Broken Solder Joints....

[stevo1210]

Hello Everyone,

I was installing some RAM yesterday night into my Toshiba P25 laptop and the RAM compartment was really small.... so small that I had to rely on my nails to get the RAM modules in. The memory module on the bottom fit in with no big problems. The module on top on the other hand was a real pain and require some force to be inserted (it also required me to one of the clips a bit to get it in).

So this morning I was talking to mate of mine about the procedure and my hardships of installing the RAM and having to use some force and he said 'be careful.... I think you may have broken some solder joints in the process, so I think you may need a new motherboard'. Only problem is that the motherboard for this laptop is so damn expensive.... another thought that came to me was.... Stevo, you have just screwed up with $3500 of equipment.

I am a bit confused here.... but if I was to break some solder joints on the SODIMM slots, wouldn't I expect to get BSODs or similar?? I haven't had any issues so far. I even went through a gaming session today and it was fine. I was quite worried about what he said as well, so I decided to move the laptop around a bit and tap on the memory slot cover, chassis and keyboard with some force, still I didn't get any BSOD or similar.

So my question is can I have a broken solder joint and not notice it??

Thanks.

[Scenic]

Re: Broken Solder Joints....

to be safe.. run docmemory (simmtester.com) or memtest86(+)
and try to apply a bit pressure on the plastic (?) cover while testing...

my old toshiba has those solderjoint problems.. 1 of the 2 SO-DIMM slots has problems (when a stick is inserted and the laptop is not moved or you're not hammering on the keyboard everythings fine... but as soon as you move it or lift it up the table it gives me memory errors... -.-)

as a solution i simply removed the RAM stick in that slot (because i have to take the whole laptop apart for getting to all of the solderjoints )

edit: this is also a common problem on IBM Thinkpad T2x models..
seen lots of their mainboards as defective... after resoldering the SO-DIMM Slots everything's fine again

[i4004]

Re: Broken Solder Joints....

stevo, things are to be fixed when they break, not before.

[stevo1210]

Re: Broken Solder Joints....

and try to apply a bit pressure on the plastic (?) cover while testing...

I tried that as well and I didn't get a BSOD or anything.

[gdement]

Re: Broken Solder Joints....

stevo, things are to be fixed when they break, not before.

Agreed. There's no evidence that the machine is broken. Just run a memory stress tester to be sure, I'd always do that after installing memory.

[gg1978]

Re: Broken Solder Joints....

I do remember hearing about some Sony Vaio's that had SO-DIMM slot solder issues, specifically with joint failures. As long as the system is working fine though, i wouldn't worry about it.. Believe me, if you had a bad solder joint lose connection while windows is up and running, you'll know about it..

[kc8adu]

Re: Broken Solder Joints....

i fixed a ton of those sony boards.
it was a design/mfr issue.
if your unit is passing memtest leave it alone!

[starfury1]

Re: Broken Solder Joints....

yeah unless you have to
"don't fix what ain't broke"
is normally the best way, especially with a laptop

[stevo1210]

Re: Broken Solder Joints....

Today I was pulling the screen up and down a few times to achieve a correct position and then my laptop just died as i was doing that. In other words it just turned off with no warning.

I panicked and hit the "on" switch again and my laptop came back to life. I am typing this message now so obviously it is working.
I have tried to repeat the scenario without success by adjusting the screen angles, tapping the laptop in various areas with my fingers and also tried to flex the frame a bit.

No matter what I do the laptop stays on and is stable as rock which is making me wonder why it did a random shut down before.

I am out of ideas to why the random shutdown occured before.... this is the first time it has ever happened since I got this laptop. Does anyone know what may (anything you can think of?) have caused this random shutdown??

I've also finished a gaming session about 5 minutes ago on this laptop and nothing has gone wrong.

Why does my mind keep drifting to bad solder joints?! Even though my laptop has been stable with no issues for the last month or so after the memory upgrade!!

Thanks.

[stevo1210]

Re: Broken Solder Joints....

I assume everything is OK now because my laptop has been up all afternoon/ night and has been manually restarted by me a few times and I haven't seen anything too bad happen. I've lost signal to the LCD a few times... but it's happened a few times before because the LCD cable hasn't got good contact with the connector.... haven't got around to look that issue up yet!.

Thanks.