Anyone ever replace mem on a GPU?

[Eldonko]

I was thinking of giving this a try, but Im not sure of what is needed to do the soldering. Is there a special way to solder on mem?

[metro.cl]

i once saw a crazy rusian guy do this

[BenchZowner]

The "normal" way to solder BGA chips is with an "oven" ( special machinery )
You can do it yourself without an "oven" but success isn't guaranteed

[celemine1Gig]

This might sound harsh now, but if you have to ask such a question here, chances that you'll succeed are quite low.

No hard feelings, but soldering BGA parts is generally nothing to do at home with "normal" tools. It requires special tools to be able to do it right. And even if you have access to such tools, that's no guarantee that it'll come out perfectly.

[Cupcake]

Yeah, have you ever seen the machines they make multi layer PCBs with ? You would pretty much need to undo all of the work they did and it would be impossible and take..... just about forever

[Eldonko]

The reason I ask is I was told it is possible by the dude at my local electronics parts store. I didnt think it was possible but after I was told this I thought I would ask. Anyone know of someone that did this successfully? I would like too see some pics of said "oven", hmm.

This might sound harsh now, but if you have to ask such a question here, chances that you'll succeed are quite low.

As for you, I dont need those comments, take them elsewhere. All I ask is information from those with experience or knowledge about this type of thing.

[G.Foyle]

BGA memory is soldered to solder pads which are on the topmost layer. I have seen it done, in fact I have a Radeon 9800pro with memory transplanted from another one that fried. I did not do it, but it was done in laptop motherboard service oint. they had the approriate machine and equipment to regenerate BGA balls. It costed almost as much as new card.

[Fujimitsu]

The reason I ask is I was told it is possible by the dude at my local electronics parts store. I didnt think it was possible but after I was told this I thought I would ask. Anyone know of someone that did this successfully? I would like too see some pics of said "oven", hmm.

As for you, I dont need those comments, take them elsewhere. All I ask is information from those with experience or knowledge about this type of thing.

It's doable, but not easy.

If you've got a busted card, it can't hurt.. but I wouldn't reccomend trying it unless the card is already useless.

He wasn't trying to be mean, he was trying to warn you. I would have to agree. Unless you've had experience with this kind of thing, it's probably best to avoid trying it on a working card.

[Eldonko]

So they put those solder balls for each mem contact and heat it so it makes contact to the card I guess. That is interesting, I wonder if I can find a place around here and get a quote for this..

[Eldonko]

I didnt plan on doing it to a working card. I have 3 cards sitting here with fried mem, I was thinking if I can find somewhere to do this I could get some cost savings by getting 3 cards done at once.

[jason4207]

I've removed an IC w/ 16 legs. The down and dirty way to do it is to use copper solder braid to soak up all the solder on the current chip legs. Once you get most of it soaked up the chip will pop off if you get an x-acto knife in there and twist. When you put the new chip on get a little solder on the tip of your iron and drag it across the IC legs.

A RAM chip has many small legs, and the little pads on the board will peel off pretty quick if they get too hot.

Let me warn you, the chances are VERY HIGH that you will mess something up doing it this way!

[STEvil]

wrong type of memory Jason.

[celemine1Gig]

...
As for you, I dont need those comments, take them elsewhere. All I ask is information from those with experience or knowledge about this type of thing.

Easy man. I said "no hard feelings". All I'm trying to say is that this is no walk in the park. You either know your business and just do it, or you'll have to learn it from scratch. And if it's the latter, chances that you'll succeed on your first try are very low. That's reality!

Either have it done some place where people know what they are doing or be prepared to fail. As easy as that.
I would be more than happy for you if you could prove me wrong, by just doing it and having a fully functional card with new RAM. That would be awesome! But as I said, in reality, I highly doubt it. That's all.

[G.Foyle]

Eldonko. try asking in laptop or cell phone service point, they might have appropriate equipment.

Oh, and how's your 8600GT vmod?

[cadaveca]

I didnt plan on doing it to a working card. I have 3 cards sitting here with fried mem, I was thinking if I can find somewhere to do this I could get some cost savings by getting 3 cards done at once.

You know who to ask...

[jason4207]

wrong type of memory Jason.

You're talking about the RAM chips on the gfx card, right? There are usually 4 or 8 of them of most gfx cards. I was saying I've done a chip w 16 legs, but a RAM chip w/ ~100 legs would just be that much harder.

[Eldonko]

Eldonko. try asking in laptop or cell phone service point, they might have appropriate equipment.

Oh, and how's your 8600GT vmod?

Will do. Didnt get to the GPU mod yet, I am going to try and get it done this weekend. Bunch of mem arrived I gotta test so ive been busy with that. I have done alot of vmods before, but I have to admit that im kinda intimidated with that mod, those chip legs are soo close together..

no prob celemine1Gig, my patience are just short sometimes if I dont get the responses Im looking for.. I was just curious too hear if anyone has done this themselves or got it done professionally.

cadaveca - what do u mean, can u hook a brotha up with a contact?? I talked to the active electronics guys and they are basically useless.

[cadaveca]

who bought the nortel place in Calgary? Solectron, or something?

[Eldonko]

Yep, Solectron. They do the electronics manu services for nortel now. I think they may be closing tho, not sure. Do you think they do services for regular consumers?

[C-N]

I've removed an IC w/ 16 legs. The down and dirty way to do it is to use copper solder braid to soak up all the solder on the current chip legs. Once you get most of it soaked up the chip will pop off if you get an x-acto knife in there and twist. When you put the new chip on get a little solder on the tip of your iron and drag it across the IC legs.

A RAM chip has many small legs, and the little pads on the board will peel off pretty quick if they get too hot.

Let me warn you, the chances are VERY HIGH that you will mess something up doing it this way!

Dont all shoot its just my 2 cents worth.

It all sounds crazy & highly unlikely to work but I have heard of people changing IC's on RAM using a hairdryer to pop the chip then solder the replacement back on & clean the job up as mentioned above.

CN

[cadaveca]

Yep, Solectron. They do the electronics manu services for nortel now. I think they may be closing tho, not sure. Do you think they do services for regular consumers?

Dunno. But they should know who can, as they'd be "competition"...and if they're going "bye-bye", who'd their employees be going to, other than the oilfield?

[wittekakker]

You're talking about the RAM chips on the gfx card, right? There are usually 4 or 8 of them of most gfx cards. I was saying I've done a chip w 16 legs, but a RAM chip w/ ~100 legs would just be that much harder.

We are talking about RAM with BGA 'pins', right?

I was thinking of giving this a try, but Im not sure of what is needed to do the soldering. Is there a special way to solder on mem?

hard to do without proper equipment

desoldering isnt too bad, u can do it with a heat gun, but resoldering it back on.. now that's a challenge..

best thing to do is find a mate with access to a BGA resoldering station

It has been done before, not that long ago either: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=162867

EDIT: can't find other examples for the moment, but I'm 100% sure there is more. ALT-F13 (or something like that) has done it too.

[Eldonko]

Wow good link, very interesting!

[jason4207]

^^ If it looks like that then never mind my above posts. I was thinking of chips w/ the legs on the sides.

[Eldonko]

Yeah it looks like wittekakker's post, need one of those oven things to attach.