Reballing a lappy

[stevo1210]

As some of you may remember, I was given a Medion MD97310 laptop a while ago with the dreaded nvidia underfill issue on the 8600GS graphics chip. The laptop itself still works great except I can't install any video drivers due to the graphics chip issue.
Now what I want to know is this... there's a guy who lives a few doors down which wants $60 to reball my graphics chip (he does it for a living like TC recaps boards for a living)... he says it should fix it, but what do you guys think? Is this as simple as a reball or have I got to get a new graphics chip or what?

Thanks.

[mockingbird]

Re: Reballing a lappy

The underfill is supposed to become pliant at high temperatures - when this doesn't happen, the core can't "float" and the core is physically damaged.

If this hasn't happened - if there is no physical damage to the core - i.e. if it's just the leads inside the core that have seperated from the pads or the BGA leads which have seperated from the board, then a reflow will help you.

I wouldn't personally re-ball... I would pay the guy less to reflow it professionally (With the proper equipment and reflow profile). And make sure he puts some fluid flux underneath the chip, or else the re-flow will not last for more than a few months.

Leaded solder is not always better for BGAs.