Anyone Experienced with GPU Re-Ball??

[reessi]

I was thinking of getting into this as see alot of laptops with faulty GPU's. I have confirmed this is the fault with a few in the past by slapping it in the oven, of course it only lasts a month or 2!

What I really would like to know is from someone who does this alot, how to know if its the balls or the chip itself, I know for a while there was a spate of Nvidia Chips faulty.

If there is no way of knowing then can you assume that if its not one of the known Nvidias that it is likely the balls or is it totally hit and miss or 50/50?
For example can it be a safe bet to re-ball ATI chips?

If it was 50/50 then the safe bet would be to always replace the GPU which is all well and good but I cannot see any reliable suppliers. From what I read all the chips on Ebay or ALiexpress are pulled of dead boards and re-balled, does anyone know where to buy such chips or are they never available new?

If we could know that say 95% of the time its the balls then you could do this work and offer a year guarantee and then you could sleep at night knowing if the chips faulty you haven't ripped someone off as it will come back within the year.

This is all hypothetical at the moment as I've never done a re-ball but would like to see peoples experiences.

I have just purchased the Jovy Re-8500. I am going to do some PS4's this weekend. I have read that these are definitely the balls and not usually the chip. I am aware that the re-ball process will temporarily re-join the connection inside the chip so you believe it was the balls!

Thanks for anyones advice!

[petehall347]

Re: Anyone Experienced with GPU Re-Ball??

suppose you could try liquid flux and run it under the chips then reflow .

[ktmmotocross]

Re: Anyone Experienced with GPU Re-Ball??

if it is chip. it will return after few weeksafter reball . reball again and if it return it is the chip.

[dellxps15]

Re: Anyone Experienced with GPU Re-Ball??

as ktmmotocross said, he is right. if bga chip that u reball is defective, it wil llast no longer then a month, but sometimes when we reball a bga, also the other bga need reball ( nb and sb).
other time is worker fault to reball for example the gpu while the nb was in need for reballing, and reballing gpu just heat a bit the nb to make it work for a bit, so problem was not gpu, but nb.

in addition there are well know bga that are known to be faulty and need replacement with a new unit.

other factor is how we work and what materials we use and how good we are with our machine.

if u have got a brand new jovy , i wont do any ps4 for the moment. u have to learn how it works and only after u success in smaller bga, u can focus on that one.

it's not only remove a bga and put it back. it's reball the chip (hardest part), dont popcorn the chip, dont damage the chip, dont temperature stess the chip too much, use the proper flux and i can go on all night.

if ur a smart guy, ull learn fast from each work, and ur jovy will be a very good machine.

[reessi]

Re: Anyone Experienced with GPU Re-Ball??

Interesting, I hadn't considered it to be the Northbridge or southbridge. And don't worry I wasn't going to do the PS4 first! I am going to practice on some old boards I have. Is a it a reliable test to see which chip it is to do a hot air reflow first of the GPU to test that its not NB etc, and then do a proper re-ball?

Anyone know reliable source for GPU's?

I picked up the Jovy second hand, I will be practising alot over the next month so may have many more questions.

I am going to follow Andrew Pauls youtube channel on console repairs, he has some very good videos.


Cheers.

[reessi]

Re: Anyone Experienced with GPU Re-Ball??

Also do you usually need to pre bake the board before removal. Seams some people do and some don't to avoid popcorning. Should it be ok if correctly pre-heating on the Jovy? I dont think Andrew Paul did on his videos.

Cheers.

[Seagorman]

Re: Anyone Experienced with GPU Re-Ball??

reessi, look up 'Louis Rossmann's' channel on Youtube, search through his video's for his take on reballing, tons of other really useful stuff there also

[reessi]

Re: Anyone Experienced with GPU Re-Ball??

Hi, yes I've been watching alot of his videos. I watched a bit about the GPU's but I was un-sure if he was specifically referring to the known bad Nvidias on those Macs? Thats why I'm trying to find someone who does this regularly on standard laptops and not the listed Nvidia chips and get their take on it.

I have some published lists of all the Nvidias or at least I think it is so want to know if people experience failures of other chips and if usually it is the chip or the balls or if nobody really knows and just chances it?

Louis's videos are some of the best I've seen.

Cheers.

[Seagorman]

Re: Anyone Experienced with GPU Re-Ball??

Hi reessi, yes Louis's Videos are very good no doubt, I have tried a few reflows, plenty of liquid flux, results have been so so, most didnt last more than a month or two, although one HP DV6000 still going strong after about 16 months ?, i steer clear of reflowing now as i cannot give any guaranteee that id be happy with, there are a few companies over here that offer a full reballing service but most of them quote a limited warrenty (i'd suspect 90 days) I suspect that Louis's take on it being cheap faulty chips is on the right track, i hope someone can provide you with the information you require, best of luck

[diif]

Re: Anyone Experienced with GPU Re-Ball??

I've done a few reballs and chip replacements. ATI Northbridges and a few TV mainboards. Yes I baked the new chip prior to replacement. Decent flux is a must too. I use Amtech 559.
I have some PS3s and Xbox 360s to play with when I find the time.