FuryArc

I just spend $300 and bought a motherboard off of eBay. I finally got everything to work and my GTX980m is awesome. Installed windows 8, too. Process took about 2 months and a lot of talking with HID Evolution support who were surprisingly really helpful. They were able to tell me what to do and give me the right drivers to install. I just followed the general pattern of update VBios in my radeon hd 7970m, then set up boot in UEFI mode, then replace graphics card with the GTX980m, then install windows 8 UEFI from a USB stick, then update the OS and install drivers for the computer hardware, then disable driver signing in windows 8 (settings>Change PC settings>Update and Recovery>Recovery>Advanced Startup>Troubleshoot> startup repair> then pressed 7 to disable driver signing), then I installed the modified drivers that HID Evolution gave me and everything worked like a charm! I played GuildWars 2 and had MSI Afterburner monitoring my card during that time and I had stable temps of around 60-65 celcius and got roughly 140fps. I am satisfied. I have no screen "flickering" or anything and I did not modify my heatsink or anything. Some people say you need to put something over a couple pins because they rub up against the heatsink, but I have not encountered any issues with that as of yet. Everything works 100% and I am a happy camper. If anyone wants to know more, just message me and I'll be glad to share my information since it was so difficult for me to obtain it. Thanks for all that help I had here.

A cold joint is formed when the joint is either disturbed during cooling or the joint was dirty/no flux was used during soldering. The crystal structure of the solder is disturbed and the connection is unreliable.

I would not advise using the heatgun for soldering the chip back in place - you'll heat up the whole chip which could expand slightly and contract when cooling, potentially disturbing or forming stress on the solder joints. However, the chip is small and the number of pins is not huge, so I would not expect it to be a problem in this case.

In general, I would advise always using the soldering iron to solder things back into place - you have more control and can fix pin alignment as you go, as well as avoiding putting too much heat on the chip (as you would with a heatgun).

I think you may have the wrong idea that flux is a magic substance . All it does is clean the surface you're about to solder, prevents forming of an oxide layer to aid said soldering and keeps the solder from spreading out. Over-heated flux "burns" and makes the joint dirty, so you need to clean old flux off with some rubbing alcohol before applying any more and performing the soldering

I would also advise against reusing the solder already on the board. Old solder can be dirty and may be harder to work with. It's always better to use new solder when soldering a new chip on.

Here's the steps required for a successful procedure:

- Use the heatgun to heat the old chip (apply some flux to the pins with the flux pen beforehand). Remove with tweezers. Don't move the board or touch any other components as their joints could be hot enough to melt the solder and you risk them falling off or accidentally swiping them away with your tweezers.

- Use a solder wick and the soldering iron to wick away old solder. Make sure the pads on the board are flat as they are clean from solder.

- Apply some rubbing alcohol on a micro-fiber cloth and rub any old flux off.

- Apply some flux to the pads with a flux pen, place the new chip on the pads.

- Prepare the soldering iron with a THICK tip, like a chisel or flat (common mistake is to use a small thin tip - never do that. Thin tips do not have enough thermal capacity to keep the joint hot. If you use a thin tip you will find it frustrating and almost impossible to solder).

- Inspect the (hot) soldering iron tip. Is it clean? Apply some solder to the tip, not too much and wipe the tip on a damp sponge to clean the tip (yes, just run the hot iron on the sponge). Apply some solder (a little amount) to the tip again (this is called tinning).

- Don't hesitate at this point, if you wait too long the rosin flux in the solder on the tip will dry/burn and make the tip dirty again.

- Apply soldering iron to one pin on the chip (not the pin exactly. Just hold the tip such that it touches both the pin and pad to heat both). Heat it well for around 5-10 seconds. Without lifting the soldering iron apply some solder to the pin so it melts in. If the chip moved, realign it at this point. Lift the soldering iron and let the joint cool.

- Perform the same operation to the diagonal opposite pin. Your chip should now be aligned perfectly.

- Perform soldering on the remaining pins. Clean the tip and re-tin it occasionally to prevent burnt-on flux.

- (optional) IF you accidentally form a solder bridge between 2 pins (applied too much solder) don't panic. Use the solder wick to wick away excess solder (Put wick on solder joint, put iron on top of wick, heat it up, watch solder get sucked into wick).

- You may need to reapply some flux during the soldering - if you spend too much time on one joint you may dry out the surrounding flux.

- After you are done with the soldering, let the joints cool for a minute. Apply alcohol to a microfiber cloth (or a toothbrush, they work really well!) and clean the chip and surrounding areas from any remaining flux. Don't use paper towels - they shed fibers which stick everywhere.

- (optional) Realize you've soldered the chip the wrong way around and repeat the whole operation (happens to the best of us).

Again, please do find an unwanted PCB and practice a few times on some chips. This operation is not as easy as it sounds. You WILL screw up your first attempt. You need to get a feel for how much solder is too much/too little. You may find that if you spent too much time on one pad and heat it too much it will lift off the PCB and ruin the board. There are lots of small things that you need to learn and get a feel for before you are ready. Literally ANY old board. Ask friends, go dumpster diving, check for any broken equipment you may have. Printers, monitors, PCs, keyboards, mice, scanners, anything will do, just take it apart.

Um.... wow...

I cannot express how much gratitude I have for you at this moment. Since you have so clearly and specifically outlined this process, I will find old boards and practice first. This sounds really fun, and really frustrating. I now wish I could just take my mobo to a place where they could just reprogram my current bios chip. lol

Well, since that probably isn't an option, I'll practice a lot on old boards. If I screw up, I can just buy a new one for pretty cheap.

Again, thank you so much!!

Trust me, I'm an electrical engineer

It may LOOK simple and easy, but it's even easier to mess up. I checked the video and the chip doesn't look as big as I expected, so your chances are higher than I initially anticipated

Still, if you have the opportunity - practice on some dead/old boards before attempting this fix. You may find that the heat from the heatgun will loosen all the surrounding passive components or even blow them off the board if the air current is strong.

In the video he uses the blower to solder the chip back. I advice against that since you will end up with a cold joint as the whole chip cools. You'd better use the soldering iron to solder it back.

First, tack one corner pin onto the PCB. Then solder the diagonal opposite pin. That way you will align all the pins correctly and can solder then one by one and ensure a reliable connection.

Good luck!

I get your point. Thanks again for the feedback Mr. Electrical engineer!

The rework station that i bought and the one that he used has both a heat gun and a soldering iron that are very small. As seen in the video, he puts the heat gun far away from the board to insure that he doesn't blow the chip off of the board.

And yes, alienware bios chips are very small. I already have a chip, and it is tiny.

I understand most of what you are saying, and this may seem like a elementary question, but what do you mean by a "cold joint"?

And would heating the joint with the heat gun and flux be more advisable since I won't be adding any new solder there is less chance of me putting too much solder?

Also, I really have no other old/dead boards. This is my only board and I have no other option but to use it.

Do not, I repeat, do NOT attempt this on your first try - you are more than likely to ruin your motherboard. I STRONGLY recommend you get one or a few old motherboards and practice chip removal AND re-soldering before coming anywhere close to your main board. Watch some electronics engineering videos on youtube for some advice and tutorials on how to do this.

You will need some more things along with the flux. I recommend getting a no-clean flux pen (non-corrosive!). You will need a solder wick to wick away extra solder and clean the board pads. Make sure it's a thin braid - just a few millimeters wide (1.5 would be best).

Get some 66/33 solder with a rosin core, something thinner than 0.5mm, I recommend the Multicore brand. Keep in mind you need a solder wick for leaded solder, as they come for leadfree solders as well, which is not what you want.

You will need some rubbing/iso-propyl alcohol to clean the pads and clean away excess flux.

This might seem daunting and stressful, and it very well could be. If you are unable to practice on any other boards I strongly recommend you have someone with experience do the replacement for you, i.e. electronics repair services.

Whatever path you choose - I wish you the best of luck in bringing the board back to life!

Thanks for your information!!

I really appreciate your help.

I have watched videos on youtube, and they don't seem nearly as rough as what you describe. I believe the method you are using is to actually add solder to the board by re soldering the connections. The method that I am going to try is just to put flux on the connections via a small brush, then heat the connections to about 400 degrees and simply remove the old chip and place the new one on the board and then heat again to get the new chip mixed with the solder on the board. This way, i avoid getting solder on other places and it is much less of a mess. I watched this youtube vid:

I just heard about a rework station that is commonly used. It is called Kendal 898D+ Rework Station. I just purchased one on Amazon for 79.98. I am also in progress of purchasing Amtach ​BGA Reballing Flux.

Alienware laptop:

m17x R4

Intel i7 3610QM (stock clock)

14GB RAM 1600Mhz CL9

AMD radeon hd 7970m (stock clock)

Windows 7 64bit

750GB HDD 7200RPM

64GB samsung SSD (cache)

Hello T|I member base,

To be honest, I really enjoy threads like this on computer technical sites. It really make things feel more like a home than just a random place for people to be full of pride and arrogance about why they are the best at whatever.

About myself:

I am 21 years old and have been fiddling with computers since I was 12. I have crashed many computers and then fixed them. I really enjoy working on and with computers. Currently, I am in college to obtain my pharmacy doctorate degree, but I plan to get a bachelor's in programming and software development for fun afterwards.

Anyway, I mainly delt with desktop computers, but about two years ago, I bought an Alienware m17x r4 off of eBay, and I love it. It is much easier to transport than a full atx tower. I still consider myself to be a novice in regards to anything computer related, but I still have a lot of fun trying new things.

How I found T|I:

Recently, I decided to upgrade my laptop gpu from a 7970m to a gtx 980m. When attempting to do this, I found the thread on this site where people were actively discussing how they did the upgrade. I found that there was a specific strategy on how to upgrade. I decided to become a member of this site because everyone seemed so helpful. It also seemed like people were having fun trying new things and new ways to upgrade their computers. I really enjoy it when people are having fun with their computers. At the moment, I am in the process of replacing my bios chip because I used absolutely no common sense. It will be really fun to actually mess with the hardware of my computer instead of always with the software.

I know that there is a high risk of damage to my computer, but it wouldn't be fun without a risk, right?

Anyway, I appreciate the opportunity to join this site and be part of the lively discussions.

My recommendation is to build a desktop and not a laptop. It is almost impossible to get a good laptop for that price, but you could get a decent gaming desktop for it. Just make sure that you prioritize your budget around your processor and graphics card. Most people don't realize how much a processor helps with gaming. Good processor is manditory, decent graphics card is secondary. Then all the other parts can be mediocre and you'll still be able to get great fps during games.

That is my strongly researched theory. If anyone disagrees with me, well, that's life.

Hello,

I am attempting to replace my bios chip after a bad blind flash. From my research, I need a heater, flux chemical, tweezers, and bios chip. Currently, I have a bios chip from eBay and tweezers. I am wondering if anyone has successfully done this task and what type of heater and flux chemical they used.

Also, if anyone has any other methods in which they replaced their bios chip, I will be very appreciative of that information.

Thanks!!