Baking the Motherboard

(and the electrolytic caps as well, which might damage them).

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The caps should be rated to take soldering temps for so long.

4pyros said:

The caps should be rated to take soldering temps for so long.

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Only on the pins and lower part of the cap. If you bake the entire thing though, the electrolyte is bound to overheat and destroy the cap.

also keep in mind that some of the "fixes" posted on places like many xbox a forums and on youtube (or even on forums about laptops, etc) are "spoilers". one of my son's asked me to look at a particular "fix" for an xbox bga chip that was posted on an xbox forum, and from what i could see was guaranteed to "let the magic smoke out" rather than fix the problem.... many of these spoilers are posted by people with a malicious sense of humor. IIRC, the "fix" was to bake the board in a microwave oven for 30 seconds....

unclejed613 said:

also keep in mind that some of the "fixes" posted on places like many xbox a forums and on youtube (or even on forums about laptops, etc) are "spoilers". one of my son's asked me to look at a particular "fix" for an xbox bga chip that was posted on an xbox forum, and from what i could see was guaranteed to "let the magic smoke out" rather than fix the problem.... many of these spoilers are posted by people with a malicious sense of humor. IIRC, the "fix" was to bake the board in a microwave oven for 30 seconds....

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I came across that one as well (the microwave oven "fix"), but I knew immediately that it was a stupid idea. The "baking the motherboard" fix is to reflow the solder joints beneath the chip. It makes sense, which is the only reason I took it further. I did not only hear about it on youtube, but from well-distinguished sources throughout the net.

I'm thinking the heat gun is my best bet, though I'll have to be extremely careful not to overheat the chip, and especially to not warp the board, that'll be the hardest part. I'll probably end up just buying a new mobo anyway. I found a few on ebay for $50-$70, so I may have a chance. But if I can fix it cheaply, then I'll give it a shot.

Thanks for the input guys!
Regards,
Matt

believe it or not, but the chip can take a bit more heat than you think... there's a reflow method i've seen that actually has the heat gun on the chip for about a minute and a half... i was somewhat surprised by that, and think it may have something to do with the reason Onkyo's method never worked for very long. Onkyo's method was 30 seconds of heat (and even at 30 seconds, the solder on the resistors and caps around the chip begins to discolor a bit). the odea of soaking the area under the chip with liquid flux may help some, since it changes the surface tension of the solder, and keeps the chip centered on the grid.

unclejed613 said:

believe it or not, but the chip can take a bit more heat than you think... there's a reflow method i've seen that actually has the heat gun on the chip for about a minute and a half... i was somewhat surprised by that, and think it may have something to do with the reason Onkyo's method never worked for very long. Onkyo's method was 30 seconds of heat (and even at 30 seconds, the solder on the resistors and caps around the chip begins to discolor a bit). the odea of soaking the area under the chip with liquid flux may help some, since it changes the surface tension of the solder, and keeps the chip centered on the grid.

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I've both read and seen that chips can take a lot more heat than I would ever expect them to. I guess whatever material they use (still plastic?) is really strong and heat resistant. As I mentioned before, my worry would not be to overheat the chip, but to warp the board. If the board becomes warped, the pins on the chip will never make full contact and it certainly won't work.

I don't currently have any liquid flux (shame on me!) but I plan to buy some before doing this.

Thanks again for your posts.
Regards,
Matt