SD card reader broke on motherboard

[ltd1991]

Asking here as a last resort really as I'm fairly sure I'm going to have to buy a new Switch or replace the motherboard.

Basically the SD card reader broke on the motherboard end, 2 pins came loose. My switch is hacked and has autorcm enabled so I can't access it at all without the SD card. As far as I know, I bought the replacement part but it would require soldering onto the motherboard.

Is there any sort of solution I'm missing? I'm prepared to sell all the parts for spares and buy a new one but thought I'd check here first before going ahead with that.

 

[jkyoho]

give it to a repair tech who can do microsoldering, its not a real hard job

 

[ltd1991]

give it to a repair tech who can do microsoldering, its not a real hard job

Thanks I'll have a look to see who could do it, I suppose paying for that is still cheaper than buying a new Switch

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Asking here as a last resort really as I'm fairly sure I'm going to have to buy a new Switch or replace the motherboard.

Basically the SD card reader broke on the motherboard end, 2 pins came loose. My switch is hacked and has autorcm enabled so I can't access it at all without the SD card. As far as I know, I bought the replacement part but it would require soldering onto the motherboard.

Is there any sort of solution I'm missing? I'm prepared to sell all the parts for spares and buy a new one but thought I'd check here first before going ahead with that.

Replacing the connector is pretty much not possible. Any attempt would probably result in melting the new connector. But there are alternate points that can have wires soldered. If you're not good at soldering yourself, I would probably leave it to a professional. If you rip pads, burn the motherboard or destroy components in the process, you'll have to send it to a professional anyway and you'll make their job much harder.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

Replacing the connector is pretty much not possible. Any attempt would probably result in melting the new connector. But there are alternate points that can have wires soldered. If you're not good at soldering yourself, I would probably leave it to a professional. If you rip pads, burn the motherboard or destroy components in the process, you'll have to send it to a professional anyway and you'll make their job much harder.

I've had my fpc connector replaced THREE times.

Anyone who can microsolder can pop it off no problem.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I've had my fpc connector replaced THREE times.

Anyone who can microsolder can pop it off no problem.

Taking it off isn't the problem. Putting the new one on without melting it is. If you use hot air you're going to melt it. And I don't think a soldering iron would work. You can get special low melting point solder that might work without melting the plastic though.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

Taking it off isn't the problem. Putting the new one on without melting it is. If you use hot air you're going to melt it. And I don't think a soldering iron would work. You can get special low melting point solder that might work without melting the plastic though.

Don't you literally just attach it with some flux and then when it's dried and solid you solder the points.

It's a 5 minute job for those in the know.

 

[Donnie-Burger]

Taking it off isn't the problem. Putting the new one on without melting it is. If you use hot air you're going to melt it. And I don't think a soldering iron would work. You can get special low melting point solder that might work without melting the plastic though.

I solder these all the time. You apply heat from bottom, you can even remove from a donor board and replace to new board. You are partially right as to much heat will melt them. If your reader is broken no solder is necessary as they clip in. If connector on motherboard is broken then you will need to fix or replace connector.

 

[binkinator]

Taking it off isn't the problem. Putting the new one on without melting it is. If you use hot air you're going to melt it. And I don't think a soldering iron would work. You can get special low melting point solder that might work without melting the plastic though.

I haven’t had to do one of these yet and the (irrational?) fear of melting the tiny plastic things freaks me out.

 

[Donnie-Burger]

I haven’t had to do one of these yet and the (irrational?) fear of melting the tiny plastic things freaks me out.

Practice on spare boards. Most motherboards have similar parts.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I solder these all the time. You apply heat from bottom, you can even remove from a donor board and replace to new board. You are partially right as to much heat will melt them. If your reader is broken no solder is necessary as they clip in. If connector on motherboard is broken then you will need to fix or replace connector.

Heat from the bottom seems like the proper way, but aren't there components on the other side of the board?

Don't you literally just attach it with some flux and then when it's dried and solid you solder the points.

It's a 5 minute job for those in the know.

You can't attach anything with flux. It's not an adhesive. It just helps the solder flow and stick.
But it looks like it might just about be doable with a soldering iron and a steady hand. There's not much of the pads exposed, but you don't need much.
On a good day (when my hands are not all shaky), I could probably do these with a soldering iron. Might need to get a microscope though.


Maybe this connector doesn't melt as easily as I thought. The ribbon cable connectors are awful to replace, they always melt if you use hot air.

Edit: Oh wow, those pins aren't well attached to the connector at all are they. They seem like they want to come out just from touching a soldering iron to them. No wonder that connector breaks so easily.

 

[Donnie-Burger]

Heat from the bottom seems like the proper way, but aren't there components on the other side of the board?

You can't attach anything with flux. It's not an adhesive. It just helps the solder flow and stick.
But it looks like it might just about be doable with a soldering iron and a steady hand. There's not much of the pads exposed, but you don't need much.
On a good day (when my hands are not all shaky), I could probably do these with a soldering iron. Might need to get a microscope though.


Maybe this connector doesn't melt as easily as I thought. The ribbon cable connectors are awful to replace, they always melt if you use hot air.

Edit: Oh wow, those pins aren't well attached to the connector at all are they. They seem like they want to come out just from touching a soldering iron to them. No wonder that connector breaks so easily.

You are correct, there are components on the back so to much heat or air will de-solder them or worse. If that happens you already melted the connector most likely. The sd reader comes off with fairly low heat / air so unless you mess up it ain't an issue. You can also remove old one, line up new one and simply tak solder each leg. I do this way sometimes to.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

Edit: Oh wow, those pins aren't well attached to the connector at all are they. They seem like they want to come out just from touching a soldering iron to them. No wonder that connector breaks so easily.

This is why Nintendo has the SD reader soldered directly to the motherboard in the OLED version.

They messed up with this design.

 

[JustaGuywearingPants]

This is actualy not true, the sd card reader has its own detachable logic board

 

[XDel]

Your local hobby shop electrician might do it for you.

 

[Waicol]

You already had nice answers so i'm going to be quick. You have 2 options.

• If you got the expertize or somebody that can do it, you can solder a couple cables directly from the test pads on the motherboard to the micro sd external module. Mattyfrog himself posted the pinout many years ago so thank him for his work and tinkering.
  Spoiler: Pinout from Mattyfrog

  [*]View attachment 191749
  View attachment 191778
  I never did find the correct part. It isn`t a molex.
  
  The thinnest BTB stacking connector they do is too wide (the central raised nipple bit)
  
  So I chopped the ribbon just in front of the smoothing cap on the SD reader and used some AWG40 to go directly to the testpads, keeping the motherboard side intact. Can post a pinout if it would help...
  [*]

• Needs the right tools and expertize but if you got someone that can do microsoldering it should be enough to replace the FPC connector from the motherboard. I recommend you to ask to Phone and specially IPhone repairmen, the latter because a version of the Ipad has the same exact connector that the switch uses and it gets replaced alot because it's the one from the screen iirc.

Hope you can repair your console.

 

[Donnie-Burger]

This is actualy not true, the sd card reader has its own detachable logic board

Yeah but where does it clip in?

 

[JustaGuywearingPants]

Yeah but where does it clip in?

Well I dont know what other type of solutions there are but it can either be soldered to the motherboard directly or not and in this case it definitly is not

 

[Donnie-Burger]

Well I dont know what other type of solutions there are but it can either be soldered to the motherboard directly or not and in this case it definitly is not

It clips into motherboard and clip is soldered to motherboard. So yeah you need to solder if clip broken. Once that fixed you simply clip in reader. This has been explained in this thread already. You can try to repair clip on mobo like mattys link or replace entire clip on mobo and both require solder work.

 

[ltd1991]

Thanks for the replies I'm going to take it to a local shop to see if they can do it