AMD Nvidia GPU chip level repair guides, troubleshooting, anything

[lordvader88]

Where is a general chip level guide, or threads/etc, with the shared wisdom and experience of such things. I have no hope of a finding schematic, but people work on these, so some one knows the basics of them. Searching this on google gets me nowhere as usual.



I have an old ATI HD 5870 that I'm sure sure has very serious overheating problems, just need another PSU to really check into it. Hopefully it's not a big IC thats cooking to death. The card did display a loading screen (haven't tried since, but it's hardware, not software etc)

[HecticZA]

The only guys I really see that occasionally uploads these type of repairs are mostly from India.
Unfortunately it is often in Hindi with mostly no translation options. When they are uploading to YouTube in English, I often struggle to get past the accent.

Maybe look for Harshad Patel or Sieguntur on YouTube.
Not sure of they actually have something that will help you, but those are some of the names that I can recall doing various chiplevel repairs.

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

[SaabFAN]

Graphics Cards are typically rather simple. They have the GPU and directly connected to it the RAM.
The Power Supplies are pretty much self explanatory if you know how a Synchronous Buck-Converter works. In my experience, most of the time something in the PSU-Section fails. With any luck, it's a short to GND and you can see it. If not, GPU and therefore RAM have seen 12V and are 99,99% dead.
Just measure the high-side MOSFETs and the Output-Voltage. A short to GND from 12V: High Side-MOSFET gone. Short to GND on the Low Side-MOSFET leaves burn-marks. The GPUs want about 1V. If it's significantly higher or lower, something in the PSU is wrong. If voltage is ok, check if there's activity on PCIexpress-Lanes and the Traces going to the RAM. No actitivity: GPU bad.

Another common fault is a broken PSU-Controller on the card. Or a MOSFET Driver-Chip. Again no schematics needed - Just check the datasheets and look for the Enable or PowerGood-Signals. Often the time the manufacturer follow the Datasheet Example-Application to the letter (of each Resistor-Identifier ).

[lordvader88]

How do people even probe these while they are powered up, I know without a fan on the main chip, they get SUPER HOT in seconds and probably die or shut down anyways.

If I knew which are the main power pins on the PCI-e bus, I'd apply a few volts just to see what kicks. Either way this is just for fun, worst case is I'd have some more free SMD parts

[joseph nicholas]

The GPU is almost a decade old, why bother at this point? You can get a new one (e.g. GTX 1030) that's >5x better for $30.

Indeed, you can buy new pci express video card for a ridiculously low price on ebay.

[SaabFAN]

Overclocking-Records. - If I remember correctly, the 5000-Series were really good overclocking-targets. I managed to overclock my HD 5830 by almost 35% with Overvoltage and Capacitor-Mod (6 4700µF Caps soldered to the back of the card).

[lordvader88]

The GPU is almost a decade old, why bother at this point? You can get a new one (e.g. GTX 1030) that's >5x better for $30.

Indeed, you can buy new pci express video card for a ridiculously low price on ebay.

for fun/experience

[joseph nicholas]

My own experience with this problem is the big IC under the heatsink just cooks itself.  I suppose you could buy a new nvidia chip and reball it so just for fun then try it.  Did the video performance suffer while it was working?  In my case the display would stop working for a few seconds then restart.  This progressively go worse and eventually it packed it in completely.  It was overheating and it eventually burned itself up.

[RomDump]

Where is a general chip level guide, or threads/etc, with the shared wisdom and experience of such things. I have no hope of a finding schematic, but people work on these, so some one knows the basics of them.

You can't escape the laws of physics. Always start with the basic fundamentals like voltage measurement's.

Searching this on google gets me nowhere as usual.

You are probably googling the wrong terms. Try these:

"VGA L2-1" "VGA L2-2 Training Materials" "VGA L1 Training Materials" with quotes. A few links come up on manualzz.com. The real guide is "VGA L3-2 Training Materials".

I hope that pointed you in the right direction. For Copyright reasons I can't upload or post any links to the guides.

[Rasz]

The GPU is almost a decade old, why bother at this point? You can get a new one (e.g. GTX 1030) that's >5x better for $30.

did you mean to write $130?

How do people even probe these while they are powered up, I know without a fan on the main chip, they get SUPER HOT in seconds and probably die or shut down anyways.

small cpu cooler + paste (to hold it like glue) on gpu die, pcie riser for connection, flat on the table

[lordvader88]

Yeah I'm hoping it's anything but the 5770 chip, (I've been at my Tek422 scope, so haven't tried it since) But if the actual temp is going up that high in 10-20sec, then I'd say the chip is shorted.

I want to apply some low voltages to the power circuits, still never spend enough time looking for a PCI-e pinout, found PCI but not PCIe yet.

But now it's video game time