Baking a Toshiba Satellite... Help?

[ThePoetPyronius]

Hey guys,

So, I have a Toshiba Satellite C850 that broke down on me a year or so ago and I've been working up the courage to bake the GPU. It has a Radeon 7610M in it, according to the specs, and I believe it's safe to assume that the GPU is the problem with it due to the screen artifacting and display driver crashes that preceded its death.

SO... today I popped open my Toshiba Satellite to pull out the the Radeon 7610M, and saw this...

I was pretty confused because it looks like the Radeon 7610M is actually integrated with the motherboard, in the middle of the heatsink tubes. Is this a thing? I'm not an expert here, can someone take a look at the photo and confirm that this is indeed the case here?

If so, my next question is - if I can't bake the GPU by itself, is it safe to try and bake the whole motherboard? I mean, the laptop's busted so there's not much to lose, but is it worth trying? Are there elements to a motherboard that shouldn't be baked in the same way as a GPU?

Also, should I be concerned about this mild burn/corrosion on this connector? >

I have no idea what it does, I just didn't like the look of the corrosion.

Cheers for the help guys, I'm pretty amateur at this stuff.

 

[USAFRet]

Who told you that:
1. Baking a GPU/motherboard was a good idea
2. That it would fix whatever specific issue is wrong with this.

 

[ThePoetPyronius]

Who told you that:
1. Baking a GPU/motherboard was a good idea
2. That it would fix whatever specific issue is wrong with this.

No one told me, it's just the last ditch attempt to fix something that's just going to stay broken if I don't try it. There's really nothing to lose here, which is exactly the sort of situation baking a GPU seems to suit. Especially because I'm fairly certain that overheating was one of the main culprits for the broken laptop. If overheating caused micro fractures in the solder, baking can potentially re-set the solder.

It's a hail mary, but when you're going to lose the game if you don't, why wouldn't I give it a go?

 

[USAFRet]

and I believe it's safe to assume...

What, exactly, went wrong with this thing?

 

[ThePoetPyronius]

and I believe it's safe to assume...

What, exactly, went wrong with this thing?

As I mentioned, it used to get very warm when I was playing graphically demanding games. It started artifacting (green and purple lines across the screen on boot), display driver would occasionally crash. Eventually degraded to the point where the screen is black on boot. External monitor is the same. If it's something other than the GPU, I don't know what it is. Kinda been over this already some time ago, though I appreciate the sentiment.

 

[USAFRet]

Try reapplying the thermal paste before you put it in the oven.

And just because you've "Kinda been over this already some time ago", doesn't mean anyone else reading this has any idea of what the original problem is/was.

 

[ThePoetPyronius]

Try reapplying the thermal paste before you put it in the oven.

And just because you've "Kinda been over this already some time ago", doesn't mean anyone else reading this has any idea of what the original problem is/was.

Ok... but surely thermal paste won't fix a broken GPU? Just keep temps down. It's not going to go from 0-150C on boot, so it can't just be the thermal paste...?

 

[USAFRet]

In certain failmodes, baking a part can, short term, maybe fix things.

The whole laptop motherboard? Get it hot enough the reflow some broken solder, and you'll melt some other parts.

Maybe look at all that dust on that fan.

 

[ThePoetPyronius]

In certain failmodes, baking a part can, short term, maybe fix things.

The whole laptop motherboard? Get it hot enough the reflow some broken solder, and you'll melt some other parts.

Maybe look at all that dust on that fan.

What parts do you think would be prone to melting?

I've just been reading up on it, and people have baked whole motherboards, but I have to be sure to remove anything melt-worthy. Processor, stickers, fans, foam supports, etc. Anything you can think of I haven't mentioned?

And yes, the fan needs cleaning. I'll worry about it if I ever get this piece of junk to boot again.

 

[jimmysmitty]

The issues you are talking about, green lines on boot, tell me that the VRAM has more than likely gone bad. That is the AMD chips just above your fan and next to the dGPU on the heatpipe line.

Baking it will not fix this. The only issue that baking a laptop motherboard ever fixed was a black screen issue due to a faulty soldering job on some older HP laptops with NVidia chipsets.

 

[ThePoetPyronius]

The issues you are talking about, green lines on boot, tell me that the VRAM has more than likely gone bad. That is the AMD chips just above your fan and next to the dGPU on the heatpipe line.

Baking it will not fix this. The only issue that baking a laptop motherboard ever fixed was a black screen issue due to a faulty soldering job on some older HP laptops with NVidia chipsets.

Ok, that's interesting. No reasonable way to try and change the VRAM out though, right? It's soldered on to the board, and I'd need identical chips (and be more electronically capable than I am x.x) to try and change it out?

Just quietly, I hope you're wrong. I mean, one way or another, this bad boy is getting cooked. Whether or not I throw the HDD in my desktop and the remaining pile of smouldering circuitry in the trash afterwards is the only subjective commodity here.

 

[USAFRet]

Try it.
See what happens.
Write us up a summary of success, fail, or oven destroyed.

 

[ThePoetPyronius]

Try it.
See what happens.
Write us up a summary of success, fail, or oven destroyed.

Your consistent skepticism is... unsettling, USAFRet.

What's the risk here? You keep making backhanded comments that it won't work, but you haven't told me why I shouldn't do it. Oven destroyed? I'm guessing you're supposing the board might catch fire somehow? Talk to me man, I'm an amateur, you're the pro. Dissuade me with facts or arm me with knowledge, but I need something concrete to make an informed decision here, not just offhand comments. Tell me plainly and clearly, why do you not think this is a good idea? I had assumed that circuitry is more likely to melt that burn, but is there another risk I'm unaware of?

 

[USAFRet]

The 'baking of a GPU/motherboard' can work, short term, in some limited circumstances. Primarily, older HP motherboards with bad solder joints.
If you hit the exact right temp, it can soften the bad solder joints, and maybe 'fix them'. It may not last.

If you do it wrong, what are the possibilities?
"It STILL doesn't work. I know, I just need more heat"
So you turn the temp or time up
"Still doesn't work'
Try it again, with a bit more temp increase.
Eventually, some part (plastic) that was not designed for that temp will melt. Funking up the inside of the oven.

Can this fix every possible fail mode of a GPU/motherboard? No a chance.
Has it worked on some boards, in some fail modes? Yes.

Will it work with yours? Unknown.
What yours seems to be doing does not seem to be a bad solder job.

It is not a magic fix.

But...if you desire...try it. See what happens.
The people that did this on their boards long ago..it worked. They wrote it up and/or made a video.
This probably took several tries before a successful 'reflow'.

Try it. Write it up. Tell us the results, good or bad.
It doesn't work now, so what do you have to lose?
Worst case, a funky oven. Best case, a fully working laptop.

 

[ThePoetPyronius]

The 'baking of a GPU/motherboard' can work, short term, in some limited circumstances. Primarily, older HP motherboards with bad solder joints.
If you hit the exact right temp, it can soften the bad solder joints, and maybe 'fix them'. It may not last.

If you do it wrong, what are the possibilities?
"It STILL doesn't work. I know, I just need more heat"
So you turn the temp or time up
"Still doesn't work'
Try it again, with a bit more temp increase.
Eventually, some part (plastic) that was not designed for that temp will melt. Funking up the inside of the oven.

Can this fix every possible fail mode of a GPU/motherboard? No a chance.
Has it worked on some boards, in some fail modes? Yes.

Will it work with yours? Unknown.
What yours seems to be doing does not seem to be a bad solder job.

It is not a magic fix.

But...if you desire...try it. See what happens.
The people that did this on their boards long ago..it worked. They wrote it up and/or made a video.
This probably took several tries before a successful 'reflow'.

Try it. Write it up. Tell us the results, good or bad.
It doesn't work now, so what do you have to lose?
Worst case, a funky oven. Best case, a fully working laptop.

Dynamite, thank you. Exactly what I was hoping for. So, try it, keep the temp where it should be, don't keep trying it and push the temp up.

Thanks man.

 

[ThePoetPyronius]

Alright, so here's the post bake update -

Alas, it didn't work.

I popped the motherboard in the oven at 200C for 8 minutes after stripping it down, but there was a whole bunch of glue from stickers on the board that I couldn't get off, especially since alchohol would melt the board. The worst of it turned out to be under two braces on the underside of the board, underneath the CPU and GPU.

[http/imgur.com/SDWZEP9]

I couldn't see it at first, and didn't think to look, but the braces appeared to be held on with some sort of glue, which went black and peeled away upon baking -

[http/imgur.com/met8BSs]

Not that it made much difference, I would have given it a go either way I guess.

The strange thing now is that when I try to boot the laptop I get a flashing white light and no attempt at booting at all. I looked online to see what this meant, and it seems to be something to do with the power supply. I tried a lot of simple suggestions to do with taking the power out and resetting the memory by holding down the power button, and taking out the CMOS battery, but to no avail. She won't budge. I suspect either some melted glue or possibly just the act of baking it has created a short circuit somewhere.

So, that's the end of that chapter. Thanks for the help though, guys, really appreciated and it was a learning experience. And now, I can comfortably strip the laptop down for parts.

Thanks again.