Bringing dead sticks back to life?

[funsoul]

Hiya Folks!

 

Been going through a lot of older ddr3 and, much to my chagrin, quite a few are dead-ish. They throw 10 or 26 errors (on a z97ocf) or send the board in to constant looping.

 

Is there any way to possibly revive them? Someone here said to remove the heatsinks, soak them for a couple hours in isopropyl alcohol then bake them in the oven for about a 1/2 hour at 50C.

 

Does that sound right? Is the temperature correct (don't think my oven allows setting such a low temp)? Is it even possible that this could work? Anyone here successfully brought the dead back to life?

 

Appreciate any tips, guidance, etc. Figure I'll try a crappy, disposable stick or 2 first and, if whatever process works, move to the nicer ones.

 

Thanks in advance!!!

-Stefan

[Leeghoofd]

have you cleaned the golden contacts?

[funsoul]

Hiya Alby! Hope you're well man!

 

Yessir...a few times

[suzuki]

Leave them in the freezer for 2 weeks ,after 2 days to soak.

For me it worked with some elpida hyper and Team D9 ddr2.

[Splave]

Microwave for 3 minutes on popcorn setting if possible

[funsoul]

Snap, crackle, pop Allen. Sounds like your recommendation is to either try rma or just move on?

[GtiJason]

Snap, crackle, pop Allen. Sounds like your recommendation is to either try rma or just move on?

 

Or send em to a pro w/ a rework station if truly goldens. if not set hot air gun for 2xx° C and hope tou don't start a fire

[Sparks.nl]

I had 2 defective gtx2 dimms. Taking off the heathspreader showed what was wrong.

The pcb was a little bent. It was not straight.

Taking of the heathspreader and warming it up was enough to revive one, the other is still defective.

 

On a sidenote: I tried putting on the heathspreader but it died again, when I took it of and heated it up it worked again.

 

Edit: I saw an excellent guide about reflowing them somewhere.

Edited February 20, 2017 by Sparks.nl

[Gigelz]

 

Is there any way to possibly revive them? Someone here said to remove the heatsinks, soak them for a couple hours in isopropyl alcohol then bake them in the oven for about a 1/2 hour at 50C.

stefan, my trick does only work on water damage due to condensation issues and you don´t have to remove the heatspreaders for that procedure.

Edited February 13, 2017 by Gigelz

[bartx]

At first, errors maybe caused by damaged chips or damaged balls below the chips (crack). Alloy used to soldering electronics components after 2005-2006 is 97% tin. Pure tin generally doesn't like exposure to cold and it's likely to corrode after some time - if you look at some socket A boards, when they still used lead-tin alloy all soldering places look shiny. Modern boards doesn't look like that.

 

If you have damaged chips, nothing can be done in this way without a replacing them. If you have physically damaged stick for replacing the IC, then it can be replaced (you need a donor).

 

If there is issue with the balls (good company which repairs electronics, can check it via rentgen) you may try reflowing the balls or reballing the chips with lead-tin alloy (it's 60% tin and 40% lead, so huge difference). 97% tin soldering alloy has melting point aroud 240C. Plus you have to warm whole pcb up to 150C to avoid any bending issues with temperature. I don't recommend heating it in the oven, because if you heat whole board to 250C you may find you IC unsoldered (especially double sided).

 

I've got some experience with it, couple years ago I was successfully resolding whole chips from cards like HD4870 or 8800GT, they have almost 1000-1200 balls below it. When do you have uber rare sticks it may be worth a try, otherwise no. Not to mention nobody guarantee you working after repair.

[funsoul]

Or send em to a pro w/ a rework station if truly goldens. if not set hot air gun for 2xx° C and hope tou don't start a fire

Hiya Jason!

Thinking of sending just (what were) the nicest sticks to someone for a reflow. For the remaining, will send back what I can for rma replacement and likely just toss the rest.

 

I had 2 defective grx2 dimms. Taking off the heathspreader showed what was wrong.

The pcb was a little bent. It was not straight.

Taking of the heathspreader and warming it up was enough to revive one, the other is still defective.

Thanks Sparks!

Will check for bent pcb's. Figure only the former good ones are worth messing with at this point.

 

stefan, my trick does only work on water damage due to condensation issues and you don´t have to remove the heatspreaders for that procedure.

Yeah...tried that on that gtx stick. Didn't help

 

At first, errors maybe caused by damaged chips or damaged balls below the chips (crack). Alloy used to soldering electronics components after 2005-2006 is 97% tin. Pure tin generally doesn't like exposure to cold and it's likely to corrode after some time - if you look at some socket A boards, when they still used lead-tin alloy all soldering places look shiny. Modern boards doesn't look like that.

 

If you have damaged chips, nothing can be done in this way without a replacing them. If you have physically damaged stick for replacing the IC, then it can be replaced (you need a donor).

 

If there is issue with the balls (good company which repairs electronics, can check it via rentgen) you may try reflowing the balls or reballing the chips with lead-tin alloy (it's 60% tin and 40% lead, so huge difference). 97% tin soldering alloy has melting point aroud 240C. Plus you have to warm whole pcb up to 150C to avoid any bending issues with temperature. I don't recommend heating it in the oven, because if you heat whole board to 250C you may find you IC unsoldered (especially double sided).

 

I've got some experience with it, couple years ago I was successfully resolding whole chips from cards like HD4870 or 8800GT, they have almost 1000-1200 balls below it. When do you have uber rare sticks it may be worth a try, otherwise no. Not to mention nobody guarantee you working after repair.

Heya bartx! Thanks for the nice info! Yeah...I'm definitely not the type to undertake that type of effort but will certainly take a look for damaged chips on all the now dead-ish ones before sending anything out for reflowing. Not worth messing with sticks that have fried chips.