Vram chip replacement

[Askejm]

Hi. I recently broke my GPU (probably from static electricity) and is getting some pretty heavy vram artifacts. We tried sending it to a repair center and they said they couldn't fix it. Is it hard to swap vram? My aunt works with chip stuff and has all the soldering tools required at her job. My GPU is a 2080 super, using Samsung K4Z80325BC-HC16. How hard is it to swap vram? Can one of you maybe guide me through a simple explanation of what happens? And do you think my aunt could do that? She said her soldering skills was a single level below what you need to have to be qualified to solder for NASA.

Thanks

[small guy64]

It’s possible. But takes a special type of specialist. A hot air station will be needed, not a soldering iron.

 

look up reballing BGA chips to get an idea of what it takes. 

[WhitetailAni]

Does your aunt have a BGA rework station, and are you able to get identical VRAM chips to the ones that are broken?
VRAM chips are not like resistors or DIP packages - they have little balls of solder on each pin that goes into the PCB, then the PCB is put into an oven and the solder melts, mounting the VRAM to the PCB.

[Askejm]

7 minutes ago, small guy64 said:

It’s possible. But takes a special type of specialist. A hot air station will be needed, not a soldering iron.

 

look up reballing BGA chips to get an idea of what it takes. 

alright but when I order them new, won't they already come with those ball things?

[WhitetailAni]

1 minute ago, Askejm said:

alright but when I order them new, won't they already come with those ball things?

First, does she have a BGA rework station?
She'll need that to be able to remove the existing VRAM chips without damaging the PCB.

[small guy64]

1 minute ago, Askejm said:

alright but when I order them new, won't they already come with those ball things?

Some chips do, some have to be balled

[Askejm]

8 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

Does your aunt have a BGA rework station, and are you able to get identical VRAM chips to the ones that are broken?
VRAM chips are not like resistors or DIP packages - they have little balls of solder on each pin that goes into the PCB, then the PCB is put into an oven and the solder melts, mounting the VRAM to the PCB.

I can ask her

I think it's the same? Let me send you a picture I took 

[Askejm]

4 minutes ago, small guy64 said:

Some chips do, some have to be balled

Oh alright, do you know if K4Z80325BC-HC16 is balled?

[Electronics Wizardy]

How do you know the vram is bad? And how do you know its that chip that is bad?

 

In these cases is notmrally cheaper to just get a new gpu.

[Askejm]

I asked her and she said she thinks it'll be hard cuz it's a SMD chip meaning it'll be hard for her to apply the paste 

[Askejm]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

How do you know the vram is bad? And how do you know its that chip that is bad?

 

In these cases is notmrally cheaper to just get a new gpu.

I'm not 100% sure, but 3 of my friends said it looks like vram artifacts. I'm not completely sure as I don't have the tools to check however. I was trying to a kraken x73 to it with the g12. It probably happend when me and my dad tried to get a stuck standoff out, I'll admit we may not have been the nicest to it in terms of protection against static electricity

[Askejm]

Can a gpu damage the pc if this is done incorrectly? She is expressing concern for it. She isn't the most knowledgeable in computer electronics

[Askejm]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

How do you know the vram is bad? And how do you know its that chip that is bad?

 

In these cases is notmrally cheaper to just get a new gpu.

And no way I'm getting a 2080 super in this chip shortage. I paid $1000 outside of it and can't afford a new one just like that

[kelvinhall05]

6 minutes ago, Askejm said:

it'll be hard for her to apply the paste 

Lol she has no idea what she is doing. I guarantee she is not capable of properly reballing and resoldering several VRAM chips, assuming that is even the problem.

 

 

Just get a new GPU. This one is a lost cause.

[Askejm]

4 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Lol she has no idea what she is doing. I guarantee she is not capable of properly reballing and resoldering several VRAM chips, assuming that is even the problem.

 

 

Just get a new GPU. This one is a lost cause.

Potentially not, but she has some very skillful colleagues

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Askejm said:

Potentially not, but she has some very skillful colleagues

BUt do they want to do this for free? This is normally work that is billed in the hundreds a hour, and you want someone that knows how to fix gpus and other computer parts, not just general electronics repair.

[kelvinhall05]

1 minute ago, Askejm said:

Potentially not, but she has some very skillful colleagues

I think you are severely underestimating the skill required to do several successful VRAM chip reballs. I guarantee none of them will even attempt it for less than a hundred bucks.

[AnonymousGuy]

Even assuming she knows how to do this job..which I'm rather doubtful unless you happen to have an aunt that works in a $$$ pcb rework office, you're planning on blindly replacing $16 a pop memory chips?  I'm also getting the instinct that doing this job on vram chips is another level of care needed vs. "hot air the shit out of it and tweezer it off" that you can do with other types of BGA parts.

 

Have you run OCCT memory test to even see if it reports problems?  DId someone knock a capacitor off with rough handling?  Because static electricity killing finished parts seems pretty rare.  I've put tons of gpu's down on carpet and generally not been ESD safe handling them without problems...ever.

 

This guy seems to have been successful with it but who knows the reliability of it and whether he didn't just get lucky: 

 

[Askejm]

4 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

BUt do they want to do this for free? This is normally work that is billed in the hundreds a hour, and you want someone that knows how to fix gpus and other computer parts, not just general electronics repair.

Hmmmm alright

Yeah she is pretty good friends with them and last time my 1050 ti her colleague said he could do it then they found out there was some code on the broken part they don't have

[Askejm]

5 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

Even assuming she knows how to do this job..which I'm rather doubtful unless you happen to have an aunt that works in a $$$ pcb rework office, you're planning on blindly replacing $16 a pop memory chips?  I'm also getting the instinct that doing this job on vram chips is another level of care needed vs. "hot air the shit out of it and tweezer it off" that you can do with other types of BGA parts.

 

Have you run OCCT memory test to even see if it reports problems?  DId someone knock a capacitor off with rough handling?  Because static electricity killing finished parts seems pretty rare.  I've put tons of gpu's down on carpet and generally not been ESD safe handling them without problems...ever.

I doubt I knocked a capacitor off or smth, but I can check when I get it back. And how do I do an OCCT memory test, and where does it report the problems?

[AnonymousGuy]

1 minute ago, Askejm said:

I doubt I knocked a capacitor off or smth, but I can check when I get it back. And how do I do an OCCT memory test, and where does it report the problems?

 

No idea how reliable this test actually is though but it's free to try.

[AnonymousGuy]

27 minutes ago, Askejm said:

I'm not 100% sure, but 3 of my friends said it looks like vram artifacts. I'm not completely sure as I don't have the tools to check however. I was trying to a kraken x73 to it with the g12. It probably happend when me and my dad tried to get a stuck standoff out, I'll admit we may not have been the nicest to it in terms of protection against static electricity

Interesting note that it's the same artifacts repeating across 4 columns of the screen.  I may be over-analyzing it:

 

[Askejm]

23 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

 

No idea how reliable this test actually is though but it's free to try.

Alright I'll try that 

[Askejm]

On 3/17/2021 at 9:54 PM, AnonymousGuy said:

 

No idea how reliable this test actually is though but it's free to try.

I was unable to start the test cuz the screen was stuck at 800x600 so the ui was too big to click the button.

I examined the board thoroughly and took pictures of these areas. Do they look broken to you? 

[Askejm]