PS VITA Slim with WEIRD DISPLAY ISSUE - Can I FIX it?

[@beogeek]

Good work Vince, you're doing great, one thing to remember is that you should never apply pressure to ball grid array BGA chips when soldering them or reflowing them, but I suspect you learned that while doing this repair.

[@joejoebigjoe6136]

yah thats the point

[@DannyWilliamH]

I get a lot of enjoyment out of failure videos when the fault is at least found. I don't know about anyone else but it at least teaches you something. I repair myself and it would be ideal to have everything be a quick, easy fix but I feel like the heart or main idea behind the channel is learning through failure in order to have success in the future.

[@HavingFunRepairs]

PS Vita was a wonderful bit of technology and still holds up today in my opinion.

[@Mymatevince]

I agree Shawn👍👍👍

[@alvzcizzler]

With games like Killzone Mercenary hell yeah but idk if the online is still active in 2022

[@marcianzero_yt]

@@alvzcizzler The Vita Uncharted was also a very good title. I was quite disappointed when there was no successor…

[@wanderingsoul621]

In my opinion the Psvita was the perfect system but released in the wrong time(2012) if it would have been launched when Sony shut down online servers for ps2 & Psp(2016) it might have done better.

[@HavingFunRepairs]

@@wanderingsoul621 the mobile smart phone market I think contributed to its lack of success. I owned one and loved it, but the lack of support eventually drove me to sale it. Kind of wish I had not done that.

[@danandrei96]

ah Vince you definitely learned an important lesson about BGA work with this one. Lots others have said already but never push a BGA chip down when soldering/reflowing. Also you should invest in some of the underfill scraper/remover tools. They are quite cheap and get used a lot for phone repair, they're just a handle with a bunch of different shaped very thin metal blades. A lot of times with underfilled chips you use those to scrape the underfill you can see on the edge, then have to get the chip/board hot enough that you're confident the solder is melted, and slip the thin metal blade under the chip to cut the underfill and lift the chip up (the blades are quite bendy) EDIT: also yes the underfill is liquid when they apply it, so it just seeps under the chip and between the balls, then hardens in place

[@Mymatevince]

Thanks for the tips and info 👍👍👍👍

[@harryandy44]

Your levels of patience reach god like proportions. I have no idea what I’m looking at or half of what your talking about but I still thoroughly enjoy watching your videos. Keep up the good work.

[@SlingshotGamer]

Great fault finding video! I like how calm you are when " Oh look ripped pads"

[@StezStixFix]

Great video, Vince.👍 Maybe you could run 500 enamel wire jumpers from chip to pcb! 😂

[@Mymatevince]

🤣🤣 It did cross my mind Steve!

[@TheCod3r]

Such a shame, but if you learned anything at all from the experience it's definitely not a waste of time. Maybe a revisit when you get some solder balls? Great video Vincey boy 😁

[@Mymatevince]

Cheers Phil, the balls have finally arrived so maybe 👍👍👍👍

[@TheCod3r]

@@Mymatevince sweet, can't wait to see the attempt 😀 now get some sleep lol

[@Mymatevince]

@@TheCod3r 🤣🤣

[@zerocool278]

Underfill with heat makes the underfill expand, You see this a lot especially with Iphone boards, Chips like the PMU are underfilled and as soon as heat is added it pulls the chip away from the board, Can also rip pads just by that.

[@ralphj4012]

You may want to invest in one of the 'cheapy' infrared rework stations. These include an underside pre-heater (which makes chip removal much easier / quicker). Though you have to be careful not to overheat things.

[@danandrei96]

those are handy to have but Vince should really invest in a better hot air station first, like the quick, atten or bst. Those blower-in-handle stations like he uses are terrible, the difference is night and day. A better hot air station would make quick work of a chip the size of this Sony one

[@mikesdailygaming]

Vince, could you do a video where you go over all of the tools and equipment you use? Like your hot air station, soldering iron, camera, etc? I know you've said here and there through your videos what you use, but I think it would be helpful to have it all in once video. Thank you for everything

[@renataavgeri1132]

I would love that as well

[@amnril]

The Vita is still an excellent handheld. With CFW the device really opens up. GTA 3 / Vice City and San Andreas all run well.

[@logothaironsides2942]

I like that you use trial and error because I think it is what most people do. Its more relatable than seeing perfect first try.

[@julieboruta]

See if you can buy a reball kit for the Sony Chip and then use the template that is in the kit to reball that chip and try a revisit video on this. I think you might just do well if you buy a correct reball kit for that Sony Chip Vince.

[@chamoo232]

Possibly but he also shorted it out and lifted pads so even with a good reball it may still be dead.

[@darrenstrathdee7425]

You need to use 200-230 to remove under fill under sides. You cant use high temps as you will cause pop corn. If you cleans, tested pads, repaired pads. Reballed ic and fitted, it would work. After test working, solder mask around ic to finish.

[@Jack-nb1zx]

I’d call it a success. You proved the fault at least. Those solder balls are a finicky business anyway, though I would be interested to see you attempt more solder ball repairs in the future.

[@Nebby_99]

Thanks for going the extra 40,000 miles on this one! I would never have tried a manual reball like that, but seeing it has given me a better understanding of how/why reballing and reflowing works 🙏

[@GadgetUK164]

😆 "Oooo - what's that about!" - These can be really difficult to fix when they've suffered a drop! Often I think the pads break, rather than the balls! You can't win em all =/ Never the less interesting to watch! I think the tricky part is removing the underfil - that's something I would love to know more about. I wonder if there are chemical solutions to removing it? I would also say when reflowing these - dont use high air flow, it gets underneath and can move the balls. Also pushing down when molten as you say causes a problem too!

[@Mymatevince]

"Oooo - what's that about!" I think I have been heavily influenced by Frank Spencer 😂 It is a shame out of all the chips the one with the underfill failed. Hopefully some comments will come in on the best way to remove the underfill without scraping it. Cheers Chris 👍👍👍

[@tall-jv4wo]

Amazing how one component can stop the computer from working Alex your a genius..

[@IamPedroUK]

Oh Vince 🙈 as soon as I saw you apply pressure I did the whole “😬”….. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, right? However it was definitely a valiant effort nonetheless and very interesting to see the ball array in all its slightly broken glory. Here’s to the next video mate!

[@mbob4337]

Great that you found the problem. You're a very patient man. This is something the thecoder would be best to repair. He deals with APU's needing a reball all the time.

[@MirceaD28]

Great work Vince, reduce the air speed because the air current tend to push it away or lift the chip

[@solm67]

Yes the vita has jumped in price over the last few years. The homebrew community is big. Excellent video as always Vince.

[@Tim_3100]

Yeah when the vita got fully cracked pretty much now so people want them.

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

I’m glad I bought mine when I did, I won’t hack it though.

[@Tim_3100]

@@EvilTurkeySlices mine is only soft modded so you dont change anything and stuff is easily removed

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

@@Tim_3100 I’m still not gonna hack it. Unless my games become unplayable without it one day.

[@HoldFastFilms]

I'd call that a success. I mean you did replace the board but like you said you did find what the fault was and in my opinion, there is no difference between replacing the board, or replacing few resistors or what have you. Same goes for screens, if electronics go bad, most people will just replace the whole thing.

[@CTCTraining1]

Enjoyable even without getting a fix, well done Vince. Not sure but when you were trying to restore the chip it looked like you had your airspeed up high ... worth going with a higher temp and more gentle flow. Good luck in future! 😀👍

[@unitedfools3493]

Spoilers!

[@pedrosa00]

I have the exact same console but the box of mine's is on European Spanish language, and it's one of the latest ones. Good job Vince!

[@tomabs8974]

Really enjoying the great variety of things you attempt to fix I’ve started to have a go myself keep trying to fix .. well everything . Amazed by the amount of MacBooks that are broken

[@rayproductionsbackupchanne3862]

the vita is a AMAZING device. got one from japan BRAND new... and it can run so much cool stuff if you "hack" it. the community is taking better care of it than sony does. we even got GTA san andreas on here. same with bully. max payne. gta 3/vice city its so awesome.. and it can run every single psp game natively too

[@AnonymousRepair]

Nice video, Underfill is hell as I understand it they pump underfill around the chip and it flows under the chip, I never had any success with the applying solder to both sides, maybe on smaller IC👍👍👍

[@Mymatevince]

Thanks for the info AR 👍👍👍

[@nasreddinemassib8091]

seeing you scraping that, i thought i was watching the next SAW film.

[@daz41262010]

really good attempt to repair the PS vita Vince :) an idea why not set up a team of (if you can't fix it maybe I can) you have a lot of people on here giving advice and showing repairs :) most of which things are fixed by you or someone on your channel or other channels :) I think that would be fun and make it a sort of competition so keep scores on if you can't fix it who can and I'm sure after a few people you guys would get most things repaired :)

[@TravisStamper]

Looks like I beat Phil here, lol. Great work as always Vince. Love the PSVita. Cant win them all. Make Phil fix it, lol. Colab video! Thanks for the video!

[@Mymatevince]

Cheers Travis 👍👍👍

[@BikerBloke600]

God loves a trier Vince. Well Done. Mick 👍👏🍻

[@Mymatevince]

Haha, nice one Mick 👍👍👍🍻

[@breather8758]

It's always interesting to watch the progress and failures

[@FennecTECH]

Underfiill is often used in portable electronics to reduce the odds of cracking a solder ball especaly when the board flexes during normal use. apple solved touch disease with underfill While it makes it a pain in the ass to repair it also significantly improves the devices resilancy and is an overall good. and i would say a necessity in anything portable

[@Mik_S]

5 min into video and I see the left ribbon cable is in upside down. My bet is that is the problem. Edit: well I was wrong, cracked ball under CPU. I'm sure there was some ball squeezeage after the first re-flow attempt. Pressing down on a BGA chip when re-flowing will push out balls and if there is any under-fill left the trapped air will expand and will also force out balls. I have seen on some phone repair videos a blade shaped like a sickle to help get the under-fill removed from the edge of chips. Unfortunately it was completely under-filled (like iPhones) and the only way to re-flow would be to remove the chip first. Definitely one to practice re-balling on, I look forward to the revisit.

[@catherinemorgan2741]

Still the best repair guy on YT

[@TheSkaldenmettrunk]

It was very interesting to see the underneath from the chip. I never owned a PSV but I had a PSP. It was so lovely made. I loved it. I had a whitw one. Unfortunately a school friend of mine broke it and I never got one back.

[@anthonydenn4345]

Unlucky Vince, just put it down to more experience. I wouldn't of even attempted it. Just knew those bga pads were going to come up. I think you had enough heat on top, it just probably needed to be heated from the other side as well to get it to hold the temperature. The boards densely packed bga copper pads are more than likely sinking all the heat away from the chip. Need to also get out of the habit of pushing down on a bga chip, you struggled a little with that in the video. But fair dues, yea didn't push down on the reballed attempt. Great video none the less, I learned something from it, well done ; )

[@MichaelandCathy1999]

Is that an OMEGA watch you’re flashing there Vince? Noicce

[@pds8475]

I'm glad that you know that you caused the short by pressing down on the chip when you were reflowing it. But from now on as soon as you put any heat on a BGA chip. Understand that while the chip may still be held firmly to the board some of the balls may be molten and any pressure down on the chip will cause it to be a write off. Basically for any reason at all you never put pressure down on a BGA chip when soldering the chip. It will either do nothing or destroy the chip. There is as much chance of you getting a positive outcome from putting pressure on a BGA chip as there is of you looking down and finding all the money in the world at your feet or having the jackpot numbers for the lottery every week for the rest of your life.

[@Mymatevince]

Thanks PDS 👍👍👍

[@Weimaraners]

Underfill is added after the BGA chip is soldered to the board. Companies put a ton of engineering into their underfill compounds. There’s a few great documentaries on this topic on KZbin. It’s pretty amazing.

[@LoftechUK]

What. Bloody ball ache…. Well done for trying 👏🏼.

[@ovidiu7290]

You need to take off the tip of the air gun for bigger chips

[@RC-Heli-Overdose420]

my vita would turn itself on and off randomly and the ps button would behave like the power button?? turns out all i had to do was take apart and clean inside the power button with isopropyl and now it works fine. good video mate

[@on2wheels504]

You might want to try taking the nozzle off the hot air, I have had some success with larger chips that way because it spreads the heat out but I think you gave it a really good try so well done.

[@PhilipBryden]

That crossed my mind too. The nozzle looked small for the chip. I don't it would have changed the result in this case, especially with all the underfill. It's worth mentioning tho, for the next time.

[@DarcAngel77]

Wow Vince , you certainly got some determination and patience, hats off to you sir 🙌 👏

[@Mohamed-zj3qv]

Nice fix (Putting pressure on top of a bga chip is the worst thing to do)

[@Heru3005]

You've got more balls (pun intended) then me to even attempt to reflow a BGA chip. Excellent video!

[@JacobJosephVanStraten]

Great video,and nice of you to help the kid. Take care and my best hopes for Lee and his family .

[@OldMan_PJ]

Finding the root cause is definitely a success.

[@dodgydruid]

Send the board to Mr Cod3r, he seems to have an unholy ability with reballing :D

[@marcianzero_yt]

So happy you cover yet another topic. :)

[@An4gram]

You could change your name to “What’s that about?” Always lol at that 😂

[@ryuuyaooguro4880]

I love your PSP/Vita repair videos! Awesome stuff!

[@MrFixiit]

cant win them all but you give it a good shot thanks for shareing vince.

[@NiccKennedy]

I would say that to improve removing bigger bga chips, possibly remove the nozzle to have the air spread over a bigger area more evenly. I do not know that this is necessary, but i use the nozzles for smaller chips, caps and resistors, and remove them for bigger chips. Still great work Vince.

[@captain_crazeh]

Hey Vince, could you try and fix an Xbox 360 phat again? I loved that video… would be cool to see you cracking one open again :)

[@kareno8634]

*Blood vs Flux* CADAVERS are Very Valuable - So are those that Operate using them. *Great Work Doctor!* Before finished watching - curiosity's first thought of Left Button Pad. There is One Button looking 'Dull'^ as if smeared with a grease[?] - would cleaning help? ^ bottom left of the four. my silliest reason had Nothing to do with Getting screen to turn on. talk about dumb. You - are The Bravest - tho Freaks me out! lol Hadn't heard you say 'OH Good, more wrong'. : } *Cheers!*

[@obsoleteobsession]

So excited to see another Vita here - I love these things.

[@Retro_Care]

nice video, i enjoyed it Vince. Its not a whole loss as the prices go up you now have spare parts and even if you sell it not working with a guaranteed good screen and all you will get your money back but i would keep it for spares and look for one with a broken screen for cheap. I love the PS Vita and hope i can enjoy more of you (try) to repair them.

[@davidc6459]

We all learn from your videos, great work 👍

[@adamcaldwell1967]

Vince you are now crowded the ps vita killer lol.

[@unitedfools3493]

I watch Dr Restoration for the relaxation but I watch Vince for the banter.

[@tiogoomba3019]

Great video! Nice work Vince...Hello from México

[@mardina1a]

Sometimes just one lost pad under bga chips occours gameover.who knows ?this is the unsver of how do we find donor boards.good job,thanks for the video. By the way airflow was too high and noozle was small for that chip so alignment not fitted well

[@currytigre]

As soon as you started pressing down on the chip with your twessers I was like "Omg, Vince. Noooooooooooo..." lol.

[@MrStereoify]

Nice video as always Vince. I found the Vitas quite temperamental to wprk on. Think I got 2 dead ones in my drawer too. If you'd want some parts I can take a closer look and get back to you. Think I got a motherboard or 2 for the slim model.

[@Mymatevince]

Thanks for the offer MM. I'm hoping this will go on to fix others in the future. At least I know it is all good apart from the main Sony chip 👍👍👍

[@davehudl3593]

Great stuff, even when unsuccessful you're gaining experience for next time. Another youtuber was using a halogen dichroic lamp face down over a chip to reflow it. Your hot air blower has the potential to dislodge nearby capacitors and resistors. The resin could've been applied in a vacuum to get it under the chip like that.

[@worldgate989]

I've got 3 of these things, my day 1 vita with 3g, and two others a bit later on with wifi, love em. Best thing about the 3g one is you can take out the 3g and put a msata inside with the adapter.

[@svanput]

Vince... since you love using the hot air rework station why not invest in one that will make doing that much easier? you can get the atten st-862d for $200 or less. the coder uses it, louis rossmann reviewed it and loves it, and i love mine. its 1000 watts, and its as simple as point and melt, no more slow cooking the chip and board. lots of other neat features as well. just a thought!

[@bigmacsnoobselectronicsrep8032]

Absolutely fantastic video Vince mate have you thought of speaking with TheCod3r he will definitely have some advice mate

[@keironcornell9396]

Great job Vince.

[@professormoriarty703]

Another great video . What you consider bad news means more troubleshooting and for viewers like me that’s good news because we get to see more content .

[@marktriggle2259]

Really enjoy your videos U have inspired me to fix again lost interest years ago so we’ll done keep up with the great work mate

[@omarg8663]

Great work Vince 😃👏❤️

[@TC-tn9tb]

You need a holiday after this one vince, I feel exhausted after just watching it😂

[@arsayu]

Great video Vince. It would be a nice revisit if you try to reball the ic

[@daydream605]

My old vita (oled) had an issue after moisture got onto the pub of the home button, which basically made it boot into recovery all the time, or sometimes just simply not turn on, Just had to open it up and clean around and add some tape for extra measure. Worked flawlessly. 💪

[@shaunzurcher9432]

Ha i have done at least 5 of these... Fav thing to fix, I found the pressure was the issue.. to me it felt like the screen was pushed down by the cover and caused a short... hence power down,lift the cover of the screen and you will see :)

[@MsZappas]

fun video but when we found out applying pressure to the chip made it work,to me that sounds more like a cracked board, which would fit more with an impact type situation. you did notice what appeared to be a crack on that side of the chip, i wish you looked that aspect more.

[@hangtantang7385]

Hey! love your video!! Would love if you do one Game card slot replacement. Mine is broken and cant seem to find video of that repair.

[@marksapollo]

Great video, I have the OLED model. It’s a great device, the main thing with the Vita is it’s small. It goes in your pocket. A Switch can too if you take the joycons off, IMO it’s the advantage they have over these handheld PC’s like the Steam Deck coming out as they are huge by comparison.

[@AMCTechRepairs]

The cod3r mentioned in one of his vids not to put the switch in your pocket as it causes the entire chassis to bend, causing pressure on the board/APU/RAM etc

[@marksapollo]

@@AMCTechRepairs You can if you put it in a case, also it entirely depends on the size of your pockets.

[@finditfixitvlogit1990]

That was a tough call. I think I would have been tempted to add pressure but I suppose when you think about it the under fill was largely holding it at the correct height already and the solder melting should connect but like I say I would probably have done the same. Good video though. Maybe next time

[@d.d.m2208]

Very sad loss, also a bit of a tip: next time if you get a psvita or electronic that works only when you press it down on the main chip or other necessary chip, try bundling up a bit of cardboard or paper and firmly close the case. Ive seen many people do it on many electronics with some successful results so maybe you'll get lucky too

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

That’s a patch instead of a repair though.

[@d.d.m2208]

Ye not a permanent fix, but still something to take into consideration

[@dodgydruid]

You should have a scoreboard like they had on planes to show kills etc Have a little legend for Switch's, Vita's etc and a thumbs up for a good fix or a black raincloud for a wack wack oops fix :P Maybe have one on the front wing of your motor with your call sign "Switch Killer" like a fighter plane ;) I had a wack wack oops myself, taking the backplate off my 80's Pulsar Solar two springs sproingded out before I could see where they came from so feeling a bit down about it as can't find a schematic for this particular movement :(

[@jackbauer2698]

Instead of trying to reflow try running 200÷ small traces from the board to the chip 😉

[@cameradoctor205]

The flat flex connections have lines on the silkscreen on the fiberglass PCB that shows you how far in the flexes should be when all the way in :)

[@tolgainci]

Great video Vince, I really enjoyed the part when you tried to re-solder the chip. I really hoped that it would work, since that method would be very useful. Looking forward to see a reball video when you get your solder balls from China :)

[@fifofuko1864]

hi vince very entertaining video what's the device you used at 10:50?

[@ZealousChuck]

Im counting it as a success too🙃 Nice fix keep it up 🔥🔥 Viva La Vita

[@anthonyduggan6472]

Good stuff as always. Very informative

[@PghGameFix]

I just did a Vita screen yesterday. Kind of a pain. LOL

[@Tim_3100]

Great video vince

[@Wenlocktvdx]

Nice work, my 1000/OLED Vita has a vertical green line. I can make it go away by rapping on the screen. No doubt a BGA issue.

[@Mrshoujo]

I'd still give it a go to reball and hot air solder with lots of flux the other chip. Just for practice anyway.

[@ingog.8424]

The scraping of the underfill… I don't like this kind of horror.

[@Mymatevince]

😂👍

[@hinny2005]

Switch killer vince is trying to change his name to vita killer vince 😂

[@davidayres7973]

I always root for the fix a but always learn something even when a fix doesn't happen 👍

[@pizzalord3n]

Wow those were some really thin and flimsy ribbon cables 😱