Video card roaming at home

It's unlikely that a lover of modern computer games can do anything more than a new discrete graphics card with high computing power. The reason for this is that game developers are releasing more and more demanding graphics adapter applications, thereby fueling interest in the products of NVidia and AMD (formerly ATI), in the range of which there are powerful video cards. However, this information is unlikely to surprise anyone: the shelves of computer stores are simply "overwhelmed" with different models of solutions from AMD and NVidia - as they say, for every taste and purse.

If you mentally make a journey back in time ten years ago and ask a computer gaming enthusiast how to select the optimal graphics card for his gaming system, then the answer will include relevant tests and reviews on the Internet. The number of pipelines, process technology, cooling, noise level and some other characteristics mattered. And it appeared at that time that one or two years after the purchase, it may be necessary to roast the video card - no one would have believed it, considering such words as a joke. Alas, as is often the case, the reality surpassed the boldest assumptions. Now roasting the video card is a familiar way to restore the device's working capacity ... But let's talk about everything in order.

The key element of any video adapter is a graphics processor. This is a large chip with a high degree of integration of its constituent electronic components. Usually on it there is a metal radiator with a fan or simply a radiator with heat pipes (in case of passive cooling). However, the whole chip is not yet a processor. Its main part, the so-called core, is concentrated in a small black square-crystal placed on a textolite base. It is with him that the radiator comes into contact. The crystal is a microcircuit with a lot of legs-terminals soldered to the seats on the site of the textolite base. These contacts are so many that soldering has long been performed on automated conveyor lines. On each contact is placed a ball of solder, which, melting, connects the leg of the chip and the pad. But how is the video card roasting connected with all of the above? The connection is direct.

In early 2005, many owners of video cards NVidia began to complain that the cards for no apparent reason stopped working. Symptoms were very diverse: stripes or squares on the screen; Impossibility to install the driver; Inoperability in 3D mode, etc. Then there were reports of similar problems with AMD products, although "leadership", after all, belonged to NVidia. It was not always possible to write off everything on the "hot temper" of the devices, so they assumed that it was all a matter of poor-quality soldering of the whole chip to the card of the video card. However, in 2008 NVidia recognized a low-quality soldering ... in the gap between the crystal and the chip base, that is, the internal defect. On some contacts, the solder ball could be completely absent, therefore, due to natural oxidation, the resistance at these points increased, which led to known problems. At others, the soldering was substandard due to the lack of solder.

Fire a video card - this is one of the ways to try to return a failed map "to life." It is necessary to carefully remove the entire cooling system, and wrap the plastic elements, connectors and electrolytic capacitors with foil. Place the video card in the oven on a dielectric chip base up. Switch on the heating to 200-230 degrees. In this mode, the card should be warmed up for 20 seconds. Turn off the oven, slightly open the door to organize a gradual cooling.

After this operation, the video card can earn. The term of its service after this is from several days to 2-3 years.