I don't think I've ever seen anyone replace a surface mount chip! Very impressive, I had just written it off as impossible.

My retro activity was also bringing a PC back from the dead, my father dragged home an old Pentium MMX computer with a Baby ATX motherboard, it however had serious corrosion on the components around the Li-Ion CMOS battery because it had managed to explode (I've never seen one of those explode before today). But after reading up on the correct way to clean the corrosion off I scrubbed it with vinegar to neutralize the battery acid and then with rubbing alcohol to just remove the junk. I rinsed it with water and let it sit for a day to dry out. Fired it up and BLAMMO it works perfectly! I'll probably be making a quick video on it so look for that to pop up on here. 😁

ReeseRiverson wrote:

Wow, that is some seriously impressive work you've done there! I've always wondered about some tricks to revive older motherboards, and heck, that one is pretty dang impressive.

What would you guys suggest doing for chips like that, that have bent pins while on a board already? I found a Voodoo 2 3DFX card at a local computer shop for almost nothing, but it had bent pins that do touch each other.

Ditto. I have a few cards that need to be repaired. I've looked at You Tube, went through a few trials, but my "skills" at soldering leave a lot to be desired. My wonderfully cheap Orchid Fahrenheit 1280 card started to boot only blue. I took it out, and noticed a small crack on the holder of a chip. I went to push on it lightly, and the WHOLE CHIP and HOLDER came right off! Now i'm trying to figure out how to just surface mount the chip back on there. Projects projects projects.... 😒

Reinstalled win95 OSR2.5 like 3 times due to IRQ / Memory address conflicts (coz I change stuff all the time 😜 ).

dogchainx wrote:

Ditto. I have a few cards that need to be repaired. I've looked at You Tube, went through a few trials, but my "skills" at soldering leave a lot to be desired. My wonderfully cheap Orchid Fahrenheit 1280 card started to boot only blue. I took it out, and noticed a small crack on the holder of a chip. I went to push on it lightly, and the WHOLE CHIP and HOLDER came right off! Now i'm trying to figure out how to just surface mount the chip back on there. Projects projects projects.... 😒

Plus things like this could be helpful in my 486 Packard Bell since the battery left quite a mess in a certain area.

Cool! I have no skills in this area and a serious motor issue so I would not even consider it. 😀

Anyone know or can determine a good capacitor replacement for this AWE64 Gold I got? The one for the right (red) channel had a broken leg, and no matter or what, I can't get solder to attach. So I think it's best to just replace the thing.

But being a little square cap... I can't really tell. I wish it had the same capacitors my other AWE64 units had, the electrolytics, then I could actually read what they are. 😵

ReeseRiverson wrote:

Anyone know or can determine a good capacitor replacement for this AWE64 Gold I got? The one for the right (red) channel had a b […]
Show full quote

Anyone know or can determine a good capacitor replacement for this AWE64 Gold I got? The one for the right (red) channel had a broken leg, and no matter or what, I can't get solder to attach. So I think it's best to just replace the thing.

But being a little square cap... I can't really tell. I wish it had the same capacitors my other AWE64 units had, the electrolytics, then I could actually read what they are. 😵

I've never really had good results with leadless solder. 😒 What type are you using?

Try this youtube video about surface mounting.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9FC9fAlfQE

EEVblog clip, about how to solder SMD component's.
There are some good tricks and stuff, especially how to use the "reflow" technicue.
And some info about what to NOT do when soldering this way.

By the way. That capazitor looks really bad, as it looks like something went off.
You might want to buy a new one.

I believe it's a 4,7μf capacitor, it does cay "C4μ7" right?
A 4,7μf/16v replacement should be more than enough and pretty common.

Reese: If the pins are just bent and touching not broken, you could get a pair of thin tweezers and gently bend them back so that they are no longer touching. Maybe heating them up slightly would help? On a side note my retro activity was to put together a semi-gaming dual core Athlon 64 system for my sister. Only a 2.0ghz chip with 1gb of DDR2 but the Geforce 8800gt makes up for it 😊

Blurredman wrote:

I've never really had good results with leadless solder. 😒 What type are you using?

60/40 rosin core, I have to see specifics when I get home.

-edit-

Found what I do have: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00068IJPO/r … 0?ie=UTF8&psc=1

ODwilly wrote:

Reese: If the pins are just bent and touching not broken, you could get a pair of thin tweezers and gently bend them back so that they are no longer touching. Maybe heating them up slightly would help? On a side note my retro activity was to put together a semi-gaming dual core Athlon 64 system for my sister. Only a 2.0ghz chip with 1gb of DDR2 but the Geforce 8800gt makes up for it 😊

The pin on that capacitor was broken, I was hoping some solder could grab onto it, and chances are that I just couldn't heat up the tiny spot that was left on the capacitor itself.

keropi wrote:

I believe it's a 4,7μf capacitor, it does cay "C4μ7" right?
A 4,7μf/16v replacement should be more than enough and pretty common.

Maybe, it was hard for me to tell, but perhaps I can use a multi-meter to test the capacitor on the other channel... 😲

brostenen wrote:

Try this youtube video about surface mounting..... […]
Show full quote

Try this youtube video about surface mounting.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9FC9fAlfQE

EEVblog clip, about how to solder SMD component's.
There are some good tricks and stuff, especially how to use the "reflow" technicue.
And some info about what to NOT do when soldering this way.

By the way. That capazitor looks really bad, as it looks like something went off.
You might want to buy a new one.

I'll definitely check that out soon, thanks! 😀

ReeseRiverson wrote:

What would you guys suggest doing for chips like that, that have bent pins while on a board already? I found a Voodoo 2 3DFX card at a local computer shop for almost nothing, but it had bent pins that do touch each other.

I used fine tweezers and a stanley knife blade, as shown on the second picture. Anything will do, as long as it fits between the leads 😉

King_Corduroy wrote:

I don't think I've ever seen anyone replace a surface mount chip! Very impressive, I had just written it off as impossible.

Surface mount soldering is dead easy once you get the hang of it. It's much easier than through-hole soldering IMO.
QFP chips are easy too, as long as you use hot air tools, and shouldn't take more than a few minutes normally. But I don't have this stuff at home 🙁

It's still not working 100% though. The floppy drive interface doesn't work at all. Drive starts spinning on access but it won't read anything. And I tried booting with a Linux LiveCD, but then the keyboard stops working. This doesn't happen with a FreeDOS LiveCD... Also the BIOS won't remember its settings.
All of this is controlled by that Winbond chip so I may have fried it while desoldering (overheating/ESD?), or perhaps there are other bad components on the board. Not unlikely, as there must be a reason why this chip failed in the first place...

keropi wrote:

I believe it's a 4,7μf capacitor, it does cay "C4μ7" right?
A 4,7μf/16v replacement should be more than enough and pretty common.

Yep, that's a 4.7µF tantalum or polymer.

jwt27 wrote:

ReeseRiverson wrote:

What would you guys suggest doing for chips like that, that have bent pins while on a board already? I found a Voodoo 2 3DFX card at a local computer shop for almost nothing, but it had bent pins that do touch each other.

I used fine tweezers and a stanley knife blade, as shown on the second picture. Anything will do, as long as it fits between the leads 😉

Okay, then I better try my luck then... I hope it's savable! You know what? I'll go ahead and take a picture of the pins when I get home. 😀

jwt27 wrote:

keropi wrote:

I believe it's a 4,7μf capacitor, it does cay "C4μ7" right?
A 4,7μf/16v replacement should be more than enough and pretty common.

Yep, that's a 4.7µF tantalum or polymer.

Alright, that'll be on my list of parts to get then. Especially if I can save the AWE64 Gold. I really honestly like these cards. 🤣

Reese...be very very careful bending those pins. I tried to do that with about 15+ pins that were touching on mine. Out of all of those, about 4-5 of the pins lifted off of the solder contact on the PCB. So gentle on the pressure and try to place most of the pressure near where the pins EXIT the chip, and not down near the PCB solder points.

ReeseRiverson wrote:

Anyone know or can determine a good capacitor replacement for this AWE64 Gold I got? The one for the right (red) channel had a b […]
Show full quote

Anyone know or can determine a good capacitor replacement for this AWE64 Gold I got? The one for the right (red) channel had a broken leg, and no matter or what, I can't get solder to attach. So I think it's best to just replace the thing.

But being a little square cap... I can't really tell. I wish it had the same capacitors my other AWE64 units had, the electrolytics, then I could actually read what they are. 😵

Well I see a lot of dust on the PCB, so one of the reasons may be the pads are not clean enough to hold the solder, the same may count for the cap itself - make sure it is clean, use sandpaper (but carefully) or isopropyl alcohol to clean both the contacts of the pads and capacitor (using a brush helps!).

What soldering tool do you use? Does it heat the surface sufficiently (the PCB ''consumes'' the heat quickly)? The solder you have is OK, maybe additional flux will be required.

dogchainx wrote:

Reese...be very very careful bending those pins. I tried to do that with about 15+ pins that were touching on mine. Out of all of those, about 4-5 of the pins lifted off of the solder contact on the PCB. So gentle on the pressure and try to place most of the pressure near where the pins EXIT the chip, and not down near the PCB solder points.

Well, I just hope they aren't already in too bad of a case, but I'll use my macro lens on my camera to really get up and close in detail.

Shodan486 wrote:

Well I see a lot of dust on the PCB, so one of the reasons may be the pads are not clean enough to hold the solder, the same may count for the cap itself - make sure it is clean, use sandpaper (but carefully) or isopropyl alcohol to clean both the contacts of the pads and capacitor (using a brush helps!).

What soldering tool do you use? Does it heat the surface sufficiently (the PCB ''consumes'' the heat quickly)? The solder you have is OK, maybe additional flux will be required.

Well, that could be, but the capacitor has a broken leg when I got this board. I could clean it up and try again though.

As far as soldering tool, I have a Hakko 703 Solder/Desolder Station. I'll need to get some flux though.

played today at my friends house his Atari Lynx handheld. That fat original version, not sissy Lynx II 😀 I remember when I bought mine, almost instantly after it was available. And I think I have to get one of those again. Played Chip's Challenge and Slime World and still love those games... I also had original GameBoy and Sega Game Gear. Why, oh why I let them go...

:EDIT: shiiiit.... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Atari-LYNX-The-Comple … =item43c6ee69c1

Played CivNet online with a friend in the EU on my P233MMX. Great game and a lot of fun. 😀

Built a new test bench / Retro Gaming PC for Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow:

It's a Core i5 2500, 4 GB RAM, 7800 GTX, X-Fi, XP SP3

I'm using Bandicam for capturing game footage and this will by first "Let's Play Period Correct" video series 😀

First video is uploading but several GB because I play at 1600 x 1200 and render in 4K resolution 😀

philscomputerlab wrote:

Built a new test bench / Retro Gaming PC for Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow: […]
Show full quote

Built a new test bench / Retro Gaming PC for Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow:

It's a Core i5 2500, 4 GB RAM, 7800 GTX, X-Fi, XP SP3

I'm using Bandicam for capturing game footage and this will by first "Let's Play Period Correct" video series 😀

First video is uploading but several GB because I play at 1600 x 1200 and render in 4K resolution 😀

Very nice! That system is almost fast enough 😉

I should get going with building some more yearly builds or bench some more AGP cards.

My AGP test bench rig is giving me headaches though, the Soyo KT333 socket A board with universal AGP is very picky when it comes to video cards. It only works with all AGP 8X slotted cards, when it comes to AGP 2X and universal AGP cards its hit and miss, 50% works 50% dosnt. All cards are tested and found working using other systems. Perhaps I have used the Soyo board to test a bit to many faulty video cards but it still works great with the cards that work and its seems very random which cards works and which cards dosnt.

For some reason I feel more like building a total overkill Pentium-D rig to see what type of performance I can get with a Netburst CPU and some semi modern GPU.
Will it handle Crysis?