An amazing attempt - particularly for being the first one. You'll be Rossman-level in no time! Some pointers from someone who also doesn't have a great deal of success with BGA, so please feel free to ignore :) 1. Get a laser thermometer. You need to be able to ascertain the temps on the PCB as precisely as possible. Remember that laser ones rely on IR though and each material is different. But I think it'll do 2. Do rely on the pre-heater as much as you can. 150C on the PCB are fine for pre-heating. If leaded solder (that is a leaded solder card, pre-2000?) you might just need a little extra from your hot air station. Do leave the card to "soak" for a minute or so once it reaches the desired temperature and start with hot air a bit far away. Those large things do take time to rise in temperature so don't be too concerned if it takes some time. 3. Use the largest tip you have for cleaning the pads. Some of those pads will be connected to ground/power. Heat from a small tip might be sucked away quickly, resulting in what you observed when the pads did not want to take solder (unless it was a bad pad). The wick will also wick heat away, Ideally you want to use a segment only. Make sure the card is still on the pre-heater when cleaning the pads. "What's for dinner tonight?" "what are the options?" "Ice-cream or Frozen PCB" "I'll get the PCB with some solder balls sprinkled on it" :) Once again, an amazing attempt!
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Haha, that last bit made me laugh 😂... And thanks for all your valuable hints! I will definitely try to follow those. I don't have a laser thermometer, but maybe the thermal camera will do as well. I probably should have been a bit more patient with letting the card soak on the pre-heater. I'll try this again once I get the new hot air station. Thanks Tony for your input!
@tony3598 ай бұрын
@@bitsundbolts In theory the thermal camera should work but I found a handheld laser one more accurate and practical. They're not expensive. Can be used in the kitchen too :) Just remember the laser is only a guide. The IR sensor is a cone and it matches the laser pointer only at a specific distance.
@suvetar8 ай бұрын
I seem to recall another youtuber with a modicum of success in BGA repair having a source of cold air on hand; think it was actually plumbed into their heating rig in case of emergency - but sure they also mentioned it being a handy trick for if you have just a couple of recalcitrant joints ... will see if I can find the source, I think it was a PS5 repair.
@PixelPipes8 ай бұрын
I haven't seen someone reball by hand like this before so that's pretty impressive!
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Thank you 😊
@voodler8 ай бұрын
Well like he said, there are no stencils available for these Voodoo 3 chips at present. There are upsides though - not many balls compared to modern parts, and no reballing jig required. I'm in the same situation where I need to reball 2x Voodoo banshee cards and a Voodoo 3. I don't think that's worth buying the stencil jig for and I can afford 20 minutes per chip. Thanks BuB for showing how it's done and the issues you came across with the solder ball sizes, that should help me in my repair attempts.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
You're welcome! Thanks for watching!
@jamesrdgrs8 ай бұрын
It may have not worked in the end, but you got to learn/practice a new skill and that is always a win in my book.
@dolphhandcreme8 ай бұрын
Yes, failures are equally good for learning. If you succeed at first try, you may never try to improve because it worked. I've got a GA586DX-Board laying around, changed the northbridge and the southbridge, repaired soldermask and ripped pads. Never got it working again. On the other hand, i recently replaced a X570-southbridge on an AM4-board and it worked again. Even with the factory unleaded solderballs. One day you lose, the other day you win. Simple as that. Just keep on going and try to improve! Maybe collect some other V3-cards and swap stuff around. If it's not working, it's for science and practice!
@ruffy457 ай бұрын
Yes, there is nothing wrong with starting something new. Experience comes with practice. Good work anyway!
@B24Fox8 ай бұрын
Nail polish remover (acetone free), is the gentlest thing that I found softens the remaining heatsink glue on 3dfx cards , for cleaning without damaging even the writing on the chip. Spread a few drops with a cotton-bud / Q-tip to make a small puddle only on the glue, and after a few seconds, start gently scraping the edges and softened surface layer of the glue with a sharp blade. Add some more drops, spread, repeat. It doesn't penetrate to well, so you always have to soften the new layer that you expose. In under 30min. you'll have a pristine looking chip.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
I have not tried nail polish remover. This is what I can imagine that you still have to go layer by layer. This glue is so hard - I doubt it will just soak the entire thing and you can easily peel it off. If I get another card that needs that, I'll try it. Thanks!
@Null_Experis8 ай бұрын
For cleaning up large PCBs with ground planes and being able to wick up solder, I'd recommend useing a "flat blade" tip and cutting a section of solder wick to be slightly larger than the width of the blade tip. These tips are quite large and will have a lot of thermal mass, and by using a small piece of wick you don't have to have the entire copper mass of the entire spool drawing away heat. Just place the wick piece down, blade on top, and use it like a mop with gentle pressure to push it around. When the wick is saturated, pick it off with some tweezers and get another piece.
@NielsHeusinkveld8 ай бұрын
Even just attempting this is a BALLS-y move
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
😂
@boardernut8 ай бұрын
very brave attempt. This experience will serve you well in the future.
@Dave52819688 ай бұрын
I've never been brave enough to attempt soldering any BGA components myself, let alone attempting to remove, repair, reball, and replace one. Good on you for making the attempt and certainly learning a huge amount about what I call "the art of BGA." I'm sure that you will have learned enough about this type of work that you'll have a successful repair in no time at all. (PS: Even the guys that post videos about doing lots of BGA rework are constantly having failures. So this is obviously a hit-and-miss type of work anyway.)
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Yes, I did learn a lot! Now I wait for a better hot air station to try this again! So, I'll give this chip another try. Worst case, I get a comparison between the cheap hot air station and the better one. I have a feeling that this card will appear again in one of my videos.
@felixokeefe6 ай бұрын
Personally when removing glued on heatsinks I apply hot air to the the middle of the heat sink until the glue starts to soften. Using a pair of tweezers inserted through the fins, apply a gentle twisting action. You will feel the glue give way and be able to lift the heatsink right off. Worst case the solder melts and chip and heatsink come off as one.
@SianaGearz8 ай бұрын
What a beautiful repair as always. Pity it didn't work out for the time being.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Thank you
@the_beefy19868 ай бұрын
I haven't personally done BGA work, but I've seen quite a few videos from DOSdude1. His technique when cleaning the pads is usually to use fresh leaded solder and an iron to go over the pads first before using solder wick to clean the rest off.
@awilliams17018 ай бұрын
awww that's too bad. I've never seen an amateur try to re-ball a chip before. That was a thing of beauty. I have seen pros use different size balls for different chips. So if possible try to ask what it should be when working on a "new" chip. Very impressive attempt.
@stuart.cripps8 ай бұрын
Whoever watches a video with this much care and effort to save a classic card and then clicks dislike is clearly a monster. Liked and subbed!
@pongisan36588 ай бұрын
Great job trying something you've never done before. Really love this channel and keep up the good work restoring and fixing aging hardware. I've been following your channel for a while now and just subscribed to your Patreon. Keep it up!
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Thank you so much for your support! I really appreciate it! I'll do my best to make more interesting content and restore old hardware!
@mykolapliashechnykov87018 ай бұрын
Maybe it'd make sense to use a linear halogen lamp with 500W rating so that airflow during the reball wouldn't be an issue? And I'd suggest to use Sn63Pb37 solder balls. It's an eutectic alloy with much lower melting point than the regular lead-free stuff. They're still available in the EU.
@RetroAmateur19898 ай бұрын
I had to change the heatsink of mine. I was super carefull when I did. I put the card in the freezer too. The whole time until I put on a new cooler and tested it, I thought I killed it. But thank God, it still works.
@blaaaaaaarghable8 ай бұрын
If you have access to a thermal camera it might be helpful to watch the board on power up. On a dense digital design it can find some faults very quickly
@awilliams17018 ай бұрын
I've seen plenty of voodoo repairs so the kyro would have been interesting, but lately repairs in general aren't popular so I'm still happy either way.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
I'll look at the Kyro very soon. I wouldn't be able to fix it at the moment anyway because I am waiting for the memory chips to arrive. I was lucky the 3dfx people pushed the Voodoo to the front. But I am also looking forward to having a look at the Kyro II
@marios2liquid8 ай бұрын
you should get a hot plate below the pcb while using the hot air gun. makes life easier, especially for larger ICs or modems
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
I did use a PCB heater below set to 140 degrees.
@NicksStuff3 ай бұрын
What a magnificent attempt!
@bommel888 ай бұрын
I'm happy with the Atten hotair station, works well and very budget-friendly.
@xrror8 ай бұрын
Oh man when after placing all the balls by hand and then they just all glomed to each other lol - really hits the feels. Thanks for showing this when things don't go right. I think well all can relate to the big "oh NOES... *sigh* and you just gotta go and try that part again lol
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Haha, yes... Well, I thought: "what's the harm to use a bit more flux". That was an instance where I didn't listen to others who reballed chips - and I was punished right away. Surprisingly, rebelling such a chip manually isn't that bad and it works quite well. Therapeutic - like straightening pins in a CPU! Placing those solder balls takes less time though.
@NSHG5 күн бұрын
@@bitsundbolts Another therapeutic move is resoldering Banshee SGRAM. Did 4 chips on a Innovision "Mighty Banshee" (lmao) and it's running great. Adapted a fan from a dud MX440 and a HSF off a dead TNT2 M64 and it lives again.
@SidneyCritic8 ай бұрын
Probably a long shot, but the way the balls were columns, it looks like something was holding the chip up. The balls can correct some flatness issues, but generally BGAs rely on flat surfaces, ie, check with a ruler across surfaces and damaged corners to see if there is a high spot keeping inner balls from reaching down to the PCB. Current you have nothing to lose pulling memory chips, etc, and resoldering them properly, so I would just keep trying.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Thanks for the tip! Indeed, I'm not yet done with this card! I'll try again soon. I just wish I could figure out if the PCB is ok and working. Would be a shame if the chip is ok, but the issue is located on the card.
@no0ne.8 ай бұрын
I also had contact problems within the agp slot, lifting my 3dfx just a little bit out of the socket fixed that.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
That is odd. I can give this a try, but I believe that the card will remain non-functional.
@dolphhandcreme8 ай бұрын
The Atten is great! Bought it as a replacement for my cheap station and it's really worth the money!
@johnk71348 ай бұрын
For removing the glue you can heat the cooler/chip combo at about 100C and then use the screwdriver. The same method is used in PS3's RSX. For the glue that remains on the chip and cooler you can use acetone. It will take a while, but there will be no scratches from the knife. Or you can use the knife for the bulk of the glue and then the acetone when the glue will be thinner.
@AladimBR8 ай бұрын
I bought an Atten in January. Very happy. Had an Yaxun before, it’s like night and day. I also got a soldering station from Atten, and now I can solder things more easily - Yaxun was really bad at heat transfer. I’m getting a heating bed as well, so I can pre-heat the board and minimize the time using the Atten dessolder gun. I think I killed my Voodoo 3 while replacing memory (gone bad) due to poor tools. I will try to reball it soon: with 0.76mm spheres
@hidde16268 ай бұрын
Thanks for sharing your learning experiences.
@jeffm27878 ай бұрын
I upgraded from one of the cheap 700w hot air stations to the Quick 861DW and wow what a difference. It was ass if the cheap unit did next to nothing despite getting "hot". I'm using lower temps and taking far less time with the Quick.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
OK, now I am really looking forward to the new hot air station! But that is what I thought - you can't compare those 700 watt cheap stations with something like the Quick.
@pavelfara93338 ай бұрын
That is pretty clear. Missing IO shield - scrap find. The scrappers are removing the shileds and harvesting the aluminium heatsinks , resulting very often in to such a damage. Sometimes the whole chip is missing 😢
@ricargoncalves8 ай бұрын
It is really a shame after all of that work the card doesn't post... Points for your skills, without any fancy BGA rework equipment, it was really impressed. Maybe you can try debug some of the basic signals if they are present or if there are any shorts. You can compare with another working card if you have one on hand.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Yeah, I wish the card worked. I'll see what comments I get - maybe there are some ideas to try. I have not given up on this card yet. Once I get a better hot air station, I'll try again. Test all the connections on the chip, use larger solder balls, and see if there is anything else I can find on the card. I may also get a 3dfx replacement chip if I can find one and see if I can make it work.
@ricargoncalves8 ай бұрын
@@bitsundbolts Definitely other people can give you better advice than me. The misfortune of salvaging the chip of a working card is ending up with two non-working cards. I was just checking how much these guys cost on ebay and DAMN they are expensive, more than 100 bucks!
@masejoer8 ай бұрын
I can't disagree with anything said here - this was excellent work done by you on this video. I will also be curious what the public says about this work. There's just so much that could be the cause of the videocard not working.
@sdjhgfkshfswdfhskljh33608 ай бұрын
I'm sure more information can be extracted from this card besides working or non-working state.
@rodriggrrr97888 ай бұрын
I truly believe that a better air station would have been a game changer for you in this repair
@aublak74928 ай бұрын
The best way to get rid of that thermal glue is to just water it with some 70% IPA. Just keep adding more IPA over enough time and then you can just peel it off with your fingers. You can score the glue a bit to speed up the process but be careful not to scratch the chip.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Well, that will be what I'll try next time. I didn't expect this glue to soften with IPA, that's why I didn't even try. Thanks
@masejoer8 ай бұрын
Can anyone else confirm that this works for this hard stuff? Do you mean just keep pouring it on for an hour beforehand? I'd love to remove the factory heatsinks on all of my old videocards, and replace with some thermal tape instead, but I have no idea how this stuff would soak up IPA.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Yeah, and you can see a really large gap between the heatsink and the chip. It's good to get the knife in there to get the heatsink off, but this must be bad for heat transfer. The heatsink anyway isn't the largest. They could have easily added a much better cooling solution for those cards - as you said, the holes are there already! 😔
@clintcolombin8 ай бұрын
While not a success, a valiant effort & beyond my current capabilities
@electronash8 ай бұрын
I've only ever successfully reballed ONE BGA chip so far. Which happened to be a VSA100 chip, for a Voodoo 4 clone I've been working on (along with somebody else). I tried using the hot air station at first, but I had similar problems with the solder balls "swimming" around, even with the lowest air flow, and a thinner layer of sticky flux paste. (I used a stencil to help place the balls in the first place, though, much easier.) In the end, I just carefully put the chip into the reflow oven (modified toaster oven), and that worked great. ;) Great first attempt, btw. I would probably have given up after seeing the damage to the chip.
@electronash8 ай бұрын
I should mention that I've never owned a preheater. I've often thought about getting one, but it's very rare that I need to reball or reflow a BGA chip these days. I can see how a preheater would be a huge help, though. It's important to heat the PCB itself, as evenly as possible. Obviously with only the hot air (or even IR) at the top, it takes a long time to heat the entire chip, way before the solder balls start to melt, and then heat the pads on the card. I have seen people just put the entire card into the reflow oven, but that's an obvious risk of other components moving around, or caps and certain plastics melting. Most components would have been through the reflow oven at the factory anyway, but it's a bit harder to get the temperature just right when you're dealing with a modified £30 toaster oven. lol
@strelatronics55338 ай бұрын
The Atten is great! Would recommend!
@ariewijaya16798 ай бұрын
Maybe the silicon is fry because the small hot air nozzle. As a analogy you can unsolder a plastic connector without melting if you use very wide hot air nozzle but if small one is use it will melting very quicky because the heat is concentrate on plastic parts not the pcb
@Stratotank3r8 ай бұрын
Wie immer super Arbeit auch wenn es diesel Mal kein Happy End gab. Aber alleine zu sehen wie sich die Solderballs verhalten und was man anders machen kann, ist lehrreich und bleibt für immer im Kopf. Für das Reballing würde eine Reballing Maske verwenden. Dann sind die Kügelchen fixiert und können verflüssigt werden. Dann den Chip aufsetzen und mit genügend Boardtemp und heißer Luft auflöten. Möglich, dass einige Kügelchen keinen Kontakt haben oder leicht neben dem Pad liegen. Du kannst ja einen zweiten Versuch starten. Chip wieder runter, die Kontaktflächen prüfen und alles noch einmal reballen und verlöten.
@sahalin123458 ай бұрын
Good effort! Considering the low tier tools. Hope you`ll fix it next time :)
@Jman09518 ай бұрын
Good job! You may not have fixed it, but I’m sure you learned a lot in the attempt.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Absolutely!
@HomeofVSmile8 ай бұрын
Incredible how complex the reballing process looks. Thank you for sharing this experience! Maybe the Kyro will be more cooperative. I wonder if there are test methods to check all BGA pins or the VooDoo 3 chip.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
You're welcome! I did learn a lot and I hope that the Kyro will be more cooperative! However, I think I want to look at the SoundBlaster 2.0 first ...
@DefenderOfBoston-yo2tl8 ай бұрын
I feel like I'm repeating myself but wow, that was some mighty impressive work there again! It's a shame you couldn't revive this card (yet?), but it looks like you did gain a lot of experience (I certainly did just from watching!) and even with perfect methods, your chances of success were pretty slim to begin with. I wasn't optimistic from the outset, but when I saw that some amateur had already tampered with it (beyond just attempting to take the heatsink off to re-use it somewhere else), my heart sank even further, as it meant that it probably had an issue beyond the absuse it was subjected to. As Captain Picard expressed so pointedly in S02E21 of my Bible, "it is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose". I think there is a minuscule chance of the last issue being that the undersized solder balls prevented proper connectivity, so it may be worth having another go at it with bigger ones. I really hate the fact that one cannot check below SMD components. We need BGA to PGA conversion kits!😅 Anyway, good luck in case you decide to go through the tedious re-balling process once more! Also, good luck for the other two cards! 🤞🏻 I'm quite optimistic about the Kyro.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
I will try again - once I get a better hot air station. I'm still not giving up. So, either I'll get another practice round from this card and the third time it'll work, or it will work on the second try. Miracles do happen... Sometimes 😁
@SimonSideburns8 ай бұрын
It was a pleasure to watch you working. Your skills are top notch. Sadly, in this case, it was not to be. You were giving this card CPR for such a long time, giving it the best chance of resurrection, but this time, it wasn't to be. The thing didn't live. At least you still posted the video, even with this not being successful, and I thank you for that. As they say, you can't win them all.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Thank you very much! Yeah, there is no reason to skip the video just because it's unsuccessful. I still haven't given up on the card and will try again some day.
@plazmax7 ай бұрын
hi, i have "atten st-862d" at home and "quick 861dw" at work both are works similar, You can take whatever you want from either of them, but I recommend to you buy together 45 degree bent nozzle set with hot air station
@bitsundbolts7 ай бұрын
I did get the 45 degree nozzles as well. Thank you!
@primus7118 ай бұрын
I fixed a few luckily the one that popped pads where only agp lines and this was a pci card i use in my amigas
@UpLateGeek8 ай бұрын
Wow, that was a really interesting repair attempt. I've never worked with BGA, but it looks surprisingly easier than I expected, just a lot more tedious. At least hand reballing anyway. From what I've seen of Louis Rossmann's repairs, it's not even 100% guaranteed to work even when you've got one of those huge BGA soldering machines with a fancy alignment camera. It is definitely possible though. I know you've got the patience, all you need is a little more practice, and I'm sure a new hot air station would help! My suggestion would be to find something very cheap and plentiful with a BGA chip that you can practice on. Obviously something that you know works. Like if you can find a pile of those old Linksys routers, just check if they've got a BGA chip inside and they boot up. Not sure if they've got a serial console that you can solder a pin header onto and plug a USB serial cable into to get access to the CLI so you can see it boot.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
That's a good idea! I don't mind practising on more devices and the test afterwards would be essential to verify and assess a successful BGA replacement. The difficulty of this repair is to get the temperatures right. The rest was not that bad - even the manual reballing was fun (well, the first time).
@harukaapl8 ай бұрын
Even if failed, still impressive work! Good hotair station is crucial for such work (better temp transfer, less time heating bga chips that could damage it). Also you should start thinking of using 0.01mm copper wires for connecting, instead of such thick wire. Voodoo bga chip looks like have 4 layer pcb. Hope there will be more attempt to try fix it after you receive some advices. Good luck!
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Thanks for the input! I should have thinner wire somewhere. And I will give it another try once I get the new hot air station.
@David-wh8zs8 ай бұрын
I can recommend the atten station. I have one myself and it's great price/performance
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
It's already on the way! Can't wait to test it!
@Ale.K78 ай бұрын
You did an amazing job. Shame it didn't work, but I still enjoyed the video.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Thank you!
@ruxandy8 ай бұрын
It's possible that there's also a VRAM issue. Depending on which memory IC is dead, it can also cause a no detect error. Edit: however, my money is still on the 3dfx chip itself, it's probably toast. There's a seller on a popular forum (cpu world) who still has a few of these, so you could source one from him.
@suvetar8 ай бұрын
Perhaps someone thought it was left for dead and used it for SMT practice? Good on your work though! Good tips and inspiration for rookies to brave things too! Dankeschoen!
@suvetar8 ай бұрын
And please don't feel down that it wasn't yet a success - for your first attempt I'd definitely have to saythat you have big balls indeed! (Sorry, couldn't resist 🤣)
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Haha, thanks! Oh, it's ok even if the card didn't work. I'm happy that I could get the chip off, reball it, and put it back in the card! The experience will definitely help me the next time I try such a repair! Thanks for watching!
@jody56618 ай бұрын
I love how it seems this guy learned micro soldering form Louis Rossmann!
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
I did indeed watch Louis for countless hours!
@jody56618 ай бұрын
@@bitsundbolts that is marvelous
@fradd1828 ай бұрын
Somebody obviously tried to repair this, and has damaged a lot of things in the process, but that means that the card was broken even before the "repair" damage was done. How about some regular electronics check (shorts, voltages, power phase ...)? I wouldn't know how to start with AGP card, but im sure there is some tutorial out there.
@ApostolCV8 ай бұрын
Hi. Good work. I have the same story. These chips are very familiar to overheating. Often they they die before you try to return them on the board. Just one way chips.😂
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
😥 Poor 3dfx chip... I don't like one-way chips :)
@mikem.91978 ай бұрын
Loved my Prophet 4500 back in the day until I killed it with a volt mod + pushing the overclock. Good times, then I splurged on a 9700 Pro. Ugh so expensive back then...
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
I couldn't afford the 9700 Pro. I don't remember if I got just the regular 9500 or the Pro, but I know that I couldn't unlock the additional 4 render pipelines. Graphical glitches everywhere. Ahh, I was disappointed, but the card did serve me well for some time. The Kyro II will be new to me.
@Thelemorf8 ай бұрын
I have that atten st-862d station, my only complain is that the hose is a bit short other then that its great for the price
@JamieBainbridge8 ай бұрын
Reballing by hand, wow. Look at the hot air people like Northwest GPU Repair are using, they seem to have good success?
@Trancelebration8 ай бұрын
Quick hot air station is the way to go. Its built like a tank.
@mikeydk8 ай бұрын
You mentioned the solder balls maybe not being big enough, is it a problem when the solder balls turns into columns instead of continuing to be roundish?
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
I think it would be better if they had a small bulge. I'm just thinking that it could happen that some solder balls didn't make the connection because of the solder balls being too small. But I'm not sure, nor experienced.
@blazini8 ай бұрын
That looks like a lab plate, not a preheater. I use a lab plate to solder new PCBs with solder paste but I wouldnt use it for preheating. It gets much hotter than a preheater but wastes alot of heat and can't really be worked over. You don't need a better heatgun, just a better method. Buy an infrared preheater with a heatgun holder bracket. Use a square diffuser nozzle on the heatgun you have now. this works for me on newer GPUs and newer GPUs have many layers, they are much harder to deal with
@hinz18 ай бұрын
RIP PowerPC 405
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Yeah - something had to serve as a training dummy.
@AladimBR8 ай бұрын
The solder balls are 0.76mm for this one. Old tech from late 1990s early 2000 were in this range
@donpalmera8 ай бұрын
I would guess the main chip or something else was already dead from the start. Someone else had a "I've been some videos of how to reflow a GPU on youtube, I'm qualified now" attempt at repairing it before you and they gave up when they cracked the corner of the BGA.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
That could be a possibility. Oh well, then all I get from this card is BGA soldering training, but that's ok. I will give it one more shot with the new hot air station.
@silvestronsbitsandbytes8 ай бұрын
Wow reballing a BGA by hand... that's... ballsy... ahem. Well done on the work so far, and the chances were low anyway so don't get down about it. Bring on the Kyro2 :)
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
The Kyro II is coming soon. I'm still waiting for the memory chips to arrive 😀 But I am looking forward to the Kyro II too!
@silvestronsbitsandbytes8 ай бұрын
@@bitsundbolts love my Kyro2.. I was shunned by friends getting the GeForce 256 back in the day, but I knew tile based rendering was the future! Still lives on in basically all mobile graphics chipsets to today!
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
You're absolutely right! I think the Kyro II will smoke any GeForce 256 except for T&L. I haven't done a lot of research yet, but this is what I believe is going to happen in terms of performance. I'm looking forward to hopefully fixing the Kyro II!
@silvestronsbitsandbytes8 ай бұрын
@@bitsundbolts Yep exactly... I was king of FPS until more and more games started gaining hardware T&L support. Looking forward to your video on the fix :)
@arnlol8 ай бұрын
Your skills are so impressive, like how was that your first (I guess second if the destroyed training chip counts) attempt at this… Bummer that it didn’t work out in the end, maybe that chip was already dead before you even touched it.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Thank you! You're right, it could be that the chip was already dead. I'll try once more when I get a better hot air station. If the chip is dead, then I'll get more practice. Want to become really good at this without buying a reflow station 😅
@manoliskypraios81538 ай бұрын
Thumbs up for trying :)) Good job.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Thank you
@Constantin3148 ай бұрын
amazing attempt, BuB. I'm prod of you, you should/must be too! :)
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
I was very happy when I saw how nicely those solder balls looked after reballing! I'll try once more after I get the new hot air station
@simontay48518 ай бұрын
A good try but the BGA chip is just too damaged. That one corner is completely mangled.
@joetheman748 ай бұрын
When are we getting Lara Croft vs the Pentium Overdrive? Overclocking too?
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
I'm still waiting for an original fan which should arrive in about a month. Then, I'll make the OverDrive video.
@EinSwitzer8 ай бұрын
chip was damaged from the get-go / that's wax infusion from the chip under the plastic. from it cooking it self
@stevvieb8 ай бұрын
I've had good luck using dental floss to remove glued on heatsinks, just use the dental floss as a wire saw.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
That works when you try to remove heatsinks that were glued with double sided thermal tape. The stuff on this chip is not going with Dental floss - I have tried this on my working Voodoo 3 2000 - the dental floss breaks every time
@blakecasimir8 ай бұрын
A valiant attempt that will have improved your technique even if it wasn't successful.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Yes, I definitely leveled up after this 😅
@SinedWOLF8 ай бұрын
Флюс удобно наносить кисточкой прямо на чип! Распределение равномерное, дозировка минимальная! Так на производстве используют.
@ctiborkoza89448 ай бұрын
nice work, but I think that the 3dfx chip has gone to silicon heaven, for this kind of work you clearly need a BGA station, it is not possible without it, as you said in the video, if you find a damaged type of 3dfx card with a good 3dfx chip, you can try to rebal number 2 and I think that you will be successful 😉
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Thanks! Yeah, I am not giving up. Although, I will give it another try. Once I get a better hot air station, I'll try once more. For one, to practice and I still have a little hope left. I just want to give it another try.
@cptcrogge8 ай бұрын
I would give it a try with a new chip
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Already trying to source a few of those.... Also for future projects 😀
@user-wy6iy7ij1z8 ай бұрын
I have a gpu here that i want to try rebaling. It is a modern gpu, so i will need some tools, i can't place the spheres manually. Anyway, this was a good video, i will subscribe to your channel.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Thank you!
@SobieRobie8 ай бұрын
Finally you failed ;) but the attempt was spectacular! Maybe the problem is not in the chip itself and you still can make it working?
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
I'll give it another try soon.
@jonsmith50878 ай бұрын
those scrappers - grrr - kill a $200 card for a 50c heatsink
@pazsion8 ай бұрын
i think that beep mean memory... i could be wrong but thats what my brain says immediately. 🥰
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Unfortunately, the system booted when I tried to flash the Voodoo 3 with the help of a second PCI card. So, it is definitely complaining about the Voodoo 3.
@eDoc20208 ай бұрын
@@bitsundbolts When you booted the system with a second video card was _anything_ detected on a PCI device listing? That could give clues even if the card doesn't POST.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
No, nothing was listed. Also, the 3dfx BIOS flashing Tool didn't detect the card.
@pentiummmx22948 ай бұрын
sounds like the IC itself is dead, gotta find another V3.
@aleksandersaski53878 ай бұрын
Well, you tried. :)
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Yeah. I will give it one more try when I get a new hot air station.
@matz19918 ай бұрын
Go for a non faked Quick 857dw+. The cheap 858D+ are just trash for something bigger than a usb stick...
@lovedeathhatepoison87378 ай бұрын
i usually work on newer gen gaming consoles and sometimes for fun on old and retro products i was amazed that the chip didn't popcorn with that small ass nozzle given chip popcorning is not only due to the moisture in it but also uneven or too high temps secondly the bga balls look perfect and last thing these chips have multiple layers in them and it's highly likely that the damage casued an internal trace to get broken off or a internal short so i would recommend to replace the entire bga and the video was very fun to watch luv from Pakistan
@veniaminshpalov32808 ай бұрын
8:24 more looks like crack
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Yes, it does look like a crack or weird scratch. I'm not sure how this could happen.
@Rus00Win8 ай бұрын
Чип не сел на место явно видно. Шары в центре не тронутые висят.
@rallyscoot8 ай бұрын
I think that the 3dfx chip is bad.. Could be cracked everywhere in the substrate.
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
That broken PCB looked really bad. If I take that chip off again, I will check as many pads as possible in that area. Maybe there's still some hope.
@cricketol5 ай бұрын
try to make a socket from pdbway
@bitsundbolts5 ай бұрын
Hmm... That triggered some thoughts in my brain. I will continue to think about it!
@wasd____8 ай бұрын
Good try. Some cards and chips just can't be saved. :(
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
Unfortunately 😔
@VladoT8 ай бұрын
You should practice BGA soldering and reballing with a working card first 😊
@fellpower8 ай бұрын
Thats so lol, u want to repair a space shuttle with a 2$ wrench
@mariusz76a8 ай бұрын
My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined ...
@bitsundbolts8 ай бұрын
I'm really sorry, but I haven't given up hope yet. I'll give it another try soon
@kasimirdenhertog35168 ай бұрын
Unfortunately, heatsinks are always tempting to remove, to see what’s underneath…