Just revived two notebooks in the oven!

[___]

I finally tried the famous baking oven reflow method

Got a dead macbook air from one of the neighbours and another dead ultrabook (HP slimbook) from my recycling yard buddy.

Since the macbook air was having a RAM issue and thus not booting, there wasn't really anything to lose. I would have tried it with a heat gun, but since the chips are BGA I didn't want to risk pcb fractures or swimming smd components. Took off all plastic tape and stickers, heated the oven at 190 degrees celsius and put it in on a riser that I made from alluminum foil to keep the pcb from getting into contact with anything but hot air.

Baked for 8mins and voila, it works again like a charm. Let's see how long this'll last...

I repeated the same procedure with the HP slimbook mobo, though I was doubtful since it has many heat sensitive parts on the pcb. there was just way more connectors and smd caps. I covered the exposed caps with tin foil, just to prevent contamination of our baking oven in case one would pop. The fault here was an overheated GPU which had contact issues because of the overheating and thus the laptop was dead.

And this one works as well! None of the caps blew...

turning garbage into gold ^^

Anyway, if you have a dead laptop you might as well try this just for shits and giggles, at least you can tell your friends that you baked yourself a notebook

EDIT: Though I still stand by my last sentence of the OP, please be advised that this is not a sure fix for anything but will rather only prolong the inevitable. See further down the thread for a few very informative videos.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Nice.
I also did the heat trick once, but with a hair dryer.

 

[Wally]

[youtube]
I kinda think actually repairing the problem rather than baking the chip is a better idea, were they liquid damaged?

 

[Bernd]

https://www.youtube.com/user/rossmanngroup/search?query=oven

 

[Wally]

I love his work!

 

[Bernd]

Jepp.

Nice to listen to him during work.
(Even, as an machine fitter which don't own a single pice of Apple product.)

 

[fusion_power]

Reflowing can work surprisingly well. But from the cases I know, it often does not last very long. However, great to see it working for entire Notebooks too. I know it mainly from baking graphics Cards.

 

[levi]

I have a broken 360 with the error that often means the board needs a bake. I've got a heat gun, but I've not seen how hot that can get yet. I've considered picking up a cheap tabletop oven and converting that into a resoldering oven, but I may pick up a second hand 360 before I get round to doing that.

 

[Bernd]

If you didn't watch the videos a short summary:

Bakeing don't fix the failure.
Its like try to cure a broken leg by drinking till you get wasted.
You don't feel the pain, but the leg is still broken.

The themperature changes caused the bond wires and / or the chip itself inside the package to break.
(*Bond wires: extreme thin wires of gold or aluminium which connects the silicium chip with the connectors of the package.)

Heating up only causes some expansions inside the chip, which causes a short return of function.
(Most times the chip fails after some heating / cool down cycles.)

But the heating up causes additional damage to the other components around the chip and the baked chip itselfe.
Bakeing most likely converts a repairabe board into an non repairable board.

I would search a cheap used console as an organ donor & replace the board.

 

[vcoleiro1]

I put my Macbook Pro motherboard in the oven and reflowed it several years ago. It worked well and still works.

Mind you, I didn't hve a choice, it was leave it not working, pay Apple more than it was worth to fix it, or oven reflow.

I've also done a heat gun reflow on a xbox 360 which also worked out.

 

[___]

I kinda think actually repairing the problem rather than baking the chip is a better idea, were they liquid damaged?

No liquid damage in either of the notebooks, both obviously had overheating issues and failed because of that. Known issues with both models. If they weren't damaged beyond repair, I wouldn't have considered this experiment.

Thanks for the videos, just notified the new owner of the hp sleekbook that it will not last long. Let's see how long that is. The explanation was very informative, I had indeed gotten the tipp on an HP forum where numerous people had the issue and tried the oven method. Obviously a working laptop for free is better than a worthless piece of junk/paying more than the laptop is worth for a repair. The HP indeed has a GPU issue that seems exactly like the one described in the videos, it is a flip chip BGA.

The macbook air however didn't have a damaged GPU but faulty RAM. This to my understanding is another issue?

Anyway, I am not a professional. I am a junk scavenger who likes to repair broken shit. So maybe try to be a little less condescending and patronizing the next time @Wally and @Bernd
A simple sentence like: "oh no, you should never do that, watch this video for an explanation" would have sufficed and make me feel less than an idiot.
I repeat: these were doorstops before, a professional repair job would've cost more then both notebooks are worth combined, otherwise I wouldn't have even considered it.

 

[Wally]

Yeah I'm sorry mate!

I would strongly recommend you watch some of his videos though. You might be able to learn to repair some stuff!

 

[rygD]

When I put notebooks in the oven they just get hot, and sometimes the pages get a bit singed.

 

[FaeMinx]

When I put notebooks in the oven they just get hot, and sometimes the pages get a bit singed.

Now I'm wondering what kind of irreparable damage to those notebooks caused you to try that.

 

[rygD]

I recently knocked my water bottle over, which I neglected to put the top on, right onto a pile of books and notebooks. I was sleeping. Luckily only one book had any real water damage, and it is one that is used in many classes, so readily available and affordable. I aired it out and don't really need to replace it, but if I do I will go for a hardcover replacement. There are dozens of other books I want to get before I consider that. There might have been a couple tiny drops that splashed up on an open notebook, or maybe those came from somewhere else.

I broke the screen on my main laptop a week or two ago. Maybe I can fix it if I stick it in the oven.