card is built into the logic board that'll be about $700 to replace. F-that.

Quick search around the net and a couple of different recovery ideas later no dice. I was getting drastic so time to get to some extreme measures. I found an idea that some people had done, with success, for recovery of broken graphics cards. The idea is simple, put your graphics card (or in my case logic board) in the OVEN. 10 mins at 200 degrees centigrade. Even when you are in last resort territory you are still cautious. I did it for 8 mins at 180 degrees centigrade. Patched it back up, booted up and the only thing gone wrong so far is that the date/time was set at 2008.

I'm speechless.

Has anyone ever heard of this or tried some crazy recovery techniques?

[Ash]

I'm more curious as to why you thought 20 degrees and 2 minutes less was gonna put you in the "not gonna melt my video card" zone.

[Paitryn]

I can only guess that the heat fused any severed connections in the board.

as for the temps, Im not sure what the melting point of the board is, but the solder is made from tin/lead in electronics normally, and its melting point depending on concentration is 188-190 degrees C. at 200 degrees he could have melted away the solder after 10 minutes. So probably a good call there.