veganfanatic
I have noted that several elite video cards from that period were caught up in the change of solder to a lead free variant
 
The affected hardware galore including hard disks, motherboards and peripherals generally.
 
It took time to figure out how to make solders that were more reliable and not short out or fail over accelerated testing etc
 
 

Wasn't the RoHS Directive for led free solder implemented in 06~09,thereabouts, for products coming in to the EU? I wouldn't have thought it would have affected a card made in 15, surely?

Data1987
that really sucks!

It certainly blows.....sorry, couldn't resist.

Puddles.

veganfanatic
I have noted that several elite video cards from that period were caught up in the change of solder to a lead free variant
 
The affected hardware galore including hard disks, motherboards and peripherals generally.
 
It took time to figure out how to make solders that were more reliable and not short out or fail over accelerated testing etc
 
 

Wasn't the RoHS Directive for led free solder implemented in 06~09,thereabouts, for products coming in to the EU? I wouldn't have thought it would have affected a card made in 15, surely?

EU adoption was clear back in 2003. There were already various formulations in the works years prior.

HeavyHemi

Puddles.

veganfanatic
I have noted that several elite video cards from that period were caught up in the change of solder to a lead free variant
 
The affected hardware galore including hard disks, motherboards and peripherals generally.
 
It took time to figure out how to make solders that were more reliable and not short out or fail over accelerated testing etc
 
 

Wasn't the RoHS Directive for led free solder implemented in 06~09,thereabouts, for products coming in to the EU? I wouldn't have thought it would have affected a card made in 15, surely?

EU adoption was clear back in 2003. There were already various formulations in the works years prior.

Thanks. I knew it was in the naughties at some point. Brain is getting a little old now.
 
As usual the UK was a little behind: 
 
"The RoHS Regulation came into force 1 February 2008, but replace similar Regulations that came into force on 1 July 2006."

bob16314
Sounds like solder cracking somewhere on the PCB may have occurred..That was not uncommon with cards of that era and can cause issues such as artifacting, freezing, restarts, BSOD, more.

If all else fails, you can disassemble and bake only the PCB (aka the 'oven trick') to reflow any solder cracking that might exist, then hope for the best.

If you bake it, do it only with the GPU chip side up and not down.

Baking may only fix it for a short time, or a long time, or not at all if there's a component failure.

Disassemble the card..Preheat oven to 200C..Place the PCB with the GPU side up on a cookie sheet/baking pan..Bake for 10 - 15 minutes..Lots of other videos on YouTube about how to do it.

+1 
Seen my fair share of failing/failed cards and many have shown that sort of behavior. I've had great success with the oven trick, and may be worth a shot if you're not really wanting to spend money on a new GPU. I've had baked cards last day's while some lasted years after. 

 

It certainly blows.....sorry, couldn't resist.



lmao

bob16314
Sounds like solder cracking somewhere on the PCB may have occurred..That was not uncommon with cards of that era and can cause issues such as artifacting, freezing, restarts, BSOD, more.

If all else fails, you can disassemble and only the PCB (aka the 'oven trick') to reflow any solder cracking that might exist, then hope for the best.

If you bake it, do it only with the GPU chip side up and not down.

Baking may only fix it for a short time, or a long time, or not at all if there's a component failure.

Disassemble the card..Preheat oven to 200C..Place the PCB with the GPU side up on a cookie sheet/baking pan..Bake for 10 - 15 minutes..Lots of other videos on YouTube about how to do it.

Wow, thanks!  I have a GTX 980 Ti and was running into the same issue as OP and tried the bake idea mainly because I'm on the verge of getting a new card (I hope) and it WORKED!  At least in the short term my BSOD and hard resets seem to be gone.
 
Do you think that down clocking might help limp it along a little farther?  If so, I don't have much experience with it, would Precision or Afterburner be better to start with?

tboatcap
Wow, thanks!  I have a GTX 980 Ti and was running into the same issue as OP and tried the bake idea mainly because I'm on the verge of getting a new card (I hope) and it WORKED!  At least in the short term my BSOD and hard resets seem to be gone.
 
Do you think that down clocking might help limp it along a little farther?  If so, I don't have much experience with it, would Precision or Afterburner be better to start with?

Glad it worked for you ..Hopefully it'll stay that way, for at least a while..If it happens again, bake it again.
 
Hard to tell if downclocking it will help or not, probably not..The cracking is caused by thermal stress (expansion/contraction) as the card heats up and cools down..Running a more aggressive fan curve would help more I think.
 
If you use Precision, you should use Precision XOC for that older card.

bob16314
 
If you use Precision, you should use for that older card.

Thanks!