VOGONS


First post, by Smack2k

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

My GeForce4 Ti4400 has an issue where its showing broken horitzontal lines on the White MSI BIOS Splash screen, graphical blips / errors on the POST Screens and similar off color broken lines on Windows 98 SPlash screen. In Windows, its more of the same. Assuming the GPU has an issue, but looking for anything I can try to fix it. I removed the heat sink, gave it the old heat gun treatment, re-applied thermal paste and put back together but no change in the card.

Could it be a bad BIOS possibly in t he card? Or am I basically SOL on this one?

Reply 1 of 11, by chrismeyer6

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

It sounds like it could be an issue with one of the bga ram chips. Can you post some pictures of what it's doing?

Reply 2 of 11, by Smack2k

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Here are a few...attached

Reply 3 of 11, by Smack2k

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Can anyone give any advice on the card here? Could it be bad caps? Is there anything I can try outside of recapping?

Reply 4 of 11, by chrismeyer6

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

That looks like it might be a bad ram chip. You can try changing the caps but I'm not sure that will fix the issue

Reply 5 of 11, by Smack2k

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Bad RAM chip means pretty much SOL?

Reply 6 of 11, by kolderman

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
Smack2k wrote on 2020-12-08, 18:49:

Bad RAM chip means pretty much SOL?

Technically possible, but would the cost be worth it? For a voodoo5 yes, a mid tier geforce...the repair would cost more than the card probably.

Reply 7 of 11, by chrismeyer6

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

It is possible to replace the ram there have been some people here that have done it.

Reply 8 of 11, by shamino

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
Smack2k wrote on 2020-12-08, 18:49:

Bad RAM chip means pretty much SOL?

If you have to replace a RAM chip then BGA is not what you want to find. Replacing BGAs is definitely an advanced operation. Nothing is impossible, but unless you have prior experience and appropriate tools then yeah you're probably SOL.

You could try pushing on the RAM ICs and see if any of them cause an on-screen reaction. If so, and if you've ruled out any more professional form of repair, then you could try heatgunning the suspect, preferably after getting some liquid flux under the chip first.

Reply 9 of 11, by adalbert

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I was able to successfully replace BGA ram chips. It's much easier to do with old hardware, which is soldered with leaded solder, because leaded solder is easier to melt than unleaded one.

You would need these things:
- hot air station (858D is the cheapest one, it's not good at all for modern lead-free hardware, but sufficient for leaded solder; it's around 40-50USD, while something more professional, like Quik 861DW is ~280USD)
MAYBE you could use hot air gun, but this is not recommended because it has uncontrolled stream of hot air.

- soldering iron with wide T12 tip for cleaning remaining solder (there are cheap T12 soldering irons you can power with a laptop power brick, like this one https://aliexpress.com/item/4001075834034.html)
HEAVILY recommended: preheater (you can use electric oven, pancake-maker hot plate, metal sheet or 5,25" CD drive metal case warmed up with tealights etc.; if you use a cheap, underpowered hot air station, a preheater is necessary)
- flux, eg. Amtech NC 559 TF
- solder wick

+ replacement memory chips, maybe you can buy brand new ones on ebay or aliexpress. They should come with pre-applied solder balls. Make sure that they are not lead-free. If they don't have solder balls, you need to apply the balls. Then you would also need:
- leaded BGA solder balls (probably 0.45mm for memory chips, but you should check the datasheet)
- BGA stencil

It's not rocket science, but requires an initial investment and some practice. If you have lots of hardware you need to fix, it might be worth investing. Cheap hardware may cost less than a single-time professional service, but you need to keep in mind that cheap hardware is imperfect, it doesn't heat up nearly as fast as professional machines, temperature control is not perfectly calibrated, requires more patience and you shouldn't try to use it to repair modern, lead-free hardware.

I found a video that shows reballing and replacing memory chips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5g1AcDIjZw
Sometimes it is enough to reball them, but not often. A preheater was not used in this video, but in your case you should heat the entire board up to 80-90*C and heat up the memory chips afterwards.

This is more professional workflow with a preheater: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLViTC6XkpA

Repair/electronic stuff videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/adalbertfix
ISA Wi-fi + USB in T3200SXC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX30t3lYezs
GUI programming for Windows 3.11 (the easy way): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6L272OApVg

Reply 10 of 11, by Smack2k

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I have all the equipment but dont think I am gonna go through all that for a 4400.....just figured I'd check and see what could be done......I really appreciate all the information though. I may try to heat it up and see what happens before bailing on it and moving on......

Reply 11 of 11, by Brutek

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

gpu/mem reballing might fix it.
Adalbert explained it well.
Tell us what you have done and if its work.
Regards