I have a randomly failing MB, it randomly freezes, which is worthless to me right now.
Any thoughts about baking it?
I read they use a higher temp solder so the oven needs to be hotter.

A very few tiny SMD devices are on the bottom side clustered in one area.
It has the better type of capacitors? Would they survive the heat?
Other people bake MB's.
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M4A87TD_EVO/overview/

 

I would say the power circuitry is suspect. Probably capacitors. Especially if you were overclocked and running hot.
But these things are so cheap I never bother to try repair. Should be tons of AM3+ boards on the cheap just now, I'd upgrade.
Or bake it because you've nothing to lose. Its all the plastic stuff on the IO that i'd be worried about more than anything.

Also random freezes could be caused by many things other than your motherboard.
You've tried;
1. clean OS install
2. New (different) VGA card
3. Different ram (or at least just 1 stick)
4. bios reset.
I could go on.

 

I have a randomly failing MB, it randomly freezes, which is worthless to me right now.

Are you certain it's the motherboard? I once had a computer become unreliable and it turned out to be the power supply.

If it's really the motherboard, I wouldn't bother trying to repair. You have no way to do a complete test, so you're living on borrowed time.

 

yes, I swapped parts around, using known good parts, still cant resolve the issue. Keeps pointing me back to the MB.

I bought the MB used off ebay and the seller refunded me, so its free but busted.
It can run prime95 for a whole day without errors, but can also just freeze even in the bios setup.

 

The oven trick is famous from fixing GPU's, which hang heavy coolers, and have complex power circruits, allegedly the thermal cycles break solder or weaken the connections, which oven baking allows to reconnect.
I doubt the same principle will help your motherboard.
It could be your CPU even. I've had old Athlon processors that i ran overclocked to the max for years, then all of a sudden they got flaky. I know it was the cpu because I had multiple cpus' and motherboards at the time, swapping components around the problems followed the cpu.
Assuming however you've done the same and come to the conclusion its your motherboard, putting it in the oven, whats the worst that could happen;
Burn your house down?
Make your oven unfit to cook food for yourself/family?
More than likely nothing will happen and you'll still have a bad motherboard. But thats part of what makes trying new stuff entertaining, maybe it will work.
Considering you got your money back, i'd drop it in the E-waste can and call it a day.

 

I recently did it to an HP formatter board and all is well. I used a gas oven, Put long spacers on the board to act as feet (about 2" high). Removed any labels and the socketed RAM. Felt insulated an RJ45 connector housing.

Found a pan about the size of the board and made sure the PCB would sit level.

Used a K-type thermocouple and pre-heated the oven and made sure the TC read 350 F. Dial and 60 YO oven were right on. I calibrated the thermostat when I replaced it.

Inserted the assembly (upside down pan and PCB with feet)

Closed the door for 8 minutes. Turned the oven OFF and opened the door gently and left it open. Removed the PCB the next morning.

Put the stickers and RAM back and installed. The printer was about 8 years old. Baking the formatter is a known fix when certain symptoms appear. It's been a few months and all is well.

 

Baking ultimately did not help.
I noticed problems with memory, and CPU has the memory controller, so I pulled off sliding lock cover and behold, corroded pins!
I plan to keep board for parts, caps are solid state.