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Subject: Re: DJGPP cross compilers for open-source hardware
From: RayeR <glaux AT centrum DOT cz>
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Precedence: bulk

> I had an EVGA 7950GT.  It was the first video card of mine with BGAs
> to unsolder.
> It worked for many years before it had problems.  I got another six
> months out of it.  Unlike years ago, I didn't have access to a
> industrial reflow soldering machine.
...

Yes, I had also bad experience withm my VGA. First I had Asus 7900GT that I bought as used and it started to produce artifacts about after 2 years I had it. It started display ocassionally and ended with messed text-mode screen at boot up. I also don't have personally access to profi BGA rework station but now know some guy who do ot for some $. I tried to repair my 7900GT myself by hot air pistol with regulated temp. but I probably accidentally moved with some memory BGA chip and the card them blew up :P
So I bought another 7900GT (LeadTek) and it works till now. I have big heatpipe passive cooling on it (Accelero S1), some photos here: http://rayer.g6.cz/hardware/gf7900gt.htm
Before I had Asus 7600GS Silent - passive that heated during gaming quite a lot so I extended passive heatsink. I don't like loud fans... This card still works in father's PC but it's used only in 2D.
I also have one success with repairing of 8800GT. I had artifacts too and after reflowing BGA DRAM chips it worked again but I don't know how long - not mine. AFAIK this amateur reflow often fails after some months-years.

The ROHS needs exact thermal profile, protective atmosphere and even then it's still more fragile than old good leaded solder...

In notebooks sometimes there are very terrible thermal design. Manufacturers use thick thermal "chewing gum" (even 0,5 - 1mm thick!) between chip and heatsing that cause overheating. One colegue reported me some machine with core i3 that reached about 80-90C after power up in SETUP! He disassembled it and replaced the gum by copper plate of appropriate thickness + thin layer of classic thermal pasta and temperature dropped down about 30C!

I guess it's not random occurence but it's intention - the planed device lifetime. It has to be engineered precisely to fail the device after waranty and enforce user to buy new device. And this is not only one way to achieve this, e.g. modern printers are full of funny screw-uppers...