Anyone have a Heat gun I can borrow?

[smack]

I just need one for a 2 minute job, so don't really want to buy one as I can't see I would need one anytime in the future...

Anyone in the Woking/Guildford or surrounds that has one which I can borrow for a day?

[mrsxllifts]

What do you need it for? Hot hairdryer do the job?

[smack]

mrsxllifts said:

What do you need it for? Hot hairdryer do the job?

Attempting to fix a PS3 - so heating up some chips on the motherboard. <crosses fingers>

[mrsxllifts]

My electronic knowledge is only limited to satellite technology but putting heat on chips is not normally recommended unless you want to kill them. Are you looking to replace them? Would a heat gun not cover too big an area on the pcb? I have a soldering iron that gets hotter than normal ones, if that helps?

[xllifts]

May I suggest tomatoe sauce with hot chips?

[smack]

mrsxllifts said:

My electronic knowledge is only limited to satellite technology but putting heat on chips is not normally recommended unless you want to kill them. Are you looking to replace them? Would a heat gun not cover too big an area on the pcb? I have a soldering iron that gets hotter than normal ones, if that helps?

Apparently the problem is it has overheated, probably due to thermal compound getting old and no longer doing it's thing. I guess the problem is due to dry joints.

The fix that has a resonable high success rate is to "reflow" the joints under the main chips.

That reminds me, I have to mail KP as he still has my soldering iron!

[SVTRick]

I have one if you still need it mate.

[smack]

SVTRick said:

I have one if you still need it mate.

Cheer Rick, yeah. I'll send you a PM.

[mrsxllifts]

Personally, I would use a small tipped soldering iron, and redo each chip leg individually with a solder sucker, heat sync and flux, then a dob of new paste. A
heat gun may spread the heat around too far and threaten other components as well as the tracks between them. I have done a number of x box 'repairs' like this and haven't failed yet! Either way, hope you get it sorted.

[VerySideways]

Sounds like you need to do what i did on KP's car stereo - and i wouldn't use a heatgun! Your soldering iron was perfect for doing exactly that, reflowing dry joints.

[smack]

I agree with both of you! But the legs on the chips that get toasty are under the chips, rather than out the side, or through the pcb. I am not sure I have a bright enough lighting in my house to take a good photo of the area in question at night. I'll have a trawl around the net for one.

[VerySideways]

I don't think a heatgun will produce enough heat to reflow the dry joints without doing some collateral damage in the process.

Hmmm. How do they solder it in the first place if you can't get to the pins from the other side of the PCB?

[smack]

I'll take some close up photos of it tomorrow morning, and see what you both think.
Unfortuantly, it doesn't currently work at the moment, so I don't have much to lose.

[Fer]

Fingers crossed for the fix, and please post the pix, as I am sure I will need this at some point in the future.

[smack]

Pics - what you you think?:

Top of motherboard - the two big silver chips (CPU and GPU or whatever) are the problem childs:


The underside:


Close up of how the chips are mounted:


The underside - the cutout is the under one of the chips, to the left is the area the 2nd chip is mounted.

[VerySideways]

Bloody hell, don't go near that lot with a heat gun.
You can reflow those pins from underneath - same as i did with KP's radio, so i know your soldering iron will do it

EDIT: for using you're instead of your. D'oh!

Edited by VerySideways on Friday 14th May 11:39

[smack]

One more shot of the chips - stuck the camera on the tripod so I could take one at f22.