Final (?) update for my Radeon 7000, I got that 0402 resistor soldered in to fix RP3 and now all memory data outputs are finally connected. Vertical bars are fully gone also in graphics modes. This card also had some other components ripped of (seems to be a trash bin rescue), had I noticed that right away I would just bought another batch of cheap cards instead of doing repairs. But I was already invested into this one, and cleaned it, so I fixed the other damage too. If anyone is interested the INTB# AGP pin might not matter if disconnected, if BIOS / OS end up using INTA# (which I think is the default). Also pin 11 on VGA connector is sometimes used for monitor presence detection, this too seems to be optional.

Will the pads on this trace repair kit fir my 9600SE? Not sure since I can't seem to find any info about the size of them.

Here's the picture of under the chip. Currently I'll stop working on it and wait for the trace repair kit to arrive.

I've never used these kits so I have no idea how it'll turn out, and how much work it'd be to restore the pads. I think some soldering of the traces that are left to the pad susbsitutes would also be required?

In any case you want all that area super clean (and also dust-free before the pads repair) so clean it with IPA. Remove any traces of the flux - not only it'll be easier to see what you are doing, and help the glue on the new pads adhere to the PCB, it might just remove any leftover solder balls that can form and short nearby traces. If the flux hardened already then soak it a bit, put some cotton pads or paper towel over the area and make it wet with IPA. Or just soak the entire PCB corner in IPA if you have suitable container for this. Use brush to clean the softened flux but be very careful around the missing pads, as to not lift any more nearby copper.

Also, for any soldering near edge connectors I advise to cover the exposed gold pads with some tape (kapton preferably but anything else will work too with 2 or 3 layers for just accidental touch of s0ldering iron tip, or a drop of solder falling there).

The kit has arrived and... its too small. All the traces break off after I get them off so I'm using the copper surrounding the traces. Do you think the card would work if NC trace would be shorted with BA0 on the chip?

kotel wrote on 2024-08-20, 13:22:

Do you think the card would work if NC trace would be shorted with BA0 on the chip?

That really depends on the chip - if the pin is not connected internally then sure, but if it has some hidden function then obviously weird things can happen. If you think this is your last attempt at fixing it anyway then consider removing that pin from the chip? Just break it off for example. It might just make the soldering easier, and possibly allow you to space the remaining pins a bit to have more clearance. At this point you can make it a learning experience if nothing else.

I have (almost) got all the traces somewhat where the original ones would go. I still need to solder down (what I hope is) one more trace to the VIA since there's just a little bit left of it. I have also thought about moving all the memory to the extra 4 empty pads on the card, but I have no idea if the GPU will like it...

Repaired those pads, but another one broke off. After repairing the last one I soldered down the chip. I am sure some have came undone cause the whole text arena of GPU is gone. Now its a total mess. Not sure if shorting BA0/1 to GND will change anything... If You could help me find a high quality photo of a model that has all the slots for RAM populated, that be ver helpful (markings for components are not there, so I can't switch the places where RAM is).

It might not be as simple as soldering the chips on the empty pads. First you will also need the resistor packs that are used there, and from experience soldering these manually is a major pain in the behind. So easy to get one solder point not to stick to PCB properly, hours spent on fixing such issues over all the packs. Then there are the power bypass capacitors but these are not much of an issue, except you'll have to figure out if you want to solder the chips first, or the caps. It might be easier to solder the chips first - better access to all the pins. There could also be an extra voltage regulator needed, depending on how the power rails to memory are done on this card.

But there is one possible problem with all of that. Well, two even. The GPU might expect to see its first bank of VRAM populated first, and fully, before it will use the second bank. So if such transplant will work, and if the BIOS on the card can handle that, is unknown. Second the chip might actually be partially defective, with second bank (or high order bus lanes) not working properly. So it's a perfect candidate for a cheaper card with reduced amount of VRAM but will not work with full amount. Or with your attempt to move the chips.

Deunan wrote on 2024-08-21, 18:47:

But there is one possible problem with all of that. Well, two even. The GPU might expect to see its first bank of VRAM populated first, and fully, before it will use the second bank. So if such transplant will work, and if the BIOS on the card can handle that, is unknown. Second the chip might actually be partially defective, with second bank (or high order bus lanes) not working properly. So it's a perfect candidate for a cheaper card with reduced amount of VRAM but will not work with full amount. Or with your attempt to move the chips.

I do expect the card to just show a blank screen after I move the memory. I'm thinking about using hot air to solder down caps and resistors cause I suck at soldering SMD with soldering iron. I'll try to find a similar card (with 256mb) and see where resistors and caps go. Probably its just gonna be a loss since there were memory errors before I screwed it up even more.

After some searching about the R9600/R9500 series cards I found out that they often get artifacts from BGA faults. No idea if that's true so I ask if anybody can confirm if that's the issue.