I broke the ground pin off of a BIOS chip (Woops). Will it still work?

[Proudfeet]

Hi,

 

I am trying to recover some data from a broken hard drive (Western Digital WD10EZEX) and was swapping the suspected broken pcb (REV A 2060-771829-005) out with a new one.

 

I was following this video on how to swap the BIOS chip over to the donor board when removing the BIOS chip I broke of the leg from pin 4 .

 

It seems like it require some rocket surgery to attach the leg back on and there's no easy way to hold it back on.

 

I found out that pin 4 on the BIOS chip in question (Winbond W25Q20BW) is the ground pin.

 

Can I just solder my BIOS chip to the donor board with no ground pin connected? Or is this incredibly naive and wont work?

 

[jaslion]

Without the ground it won't work. The electricity has to go somewhere.

[Proudfeet]

2 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Without the ground it won't work. The electricity has to go somewhere.

Thanks for reply, I was desperately hoping that the ground was just a safety measure and it may work without.

[Kilrah]

Might be possible to solder a wire to the rest of the pin and have it hold just as long as needed to read the chip and then write to a new one...

[mariushm]

You could try to just have a big blob of solder there, ideally after applying a bit of flux. Hopefully the blob of solder makes contact with the internals. Otherwise... maybe get a steel needle, solder a wire to it and then solder the wire to the pad ... touch the ground pin (what's left of it) and boot the drive

 

You could also try shorting CS pin to ground pad ... when CS is pulled down the chip is enabled ... maybe you can get the electricity to flow from Vcc through CS pin and power chip

[Proudfeet]

2 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Might be possible to solder a wire to the rest of the pin and have it hold just as long as needed to read the chip and then write to a new one...

Unfortunately the black casing of the component broke and the leg came off as a whole. It didn't sever so there is is nothing to attach to if that makes sense?

As you can probably tell I am new to this sort of thing. 

[Proudfeet]

3 minutes ago, mariushm said:

You could try to just have a big blob of solder there, ideally after applying a bit of flux. Hopefully the blob of solder makes contact with the internals. Otherwise... maybe get a steel needle, solder a wire to it and then solder the wire to the pad ... touch the ground pin (what's left of it) and boot the drive

 

You could also try shorting CS pin to ground pad ... when CS is pulled down the chip is enabled ... maybe you can get the electricity to flow from Vcc through CS pin and power chip

Thanks these are some good options to try. Is there any danger to the drive or component if I turn it on and the blob of solder isn't making ground contact?

[Kilrah]

31 minutes ago, Proudfeet said:

Unfortunately the black casing of the component broke and the leg came off as a whole. It didn't sever so there is is nothing to attach to if that makes sense?

Well, pics would help. 

 

If the actual package broke it's likely the connections inside got all mangled.

[Proudfeet]

11 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Well, pics would help. 

 

If the actual package broke it's likely the connections inside got all mangled.

 

32 minutes ago, James Evens said:

Can you share pictures?

If you mean with the entire leg came of the complete metal part got out your are done and need to replace the chip as you would need special machine (bonding wire) and some time to fix this.

 

Here you go, it's not a pretty sight. The leg at pin 4 is pretty much just resting there with gravity I am loathe to move it this late at night in case I lose it.

[Proudfeet]

4 minutes ago, James Evens said:

You are probably.

 

For better understanding:

This is a different chip opened up by sanding it down so most of those binding wires are broken but you see it:

pads on the die go to the metal pads/strips. If the metal is lose it moves and the bonding wire breaks meaning no contact. 

 

To fix this you would first need to decap the IC (don't sand, use a better method)to reveal the die. Then use special tools and a microscope to attach a new wire.

Alternative to attaching a new wire is using a probe which might be easier to find near you. 

 

It can be done but you don't have the right tools and skills. 

Thanks that does really help with understanding I can see this level of repair is likely beyond my skillset and tool kit!

Will the suggestions mariushm suggest have good odds of working?

[Proudfeet]

11 minutes ago, James Evens said:

No.

 

His method is for the more common case: breaking the pin.

Thanks for all the help