Help on RAM being pulled accidently on X1900

[Massive79]

Hi guys,
My X1900 RAM is accidentally being pulled off from the card when I?m trying to take off the heatsink.
The IC that being pulled off is comes from one of the 64MB memory, so there are still other memory chips.
Is there anyway that my VGA is still usable without the chip that being pulled ?
(So it just 64 MB less memory VGA card?)
I can?t take a chance to try to boot it on my mobo because I can?t take the risk on destroying my mobo too.

or is there any chance the chip is being soldered back the card?

Thanks

 

[Yreka]

Ouch

 

[TanisHalfElven]

LOL. sorry i just can't imagine why you would put so much force that the solders would come off. i doubt if trying too boot would damage the mobo. and since your card is already out of warranty you might as well try to solder it back on.

 

[Kyanzes]

Well, I've seen a colleague of mine unsoldering/resoldering a whole *GPU* (it was a GF 4200TI if I remember correctly, it took for a while, of that I'm sure) so nothing is impossible granted that you have the right man to do it. And yeah, the card worked fine after the surgery.

 

[Fraggable]

I would be shocked and amazed if it worked without that chip.

I can't tell if you're saying it's off already or if you're saying ti will come off if you remove the VGA sink. If it's not off already then leave it, or return the card for one that you can mod.

 

[Massive79]

Originally posted by: Kyanzes
Well, I've seen a colleague of mine unsoldering/resoldering a whole *GPU* (it was a GF 4200TI if I remember correctly, it took for a while, of that I'm sure) so nothing is impossible granted that you have the right man to do it. And yeah, the card worked fine after the surgery.

Wow...did he do it with technical paper of the card or just soldering back to the place?

I think if the card is surely wont work, I will try to soldered back the ram chip to the card, I just don't know where to solder the chip leg and into which specific layer? is there anyone who has technical info about soldering the ram chip back?

 

[shabby]

You can use a heatgun, high powered one, to melt the solder back.
Can you post some pics of how loose it is?

 

[Kyanzes]

Originally posted by: Massive79

Originally posted by: Kyanzes
Well, I've seen a colleague of mine unsoldering/resoldering a whole *GPU* (it was a GF 4200TI if I remember correctly, it took for a while, of that I'm sure) so nothing is impossible granted that you have the right man to do it. And yeah, the card worked fine after the surgery.

Wow...did he do it with technical paper of the card or just soldering back to the place?

I think if the card is surely wont work, I will try to soldered back the ram chip to the card, I just don't know where to solder the chip leg and into which specific layer? is there anyone who has technical info about soldering the ram chip back?

Well, not that I know of. As for the soldering I think it's worth mentioning that he used (as shabby said) a heatgun and also a stuff that looked like a comb made of metal, unfortunately I have no clue as to how they call it. Ofc a RAM chip should have a lot less number of legs. Quite astounding to see something like that happen, I mean the complete manual resoldering of such a complicated looking stuff like a GPU. Anyways, I have zero experience with soldering, aside from fixing household cabling every once in a while. Have you made any progress by the way?

 

[Peter]

Typically the solder balls won't tear apart - you'll rip out the contact surfaces and bits of PCB traces and vias.

Beyond repair I'd say - and since graphics cards hardly ever have dynamic detection of their RAM (hardcoding the /expected/ RAM layout, type, count and speed in VGA BIOS instead), there's little chance of it working in its current state.

 

[tersome]

Originally posted by: Peter
Typically the solder balls won't tear apart - you'll rip out the contact surfaces and bits of PCB traces and vias.

Beyond repair I'd say - and since graphics cards hardly ever have dynamic detection of their RAM (hardcoding the /expected/ RAM layout, type, count and speed in VGA BIOS instead), there's little chance of it working in its current state.

Yeah.

Best thing to do is pop it back on with a little bit of hot glue, send it off for RMA and hope for the best.

 

[Hyperlite]

Originally posted by: tersome

Originally posted by: Peter
Typically the solder balls won't tear apart - you'll rip out the contact surfaces and bits of PCB traces and vias.

Beyond repair I'd say - and since graphics cards hardly ever have dynamic detection of their RAM (hardcoding the /expected/ RAM layout, type, count and speed in VGA BIOS instead), there's little chance of it working in its current state.

Yeah.

Best thing to do is pop it back on with a little bit of hot glue, send it off for RMA and hope for the best.

:roll:

 

[SunnyD]

Odds are you probably took the copper/tin off the PC Board in the process. I doubt it's "fixable".

 

[Matt2]

I'm really surprised at this thread, I've never heard of this happening.

This is exactly what I thought was going to happen to my X1900XTX when I tried to remove the Accelero X2 from it. Those damn thermal pads for the RAM on the X2 are coated in epoxy or something.

 

[Matt2]

Also, I dont think that trying to boot the card will fry the mobo, even if the card is toast, but dont take my word as the gospel.