Atheros LAN controller heating up

[lbwlow]

Greetings everyone
I taken out this Gigabyte GA-G41M-Combo mobo from a system of a friend of mine, it doesn't beep with no ram installed. The only thing I notice wasn't quite right was the Atheros LAN controller was heating up till the point where it burns my finger when I touch it. It even heats up the surrounding of the board where the chip sits. I suspect the LAN port was damage by lightning strike, since some part of my country still using ADSL connection. I have tested the CPU, HDD and GPU on other system and they work perfectly. And after close inspection, I doesn't find any burn mark. I think those capacitor are just fine and are solid caps. Is it ok if i attempt to reflow the intel G41 chipset ?

[ratdude747]

Re: Atheros LAN controller heating up

IMHO I wouldn't, simply because if it's been lightning fried, that could mean more fried chips (southbridge, etc.). Also, it's only a S775 micro ATX board; I'd think one would be somewhat inexpensive to obtain.

That being said, I'm not Malaysian, so if such boards are indeed a pain to source, then go for it... it's really a matter of ease/economics of replacement in a case like this.

[stj]

Re: Atheros LAN controller heating up

desolder the lan chip - 99% of the time the board will start & run.

this is a common fault caused by lightning - i have a dell board that did exactly the same.
your fix after is to find a replacement chip or use a pci adapter.

[lbwlow]

Re: Atheros LAN controller heating up

IMHO I wouldn't, simply because if it's been lightning fried, that could mean more fried chips (southbridge, etc.). Also, it's only a S775 micro ATX board; I'd think one would be somewhat inexpensive to obtain.

That being said, I'm not Malaysian, so if such boards are indeed a pain to source, then go for it... it's really a matter of ease/economics of replacement in a case like this.

Yup, i know the risk of other component could have been damaged by the strike. Yes, there are plenty of LGA775 board available in my country, but I am taking this opportunity to fix since it is gonna end up in the dumpster soon, and to learn something new and gain some experience in fixing this kind of stuff.

[lbwlow]

Re: Atheros LAN controller heating up

desolder the lan chip - 99% of the time the board will start & run.

this is a common fault caused by lightning - i have a dell board that did exactly the same.
your fix after is to find a replacement chip or use a pci adapter.

Thanks for the tip. But the de-soldering process didn't go as plan. I failed to desolder the chip by using a standard soldering iron. And even accidentally remove 1 or 2 SMD caps near the chip when my solder flow over them. I hope those were the caps for the LAN controller and won't affect much of the board. Still waiting for my heatgun to arrive.

[stj]

Re: Atheros LAN controller heating up

those chips usually have a metal pad in the center, you cant do them with an iron - ever.

[lbwlow]

Re: Atheros LAN controller heating up

those chips usually have a metal pad in the center, you cant do them with an iron - ever.

Oops, I just relize that.
Is it ok if I remove all the smd caps near the chip ?

[stj]

Re: Atheros LAN controller heating up

i wouldnt, unless your sure they arent for anything else.
and it obviously means your not replacing the chip later.

[lbwlow]

Re: Atheros LAN controller heating up

i wouldnt, unless your sure they arent for anything else.
and it obviously means your not replacing the chip later.

Yup, I am going to remove the chip and see how it goes, and I won't be replacing the chip either

[lbwlow]

Re: Atheros LAN controller heating up

UPDATE:
I have properly remove the Atheros LAN chip with a heatgun and clean up the surface of the board where the LAN chip sits with a solder wick. But the chip removal process had gone kinda violent, this is my 1st time removing QFP chip, and some solder pad were damage due to it was hard to get it off. And a total of 2 SMD caps were accidentally removed as well with my 1st attempt of trying to remove the LAN chip with a soldering iron because i applied too much solder and it flow over to those SMD caps.

For now, the board is able to POST and running memtest on it now.

[stj]

Re: Atheros LAN controller heating up

good news.