Graphics Card for Desert

I have some old AGP Graphics cards that have failed and I wanted to try baking them to try and make them work again. I'm either going to get them to work, or take them apart and see what I can save. It probably won't be a lot, but it'll be fun to do. And that's what this is really all about, right?

I have two cards. One of them is a ATI Tech E‑G012‑03‑1115 ATI Radeon 9800PRO, and the other one is a VisionTek Radeon HD 2400PRO DirectX 10 900175 256MB 64-Bit GDDR2 AGP 8X HDCP Ready Video Card (at least it looks like the picture on New Egg). Here they are before baking.

I put them into a test bench to see what exactly was wrong with them. I tried the ATI with the broken fan first. There was some serious artifacting. 

The VisionTek didn't even allow the computer to POST. The fan on the card spun, but that's about all of the feedback I got from it.

So now with nothing to lose, I began to dismantle the graphics cards, taking off the heatsink and fans. The VisionTek was easy to remove. The ATI took a lot of elbow grease because there were no screws. It was all pressure fit. I actually had to break the nubs in the heat sink for it to come off and then still deal with the plastic standoffs. Here they are with the heat sinks off and the thermal paste removed as best I could. Again, the VisionTek was easier.

Now it's time to bake. I lined a pan with foil and lifted the cards up with tiny balls of foil for better convection. Then, I put them in for 9 minutes at 375°F and let them cool off for 30 minutes. 

The smell wasn't the best in the world, but it wasn't too bad either. After getting cold to the touch, I tested them once more and here are the results. The VisionTek still prevented the computer from posting, but the ATI seemed to be artifacting a whole lot less. I baked it again at 385 for another ten minutes and before turning it on I put on another fan with some adhesive thermal paste. I let it set overnight and then I tried it. Turns out I made it worse.

Well, I can't say I didn't try. I know the method works, but it didn't work for me. Oh well, I probably wouldn't have used them anyway.