Moving onto BGA work

[newtothis]

Hey all,

So in the last 2 years I have learnt a hell of a lot about repairing electronics starting a while back on an old 32" LCD TV... I moved on from TV's to ICE DVD/NAV systems and I am making a great turnover. So time to move forward and start getting in proper equipment and other repairs.

I am looking into BGA work mainly especially Graphics Cards etc, I can do small - medium chipsets with my hot air station but a good sized GPU is too much of a match for hot air. I am considering getting an IRDA rework station for the most common issues of cold joints under VRAM and GPU chipsets which should sort most defective items. Of course other issues can be present like smaller SMD components being at fault etc but these are not so much of a problem... the one I am thinking of is if the VRAM or GPU chipset itself is faulty. Where would one be able to source replacements for these? Especially for the high end market of things like the R9 280+ series cards and Nvidias Titan etc?

I am thinking of getting the IR6500 rework station too if anyone has any + and -'s to it?

Cheers

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Moving onto BGA work

The IR6500 is a good place to start, IF you upgrade the top heater to an Elstein one from the get go. Otherwise you will have problems with smaller and sensitive chips being damaged, as the stock heaters are notoriously uneven. Otherwise it is a decent station for the money.

Replacement GPU chips are available on ebay and Alibaba, but they are not cheap, so replacing the BGA itself is a last resort solution, or for those chips with known manufacturing defects such as the nvidia 6000, 7000, 8000 series, but those are already getting old and most people have upgraded and no longer desire to fix them (good riddance).

However, you can measure with your multimeter before starting work, on the ceramic capacitors on the back of the board, or directly on the chip on those which have an exposed top. If the chip is not shorted, 90%+ of the time, reballing will fix it.

[newtothis]

Re: Moving onto BGA work

Cheers for the info.

On average how many Graphics Cards do you think are down to cold joints causing faults?

I have tried looking up for E.g a Malta 7990 GPU but cannot find anything, Is it the actual chipset ref code I need and if so how do I obtain these before having the card in front of me?

Cheers again

[BGA Rework Store]

Re: Moving onto BGA work

newtothis the achi ir6500 is a good machine but i.m.o if you want to move on to bigger boards at some time you may have trouble with the bottom heater , My webstore has a great offer on atm with the Scotle ir6000 and its available in the U.K for fast shipping . Dont forget the Achi is owned by scotle but with this machine your get better bottom heat if the admins dont mind here is the link buddy

http://bgareworkstation.co.uk/BGA-St...-uk-stock.html

I'de rather you get a good machine at a good price and yes im not ebay either so no worrying about contacting me

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Moving onto BGA work

Cheers for the info.

On average how many Graphics Cards do you think are down to cold joints causing faults?

A great many. If it has not been overclocked, the GPU detaching is usually responsible.

There are also other things like VRM shorts (happens especially when the card has a lot of dust on it, or when overclocking without appropriate cooling), but for that too you need some bottom heat, as the thermal capacity of GPU boards is very high and you won't be able to remove mosfets with the hot air station alone.

I have tried looking up for E.g a Malta 7990 GPU but cannot find anything, Is it the actual chipset ref code I need

Yes, it's the code on the chipset that you need. You can find that with google images - you will find high resolution photos of each bare card on at least one review site.

[BGA Rework Store]

Re: Moving onto BGA work

best way to remove fets is low melt alloy soak it in and they get nice and wet eaiser to remove than heat alone