Hi there, I want to fix a switch to hopefully make it as a gift to my neighbours little kid. They are not very wealthy so I really want to make him a nice gift.
So I got myself a bluescreen switch v1 (at least I was hoping that it is not patched, but it seems it is, more on that later) and started to do my work. I started with applying pressure on the apu, the ram, the emmc, bluescreen was still there unfortunately.
I then proceeded to remove and reball the apu, as the reflow did nothing. There were no ripped pads, so I tried reballing, but used sn/bi solderpaste (my first mistake) with a melting point of around 138 °C, because the stencil kept warping. So anyway, I did this, put the apu back on, still blue screen.
Next was removing the RAM, as again, reflow did nothing. Under the RAM were finally some ripped pads, a couple to be honest, but most of them were no connect / ground. Just one had to be repaired.
The RAM was reballed with mechanik 183 °C solderpaste (the regular sn/pb type) and this was very new to me. I actually started reballing with paste with this switch, before I only used balls, but they are getting harder to get in germany, as they contain lead.
Anyway, here is mistake 2: I am not sure, if the reballing went as smooth, as it could have. Maybe here lies all my problems.
Well, still bluescreen, so what can I do now? Out of frustration, I reflowed the emmc, no difference.
And now for my 3rd mistake, I took down the emmc, without first checking if I had a stencil. Naturally, I did not. So I reballed with solder balls. The only ones I had however were 0,35mm for the APU, so I did this. It was kinda too much I guess, as it squeezed out a bit on the other side of the emmc pcb. But there were no measurable shorts, so I proceeded.
Unfortunately, the blue screen persisted. In a final attempt, I removed the APU again and reballed it, this time using the new Mechanik leaded solder paste. After a few tries, I finally found the right temperature and airflow settings, resulting in perfect solder balls. I carefully reinstalled the APU, and to my relief, the console powered on! The Nintendo logo appeared, followed by the Switch logo... but then it froze at this screen and wouldn’t progress any further.
I then reflowed the wifi chip. No effect. I removed it and cleaned it with solderwick. Why? WHY DID I DO THIS? Of course the soldermask of the wifi ic just vaporized. But, not I had to buy and install a brand new chip from a well known source. And I did that, but, still no effect.
I then bought a stencil for the emmc, reballed this, knocked the tiny cap, got the right value on this forum, replaced it, and now I am back at where I was: switch logo hangs.
I am out of ideas. Do you have any?
So I got myself a bluescreen switch v1 (at least I was hoping that it is not patched, but it seems it is, more on that later) and started to do my work. I started with applying pressure on the apu, the ram, the emmc, bluescreen was still there unfortunately.
I then proceeded to remove and reball the apu, as the reflow did nothing. There were no ripped pads, so I tried reballing, but used sn/bi solderpaste (my first mistake) with a melting point of around 138 °C, because the stencil kept warping. So anyway, I did this, put the apu back on, still blue screen.
Next was removing the RAM, as again, reflow did nothing. Under the RAM were finally some ripped pads, a couple to be honest, but most of them were no connect / ground. Just one had to be repaired.
The RAM was reballed with mechanik 183 °C solderpaste (the regular sn/pb type) and this was very new to me. I actually started reballing with paste with this switch, before I only used balls, but they are getting harder to get in germany, as they contain lead.
Anyway, here is mistake 2: I am not sure, if the reballing went as smooth, as it could have. Maybe here lies all my problems.
Well, still bluescreen, so what can I do now? Out of frustration, I reflowed the emmc, no difference.
And now for my 3rd mistake, I took down the emmc, without first checking if I had a stencil. Naturally, I did not. So I reballed with solder balls. The only ones I had however were 0,35mm for the APU, so I did this. It was kinda too much I guess, as it squeezed out a bit on the other side of the emmc pcb. But there were no measurable shorts, so I proceeded.
Unfortunately, the blue screen persisted. In a final attempt, I removed the APU again and reballed it, this time using the new Mechanik leaded solder paste. After a few tries, I finally found the right temperature and airflow settings, resulting in perfect solder balls. I carefully reinstalled the APU, and to my relief, the console powered on! The Nintendo logo appeared, followed by the Switch logo... but then it froze at this screen and wouldn’t progress any further.
I then reflowed the wifi chip. No effect. I removed it and cleaned it with solderwick. Why? WHY DID I DO THIS? Of course the soldermask of the wifi ic just vaporized. But, not I had to buy and install a brand new chip from a well known source. And I did that, but, still no effect.
I then bought a stencil for the emmc, reballed this, knocked the tiny cap, got the right value on this forum, replaced it, and now I am back at where I was: switch logo hangs.
I am out of ideas. Do you have any?
Last edited by hoyohoo,
