Calling all solderers! Can someone repair an old 6800GT

[cwatson]

I have an older XFX 6800GT that had a bad encounter with water. I had cleaned it off but one of the contacts burned off, in my frustration of trying to solder it back I managed to drop some solder on it and the adjacent contacts.

Does anyone have the skills to desolder and resolder the contact and otherwise analyze the card for integrity?

(Before solder accident state was currpoted screen)

I can provide pics if necessary

Please drop my a PM or email @ cwatson@mail.friendsbalt.org

[I will pay for repairs]

Im in MD in the USofA

Thank you all

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/magicstickvi/6800gt0.jpg

[enzoR]

post a pic. im in europe though. In USA im sure hellfire, malves or Catalyst might wanna help you out.

[gclg2000]

EnzoR...i've heard about malves corner but it seems to be no more. What about hellfire and catalyst..??? How do you contact these guys??

[Rabbi_NZ]

isnt Malves in the UK?

[cwatson]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/magicstickvi/6800gt2.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/magicstickvi/6800gt1.jpg

[cwatson]

The top pic is blurry..the multimeter said nuthin

[MRip]

You can but a solder remover at Radioshack, might be worth a try...

[cwatson]

I dont have the skills to do this, obviously. Id much rather pay I fee to someone skilled than to warrent this card FUBAR.

[cwatson]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/magicstickvi/6800gt0.jpg

[craig588]

So are all of those pins torn off of the board and you tried to fill in where they are supposed to be with solder, or did you just get a little bit of solder on all of them? If that many contacts are burnt off there is no hope for this board because the signal integrity is severly comprimised.

What happened with that huge blob of solder above the pins in the second pic? It appears to be bridging something to ground.

Where do you live? If you live near Hartford, CT you could swing by my shop sometime and I'll check out if it is resonable to attempt to repair it. (If there are burnt traces or signs of corrosion the card probably won't work ever agian) I would hate to have you ship it only for me to find out, oops I can't repair something like that.

[cwatson]

All of the other pins are fine. One pin is destroyed; the first one (furthest to the right. The rest are just covered in solder.

The blob is part of a trace covered in solder. That whole blod needs to be desoldered along with the covered pins.

Its what...... 1/2"x8"x4" without the mounting screws...would be too hard to ship

[scragley]

I can fix it it, but I am in Australia though :(

[craig588]

I think we worked out a way to fix it, I was chatting with him on AIM for a bit.

The pin is going to be remade out of conductive laqure and the trace will be replaced with a wire that runs from the resistor the trace used to connect to to a part were the remade "pin" extends higher than the AGP slot.

If you know of a way to get solder to stick to the PCB and reconnect the real pin I would love to know how. I have tried many things and it just falls off rather quickly unless it is bonded to other metal.

[STEvil]

... how did you get that much solder on the pins?!?!?

[gclg2000]

Looks like it's :banana::banana::banana::banana:'ed to me man. Banana dance time!!

[Skip]

well if the neo4 can run it x4 pci-e bandwidth, and it only uses 1/3 of the pins, then maybe he could do that, because those things definitely look shot.

[TekXoID]

well if the neo4 can run it x4 pci-e bandwidth, and it only uses 1/3 of the pins, then maybe he could do that, because those things definitely look shot.
That's actually a really good idea, running partial x PCI-E mode doesn't even hinder performance enough to notice in real world games anyway.

[Jamo]

looks like an agp card to me

[cwatson]

the pins are covered, not lost. yea its an AGP card. craig helped me greatly in finding a way to fix it.

[enzoR]

you cannot use conductive laquer. it will sratch off after installing and removeing the card. to get those pins clean of solder is easy. just some solder wick. now, to replace that pin. i think a flattened copper wire glued to the PCB would work.

[craig588]

It worked with a ram stick once, I would think it would be alot easier than trying to get a little peice of copper wire to stick in the exact right position without covering it up and not making it too thick while still wide enough.

[cwatson]

and who says i cant keep on replacing it? ..it prolly be fore a 24/7 comp anywayz

[b18_cya]

rma?

[naelq]

rma?
RMA what?! :stick: :stick:
put your glasses on bud! :D :D

[cwatson]

^^what he said

[sparkie34]

rma?


:down: :slap: :shakes:

[jagzzzzzzz]

Tell me exactly what I am looking at. From what I see it looks as if the foil run surled up on you. Also you somehow managed to get solder all over the other pins, which can be removed easily. Now for the blob around what appears to be a resistor, is that a resi9stor in there? I am a 2M tech in the military and was in charge of the 2M lab. How much and how quickly can you get it to me as I am transfering soon.

[cwatson]

where are you located; however if you read craigs post, we seem to have found a way to fix it...

[jagzzzzzzz]

Heres a bit of advice, first off what they suggested wiil work, but remember when wicking to use a liquid flux. Flux is what will allow you to melt the solder with less heat, and also aiding in the capillary effect of wicking. Also take the braid and kinda mash it towards the spool or whatever you are holding it with, it will make the wick wider and thus alloing air inbetween the strands of the braid, also aiding in the capillary effect. second, the glue won't work that well and will run the risk of heating and letting go, instead use a board repair epoxy kit, don't know where to find one though as all my stuff is in the lab. Make sure to allow the epoxy to fully dry for 24 hours if drying at room temp, you can stick it in the oven and place around 200F or lower if you want to feel safe about it, but 214 is what we dry cards out with in the service, usually for 2-3 hours. To hold the piece in place on the board use some sort of small clamping device to apply firm pressure, also to ensure the clamping device does not adhere to the epoxy you can cut up a lid of a coffe can (plastic) and use it as a buffer between the clamping device and copper run. Lastly make sure to scrape off the epoxy that may run and adhere on the other side (electrical connection side), which can sometimes make it appear that you haven't fixed it, when in reality you just have epoxy over the connection point. Hope this helps. Oh and I am in CT

Edit- the oven temp is kinda risky now that i re-read because i am not sure what the melting temp of the board is, in the military it's pretty high due to the possibility of fire and we want it to work as long as possible, so maybe 24 hr at room temp is the best bet. remember sometimes slow is fast!

[cwatson]

can I just use by brazing flux? ty btw.

[jagzzzzzzz]

Don't know honestly. The stuff we use is brown in color and liquidy, there is some gel forms, but I am unsure of brazing flux. Did the card work prior to you taking a nap with a soldering iron in your hand?

[cwatson]

a drop of water with dye (making it conductive) dropped on the back of the card. I inspected the card after the comp crashed due to the shorting and found nothing other than the drop, which i cleaned. then i rebooted and saw an entirely corropt screen. then i inspected the card oncemore, and noticed the missing pin. a was attempting to solder wire to PCB and somehow, coming to the conclusion it wasnt going to happen, managed to drop a blob of solder. pissed, i tried to wipe it up and just made more of a mess.

i guess this is all with the assumption that no 1st pin = corropt screen (the PC booted fine and i could get around the bios having memorized keystrokes)

[STEvil]

to get rid of all that extra solder use a flat blade tip (will need fairly powerfull iron depending on tip size) and squish a wick between the blade and the pins and drag it across them carefully.

Be very carefull, dont want to get things too hot.

To fix the missing pin get a pci/agp/stick of ram or something thats dead and steal two pins from it.

glue the first pin to the PCB of the card with epoxy then solder a wire to its top end and to the point you need it to go to. Glue the second pin overlapping the first by about 1/3rd so it extends down into the slot as far as needed, then use solder on the 1/3rd that is overlapped.

easy eh? ;) Use toothpick to apply epoxy, let it dry a minimum of 2 hours if you use 5 minute epoxy, 24 hours if possible.