Nemo1985 wrote on 2021-08-07, 09:04:

Thank you for the tips. […]
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Thank you for the tips.

Typo fixed, I checked the voltage it is: v1.883, so I guess it is ok...

The board boots less and less, during last try it booted just once and it did after some time it was turned on, I was busy pushing chips and it suddenly started.

Anything gets hot, cpu, nb and southbridge if it matters.

That's a picture of the board, if you need any detailed picture or anything I should measure, that's something i'm able to do 😀

s-l1600.jpg

You're welcome.
This model has three typical problem : s478 (loose solder balls), the northbridge (loose solder balls or bad chip) and APM3055.
Loose contacts may be found if the CPU and/or NB is pressed before turn on. APM3055 are better to be replaced for something reliable.
Anything else demands proper diagnostic at a workshop.

Roman555 wrote on 2021-08-07, 11:55:

Anything else demands proper diagnostic at a workshop.

Can we have your address?

Nexxen wrote on 2021-08-07, 13:13:

Roman555 wrote on 2021-08-07, 11:55:

Anything else demands proper diagnostic at a workshop.

Can we have your address?

Sorry, no. I stopped working at a workshop years ago. Now hardware is just a hobby and not more.

Roman555 wrote on 2021-08-07, 13:23:

Nexxen wrote on 2021-08-07, 13:13:

Roman555 wrote on 2021-08-07, 11:55:

Anything else demands proper diagnostic at a workshop.

Can we have your address?

Sorry, no. I stopped working at a workshop years ago. Now hardware is just a hobby and not more.

It was a joke 😉

Proper diagnostic requires a lot of knowledge and a lot of good quality material.
I hope he can solve the issue fast.

Nexxen wrote on 2021-08-07, 13:31:

It was a joke 😉

Proper diagnostic requires a lot of knowledge and a lot of good quality material.
I hope he can solve the issue fast.

Ha, good joke 😀 I don't see your country and I've really thought you are in my country too 😀
Also anyone can download schematic manual for this or other models from a good resource:
https://elektrotanya.com/showresult?what=GA-8 … book-PC&kat2=SM

Nemo1985 wrote on 2021-08-06, 14:14:

From what I could see it only stucks after I changed the date (day, month and year), I managed other options (in other menus) without issues.

I missed your mention about the date settings. It can point to trouble with southbridge itself or its soldering balls (of course 😀 ) or maybe with oscillator 32.768kHz.
Is time going in mainboard's clock?

Roman555 wrote on 2021-08-07, 14:16:

Nemo1985 wrote on 2021-08-06, 14:14:

From what I could see it only stucks after I changed the date (day, month and year), I managed other options (in other menus) without issues.

I missed your mention about the date settings. It can point to trouble with southbridge itself or its soldering balls (of course 😀 ) or maybe with oscillator 32.768kHz.
Is time going in mainboard's clock?

That's a good question, I never had the chance to update the date because it hanged before any time I tried, but other settings were saved correctly.
Thank you for the precious tip of the schematics I was also curious to spot the differences between rev1 and 1.1, now I have the chance.
I also noticed that the southbridge become hot, so does the northbridge but it has the heatsink, but the southbridge becoming hot when the motherboard doesn't boot, is it right?

Since the culprit could they be the nb, sb, or cpu socket, is it worth to use an hot air gun on such components just to refresh the soldering balls?
I have no idea about who I could go for a successful troubleshoot so i'm guessing what can be done.

Thank you very much for your precious help.

Edit: I just bought a hot air gun, ready to make some disaster here...

Edit2: I took off the heatsink from the northbridge, it had adhesive tape instead of thermal paste, anyway after doing that the motherboard doesn't boot at all, this make me suspect that the culprit is the nb?

Edit3: I took off the heatsink cage and I spotted a defect, could it be the source of the issues? What do you think Roman?
https://imgur.com/a/Pa4XpGH

Nemo1985 wrote on 2021-08-07, 15:01:

Edit: I just bought a hot air gun, ready to make some disaster here... […]
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Edit: I just bought a hot air gun, ready to make some disaster here...

Edit2: I took off the heatsink from the northbridge, it had adhesive tape instead of thermal paste, anyway after doing that the motherboard doesn't boot at all, this make me suspect that the culprit is the nb?

Edit3: I took off the heatsink cage and I spotted a defect, could it be the source of the issues? What do you think Roman?
https://imgur.com/a/Pa4XpGH

Hi!
A hot airgun is useful only for little and middle components but not so big as a chipset's bridge (hub).
To solder big BGA chips with the hot airgun it's necessary (at least) to have and use a bottom pre-heater. Its size ideally should be as big as a mainboard itself.
Just for example the most popular and cost effective (in Russia) is TermoPro BGA infrared station and preheaters
Preheater prevents deformation of PCB and overheating of a soldering chip.
Of course it's not a pre-heater itself but using it you will be able to follow soldering temperature profile. It's very important especially for lead-free components.

The scratches are not so deep to damage the wires, IMO.

Roman555 wrote on 2021-08-08, 18:20:

Hi! A hot airgun is useful only for little and middle components but not so big as a chipset's bridge (hub). To solder big BGA […]
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Hi!
A hot airgun is useful only for little and middle components but not so big as a chipset's bridge (hub).
To solder big BGA chips with the hot airgun it's necessary (at least) to have and use a bottom pre-heater. Its size ideally should be as big as a mainboard itself.
Just for example the most popular and cost effective (in Russia) is TermoPro BGA infrared station and preheaters
Preheater prevents deformation of PCB and overheating of a soldering chip.
Of course it's not a pre-heater itself but using it you will be able to follow soldering temperature profile. It's very important especially for lead-free components.

The scratches are not so deep to damage the wires, IMO.

I see, so it wouldn't be a solution if the problem is on the northbridge or southbridge, on the other hand such professional equipment is expensive and I do not know any vogoner who has it.

I'm out of ideas, what would you do?

Nemo1985 wrote on 2021-08-08, 18:33:

...
I'm out of ideas, what would you do?

I would replace the APM3055 just to be sure - hot airgun is useful for it.
If there's no change maybe I will try to buy another mainboard.

Roman555 wrote on 2021-08-08, 19:05:

Nemo1985 wrote on 2021-08-08, 18:33:

...
I'm out of ideas, what would you do?

I would replace the APM3055 just to be sure - hot airgun is useful for it.
If there's no change maybe I will try to buy another mainboard.

I see, any advice of what buy precisely to replace the apm3055? Because I have no idea...

Anyway for what it matters, since I took off the heatsink from the nb the motherboard never boots, not once.

Nemo1985 wrote on 2021-08-08, 21:13:

Roman555 wrote on 2021-08-08, 19:05:

Nemo1985 wrote on 2021-08-08, 18:33:

...
I'm out of ideas, what would you do?

I would replace the APM3055 just to be sure - hot airgun is useful for it.
If there's no change maybe I will try to buy another mainboard.

I see, any advice of what buy precisely to replace the apm3055? Because I have no idea...

Anyway for what it matters, since I took off the heatsink from the nb the motherboard never boots, not once.

Could try putting risers on the m/b sides and put some weight on the NB.
See if it makes a difference.

As for APM3055 on aliexpress it's full of it. Just the wait is long.

I tried to kept some pressure on the nb with the fingers, no success, good idea trying something else.

I distrust aliexpress for that kind of stuff, honestly... Also if the problem is the model, maybe there is a better replacement, if I understood what Roman means the whole apm3055 series is bad.

Also I checked the mosfet and it seems a different model: 3150?

Nemo1985 wrote on 2021-08-08, 22:24:

I tried to kept some pressure on the nb with the fingers, no success, good idea trying something else. […]
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I tried to kept some pressure on the nb with the fingers, no success, good idea trying something else.

I distrust aliexpress for that kind of stuff, honestly... Also if the problem is the model, maybe there is a better replacement, if I understood what Roman means the whole apm3055 series is bad.

Also I checked the mosfet and it seems a different model: 3150?
photo_2021-08-09_00-30-04.jpg

Yes, apm3055 are all bad for high load regulators. Gigabyte replaced them to ON Semi 3150. It's OK then.

What to do if proper soldering equipment is unavailable?
Ukrainian bloggers composed a video 😀 (Russian language)
https://youtu.be/34TVuBfiDHg

P.S. Although they had replaced the southbridge they couldn't repair the motherboard because the problem was also the northbridge.

Well they did, so it may be doable with home equipment and the right experience (which I lack mostly).
So we can rule out the FET from the list.

My hope is that the bios is bad, my fear is that the nb is bad, that's because since I took off the heatsink (which had an adhesive pad) it never booted again.
I also noticed that the nb seembs a bit "lifted". Is this normal?

The day after tomorrow, or tomorrow at best, I should receive the hot air gun. Roman, please tell me what to do, other than look for another board, which I'm already doing 😁

Thank you for your patience

I just received the heatgun, I played with a broken lga 775 board, I was able to disolder the nb and the sb, just for fun, it took higher temperature than expected, 300 °C instead of 220-240, I preheated the board with the heatgun at 100 °C for 4 minutes, then tried several times at 220, 240, 270, anyone for 5 minutes, while moving the heatgun around the nb, with no results, then after a couple of minutes at 300 the nb came off easily.

I'm currently not feeling confident to mess with the gigabyte board, waiting for Roman's good advice 😁

Roman555 wrote on 2021-08-09, 13:52:

What to do if proper soldering equipment is unavailable? Ukrainian bloggers composed a video :-) (Russian language) https://yout […]
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What to do if proper soldering equipment is unavailable?
Ukrainian bloggers composed a video 😀 (Russian language)
https://youtu.be/34TVuBfiDHg

P.S. Although they had replaced the southbridge they couldn't repair the motherboard because the problem was also the northbridge.

Strange there was no hardbass 😀
I wouldn't do that even if I knew how to. That is savage! 😀:)

Unless it's last resort before spare parts bin.

Nemo1985 wrote on 2021-08-10, 08:32:

I just received the heatgun, I played with a broken lga 775 board, I was able to disolder the nb and the sb, just for fun, it took higher temperature than expected, 300 °C instead of 220-240, I preheated the board with the heatgun at 100 °C for 4 minutes, then tried several times at 220, 240, 270, anyone for 5 minutes, while moving the heatgun around the nb, with no results, then after a couple of minutes at 300 the nb came off easily.

I'm currently not feeling confident to mess with the gigabyte board, waiting for Roman's good advice 😁

I recently acquired a heatgun, it's the tool you have and always will come in handy.
Practice is the word though, especially melting temps.

When I see reapair videos it all looks clean, fast and neat. Then I look at my mess. "cicadas sound"

Nemo1985 wrote on 2021-08-09, 17:54:

Well they did, so it may be doable with home equipment and the right experience (which I lack mostly). So we can rule out the FE […]
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Well they did, so it may be doable with home equipment and the right experience (which I lack mostly).
So we can rule out the FET from the list.

My hope is that the bios is bad, my fear is that the nb is bad, that's because since I took off the heatsink (which had an adhesive pad) it never booted again.
I also noticed that the nb seembs a bit "lifted". Is this normal?
photo_2021-08-09_19-49-44.jpg
photo_2021-08-09_19-49-45.jpg

The day after tomorrow, or tomorrow at best, I should receive the hot air gun. Roman, please tell me what to do, other than look for another board, which I'm already doing 😁

Thank you for your patience

It's difficult to say watching photos. Although you've managed de-solder the NB and SB it says nothing whether chips have "survived" overheating or not.
NBs are usually very big chips so I won't dare solder them just using a hot airgun soldering station.
IMO, it's better to use a DIY bottom pre-heater for this purpose and somehow control temperature during soldering process.
Also I think you don't have rigs for chip re-balling so you shouldn't develop the situation when PCB is deformed in soldering place and all little balls sticks together into big one )