First post, by Kahenraz
- Rank
- l33t
I have a motherboard with a soldered BIOS chip that I wanted to socket for hot flashing. I have never replaced a chip like this and it's in a location with a lot of surrounding components so I spent a lot of time planning on how to approach this.
I did a lot of tests and experimentation on a parts board with different iron settings and a hot air station for both removing the chip and adding a socket. Removing SMD components, even as large as this, is easy to do with a hot air station but I didn't want to risk melting any of the adjacent plastic parts so I opted for an alternative.
This is ChipQuik's SMD removal kit. It includes a small tube of tacky flux and a very low melting point solder. When this is mixed with the solder on the board it allows a generous amount of time to heat all sides of the chip while remaining molten. This is extremely gentle on the part itself and the effect is like magic. Chips just don't float off of a PCB but they do with this stuff. There are videos of it and they are absolutely real. There is a lot of cleanup involved but this can be managed with a solder braid.
Here is what the board looks like with the chip removed.
And the chip itself after being cleaned and washed.