Acer Aspire 5520 dead

[Gianni]

After a long time I had nothing interesting to repair, four days ago a neighbour brought me an Acer Aspire 5520 completely dead, nothing happened pushing the power button.

So I have disassembled completely the notebook and with an hot air gun, I have warmed up the board slowly, than I have heat only the Nvidia chipset at around 220°C for about 30 seconds and than I left the board to cool down.
The result is that the PC is repaired.
Here two pics, one with the chipset highlighted and one with the hot air gun I have used and in the background the working notebook.


Ciao
Gianni

[shadow]

Re: Acer Aspire 5520 dead

Awesome work!

[ablacon64]

Re: Acer Aspire 5520 dead

Unfortunately, it won't last. This is a common problem and if you want long term results you need to remove the chip and exchange the solder spheres.

[artois7]

Re: Acer Aspire 5520 dead

If it was completely dead and showed no life before disassembly, what lead you to heating up the Nvidia chipset?

[Gianni]

Re: Acer Aspire 5520 dead

@ ablacon64: I know this is not a professional way to solve the problem... but the choice was between spending more than 300Euro for a new MOBO and to sell it on Ebay.
As my neighbour didn't want to spend 300Euro, I told him that I could try to fix it and if didn't succeed he could sell the notebook on Ebay.
Well now let's see how long the notebook works.

@ artois7: I'm not a genius or a clairvoyant, before doing anything on this notebook I searched on internet and I found an Italian forum about acer + nvidia problem. Also on badcaps there are a lot of post about re-flowing or re-balling faulty chipset.
To be honest I read the almost all notebook try to boot in and endless loop while this one was completely dead, not even a short led blink.
I read discussion about the "oven method" and "hot air gun method", these are the methods used by people like me that have not professional tools to rework chipset.
I have used the hot air gun because I had no the possibility to measure the temperature in the oven, while using the hot air gun I have checked the temperature with a Fluke infrared probe I have in my office.
Moreover I was afraid about the connectors, I didn't want to melt them and with the air gun you can heat only the chipset.

Ciao
Gianni

[ablacon64]

Re: Acer Aspire 5520 dead

Not a problem if you know what you're doing and specially if you did not charge for the job. Anyway, most "reballers" started like that, you first reflow, then you get more courage and start to heat the MB to try to remove the chip.
One or two times you mess up the board and then you're successful.
You don't learn to ride a bike until you take some falls.

[Gianni]

Re: Acer Aspire 5520 dead

ablacon64 you are right.... the first time I recapped a MOBO was very tough... but at the 4th was very easy, but I won't became a "reballers" because I don't repair PC for job, I do it on free time.

I charged for the job because it took me more than 6 hours to open and close the notebook and to update the system/antivirus...
I didn't charge a lot... but I work free of charge only for close friends.
If you do a job for free... people may think it costs you nothing while it is not true: you need tools, skill, time and above all information.
I spent a lot of time reading forum to learn how things work, and I really appreciated all good advice and information you can find here and on other forums and when I can I try to share what I know or I try to help members.
But working for free, IMHO, it is not correct unless you are doing it as volunteer.
Moreover if you work for free... you can be sure very soon you will receive a lot of requests or people start asking your help for everything... without trying to solve problem by themselves.

I'm a volunteer in 3 teams... that's enough free job for me, when I have to use solder and screwdrivers... I want to be paid

Ciao
Gianni