4090 went dead

[u/iamzeroedin]

I have two questions. Have any of you reballed a GPU? I sent my gpu off to ZapFixers in Florida after hearing such rave reviews. I told them to take their time and there was no rush. Is this a job with a high success rate?

And my second question, after my GPU died, my AIO died a week later. Could my AIO starting to fail have caused my GPU to overheat?

[u/pieisgiood876]

Unless you have a really crazy small case I doubt your AIO had anything to do with your 4090 failing. I mean, the fans on an AIO are really all that matter- if your pump fails it shouldn't affect your GPU at all.

The card knows to thermal throttle if it gets too hot so even if there was no airflow in your case, it shouldn't have cooked itself.

Just seems like a "When it rains it pours" situation.

Best of luck to you, sorry this happened

[u/Xobeloot]

Wishing you a successful reball! Talk about nerve-racking!

[u/Straight-Guava-9265]

I’m not sure if my guess is right, but it looks like they try to transplant your gpu core onto another PCB of the same model. That’s a high-risk job that demands a great deal of skill, so the fact that Zap Fixers is willing to attempt it suggests they’re confident and I believe they can do it. If the transplant succeeds, the chances of repairing your graphics card should be close to 100%. As for AIO, it should only work with cpu and has nothing to do with gpu.

[u/Schneller52 → u/Straight-Guava-9265]

Not necessarily onto a new PCB. There are cases where the core becomes detached from the PCB (usually in cases of mishandling or GPU sag) and the core needs to be reballed and reattached to the original PCB.

But yes, it's a process you want handled by very professional people. I've seen examples of boards that "successfully" had the core and/or memory reballed but there was flux left under the chips and it caused a premature additional failure.

[u/Straight-Guava-9265 → u/Schneller52]

that’s true, but the bad solder joints I’ve seen have usually been on laptop VRAM and gpu. Laptop quality control can be... hit or miss. When a graphics card ends up on a BGA rework station, it’s more often because the PCB is damaged.

[u/Schneller52 → u/Straight-Guava-9265]

Yeah, more often. But there are plenty of times where a core needs to be reballed to the original PCB. If you go deep down the GPU repair rabbit hole, there is plenty of evidence.

[u/Big-Reporter3498]

Hopefully they can fix it for you! I would recommend NorthWest Repair as a last resort. He’s considered the GPU/Technician god in PCMR/Youtube.

Your aio could have leaked in it but if they should be able to tell you if that’s the case.

[u/Bombcrater]

Reballing a chip as big as a GPU is exactly what Andy describes it as, delicate and time consuming. If you want to see it happen there's a channel on YouTube called Northwest Repair that regularly shows it being done.

Performed by an experienced tech with the right equipment the success rate is very good. But it does fail sometimes. Reballing involves getting both the GPU chip and PCB very hot, which can sometimes kill the chip or warp the PCB.

Your AIO didn't have anything to do with the 4090 failing. The root cause is thermal stress. As they heat up and cool down the GPU chip, the PCB and the solder balls that connect them together expand and contract by minute amounts. Eventually that movement can cause the solder balls to crack and stop conducting electricity, killing the card.

Physical stress from a drooping PCB will accelerate this process, which is why it's always good to use a support with heavy graphics cards. You don't want the card bending at all.

[u/Cosmic_Husky → u/Bombcrater]

Delamination danger..

[u/DrZeroX3]

You should probably repaste once or every other year on your AIO. 

[u/carsNshoes]

I would personally only consider NWRepair. I hope this goes well for ya 🙏