Artifacting Video Card

Monday, August 8, 2011
This is a project I have been working on for about a month and so far I have been unsuccessful. It is a radeon X1800 XT that displays pink lines across the screen and the screen goes black soon after booting up the computer. A friend of mine, an electrical engineer and a pc gaming enthusiast, suggested that it might be the memory on the board. I have been trying to heat up the memory in hopes that it will reflow the solder, but so far I have gotten zero results. Below are pictures of the video card and the artifacting that is occurring.




I originally tried heating it in the oven at approximately 380 degrees Fahrenheit, and then letting it cool for a while. Achieving no results with this approach, I contemplated using a heat gun but could not think of a suitable way to insulate the rest of the board. At this point I was ready to give up on the project altogether, but I acquired a butane-fueled torch/heat gun/soldering iron that was the perfect size for what I needed it for. I am not sure how hot it gets but I am sure it is far beyond 200 degrees, even on low. I originally attempted heating the memory(pictured below) on medium-to-low for 3 minutes. That approach did not work and now I am going to try heating it on high for   3 minutes. I am planning on increasing the heat and time until either the video card is ruined or it is fixed. I will update you when either happens.



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