ROM Hack Destroyed Solder Pads While Attempting Hard Mod

[SeanOMik]

I was attempting a Hard mod on my Old 3ds because I bricked it a while ago and found out that I could fix it. I tried to heat the soldering points up to put a little solder on them, but the solder didn't stick to the point. I loaded it with flux and tried again, but it didn't work again. I tried over and over and over. They never ended up sticking. So after I was done I looked at the points and saw they looked like this. (Image Attached) I just want to know if I did destroy them, how to avoid it next time soldering, and if I could fix this.

 

[retrofan_k]

How hot was the iron? and does look like you trashed those 3 pads completely. Ideally, I'd only use a 15w iron with a fine tip for this, which I use for most console mods and repairs.

 

[DeadPixelMan]

See people, this is what happens when you have no idea what in the f*ck you are doing. I cannot even fathom how you did this what did you grab any old iron from the dollar store and shove it onto your 3ds? It doesn't even look like you tried to use any flux all you had to do was tin and touch it should have taken less then few minutes. . . I know you think I'm being a Ahole but this was completely avoidable and it saddens me to hardware (potentially?) destroyed due to not knowing your limitations. Sorry Man.

 

[gamesquest1]

yeah it's probably dead for good, any chance of recovery would be dependent on someone who is quite skilled at soldering, I'm not sure if any of the resident hard Modder's would even be bothered trying to tackle it

 

[SeanOMik]

How hot was the iron? and does look like you trashed those 3 pads completely. Ideally, I'd only use a 15w iron with a fine tip for this, which I use for most console mods and repairs.

I don't know the tempurature its a cheap radio shack one.

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OK, but is there an other way to hard mod or no?

 

[elBenyo]

I don't know the tempurature its a cheap radio shack one.

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OK, but is there an other way to hard mod or no?

There is no other way to do a hard mod. The purpose of a hard mod is to be in direct contact with the NAND so it can be flashed at will incase something goes wrong. You currently don't have any OS, so all other methods of loading your backup are unusable.

 

[FAST6191]

Are you sure that was a soldering iron and not a blowtorch?

There are methods by which you can solder directly onto a trace or pins, however it requires some reasonable gear and skills, not to mention I will have to check a complete board but that looks like you might have also damaged one or two legs of components next to bottom pad in that image (edit looking at http://i62.tinypic.com/2rz5nxj.jpg there is a passive there of some form, can't rule out it being omitted from another batch but the golden looking pin below it on your does not look healthy). For the money you are likely to spunk on either tools or someone's time you can probably source a new 3ds motherboard (buy something with scratched screens and the like and just transplant the board, I had a quick scout of ebay and there are some reasonable deals out there).

 

[Boured]

R.I.P O3DS

 

[SeanOMik]

Are you sure that was a soldering iron and not a blowtorch?

There are methods by which you can solder directly onto a trace or pins, however it requires some reasonable gear and skills, not to mention I will have to check a complete board but that looks like you might have also damaged one or two legs of components next to bottom pad in that image (edit looking at http://i62.tinypic.com/2rz5nxj.jpg there is a passive there of some form, can't rule out it being omitted from another batch but the golden looking pin below it on your does not look healthy). For the money you are likely to spunk on either tools or someone's time you can probably source a new 3ds motherboard (buy something with scratched screens and the like and just transplant the board, I had a quick scout of ebay and there are some reasonable deals out there).

Ok, I'll try that.