There are chips on both sides of this board, is there a chance you could re-flow them off because of gravity on the other side of the board?
How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven
91–100 of 204 posts
Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven
#92I recall some years ago (7?), some other mac having some characteristic issue that could almost always be fixed with a little time in the oven.
Having a kitchen with an oven and living in a student area where Apple products were popular, I sensed a business opportunity.
I put up an ad on some local classifieds with a lowball price for these units (but not much different than what the broken ones would sell for on Ebay, minus the hassle). I quickly learned that, after investing in a premium product, people would rather hold onto their brick rather than turn it into at least some cash. I never even got a chance to try out the procedure, people would counter-offer with ridiculous prices for, what is for them, a brick.
The sunk cost fallacy at work.
edit: I think I even offered pickup and some data recovery/security as a part of the offer, no takers.
Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven
#93Some of these weird hardware fixes are due to manufacturers using adhesive.
I believe Creative (creative.com) for instance intentionally uses adhesives that ware out after a certain period.
This would cause your product to stop working, I did a writeup on fixing their MP3 players some years back : http://vistev.blogspot.com/2010/02/harware-fix-for-creative-...
Now merely hitting the device or doing some other crazy stuff may cause the necessary components to align and viola things work :)
Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Huh? The solder balls are under the chip sandwiched between the IC and the PCB. There is no direct contact with the hot air.
Yes, on a BGA the pads are under the IC package. That BGA will be on a PCB close to other ICs which has other packages. Using a hot airgun risks distributing small balls of solder.
If you can accidentally create solder-bridges with a hot-air rework, then there was too much solder; even if you're talking about fine-pitch TQFP's. I've accidentally made bridges using QFN's but only on crappy homemade PCB's and again, with too much solder. It is usually easy to correct. You can dislodge nearby capacitors, diodes, resistors, etc. but that's about it.
On a good PCB that's been cleaned properly there won't be any errant solder-balls, and surface tension will not allow them to form even when using a hot-air gun or rework tool. I've never seen a hot-air tool that blows with enough force to overcome the surface tension of the solder.
I have managed to get make a mess with solder when removing IC's using compressed air (not for the faint of heart), but that's a different story and it is still easy to clean up.
Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven
#95This is due to failure of the ball grid array solder, I'm assuming? Most of what I've seen has been due to failure of the video card - I think the nvidia ones were notorious on certain models, but I've had it happen on my 2009 iMac with a radeon card.
Sort of what sold me on integrated GPU's as being the ideal in these form factors - less parts to blow up in your face....
Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven
#96One thing that I love to make is mac & cheese.
Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven
#97Do NOT try this with a microwave oven. If you do, there will be a bad smell, and lots of sounds and lights, and you will not read Hacker News today.
Sorry, but why?
Why it is bad to do this with Microwave Oven rather than conventional oven?
Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven
#98Similar story: I was at a friend's house, and we wanted to play Nintendo Wii. Tried to turn it on, but nothing happened. My buddy grabbed the power brick, tossed it in the microwave, and blasted it for 3 seconds. After plugging it back in, it started like nothing was wrong. I was flabbergasted (one: because WTF! who puts a power supply in a microwave? and two: OMG! it worked!)
It worked because he did a Wii AC power adapter reset:
"The AC adapter must remain unplugged at both ends for a full two minutes."
https://www.nintendo.com/consumer/assets/js/doc_frame.jsp?f=...
The microwave was like customer support telling a caller to unplug the power cable and blow into the power socket.
Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven
#99Remember that there might be a law in your country that regulates complaints.
In Sweden we have "reklamationstid"[1] which gives you sort of a legislated warranty (applies to almost all goods) for three years. All goods that I have complained about using "reklamationstiden" have been replaced.
[1] http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&h...
Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven
#100Remember that there might be a law in your country that regulates complaints. In Sweden we have "reklamationstid"[1] which gives you sort of a legislated warranty (applies to almost all goods) for three years. All goods that I have complained about using "reklamationstiden" have been replaced. [1] http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&h...
Is it common to have your replacement/repair refused unless you bring up the "reklamationstiden" argument?