Resoldering the GPU? [was Re: [ltp] vertical lines error on the lcd screen]

[James Knott]

Oisin Feeley wrote:
> On 4/3/07, James Knott <james.knott@rogers.com> wrote:
>> Oisin Feeley wrote:
>> > On 4/3/07, Bill Andrus <languru@us.ibm.com> wrote:
>> >>  > (vertical lines, console mode text garbled...)
>> >>
>> >> Your System Board has failed.  The ATI display chips are on a PCB
>> >> carrier
>> >> that is soldered into the main PCB, and (usually due to flexing or
>> >> pressure
>> >> around the spacebar and trackpoint buttons) the internal soldering 
>> has
>> >> broken.  Problem in its earliest stages will be temperature and 
>> pressure
>> >> sensitive, later it will become more pronounced with system
>> >> freeze-ups and
>> >> reboots.
>> >
>> > I've heard people talk about sending the board to have the solder
>> > "re-fluxed" to correct this problem.  Do you have any idea if this is
>> > really possible?
>> >
>>
>> "Re-fluxing" wouldn't do much, as flux is only used during soldering.
>> Howver, problems can often be resolved by resoldering intermittent
>> connections.
>
> Sorry, I mean "re-flowing".
>
> So, what about reflowing the solder then?  Has anyone had success with
> doing that themselves or with sending it for repair somewhere (and if
> so what sort of price would it be?).
>
> In this link the poster talks about having a screen corruption issue
> similar to the OP which he fixed by resoldering the video chip himself
> http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_with_garbled_screen
>

If you're not familiar with electronic repair, you should send it in for 
repair.  Reflowing solder only works if there is a poor connection on 
the circuit board.  Until you've determined it's the likely cause, 
there's no point in doing it.


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