Hacking Question The mighty quest to fix my faulty switch - Freezes after 0-3 Minutes from booting

[BvanBart]

So finally, after many days of troubleshooting, this thread can finally come to an end, we have good news! The Switch is finally running functionally, I didnt even get one single freeze since the console has been running for a few hours now!
You see, I tried improvisingly reflowing the mainboard in my cooking oven, which, to be fair might not be the most precise in temperature, but it did the trick. I was following a tutorial on Youtube about reflowing in a regular oven set to 200C or 392F for about 8 Minutes while the mainboard is suspended on rolled up aluminum foil balls. Surely enough, I actually gave up on the idea and cancelled it after about 3 Minutes of reflowing, thinking it would just destroy something. After reinstalling the mainboard the thing just works flawlessly to my surprise. What I really did not expect is the short amout of heat to actually have helped in the end.

So, what can we conclude? It was certainly not the missing resistor, in fact, I have yet to find any function that is not working right because of that missing resistor on pin 2 of the M92T36 chip. The previous owner most probably left the device out in the cold and brought it back inside to warm up very often, or the chip was just not soldered on correctly during manufacturing. The little troublemaker was, as @DeadlyFoez suggested, probably the CPU or if not then the DRAM.
Also, since its not freezing up all the time, the docking function, as well as charging works now as well, and I can even finally see the battery percentage rise or fall live!

Now, of course the oven method, or at least the way I have done it, is not a permanent fix, and in fact, that loose solder joint on one of the chips is going to lose contact sooner or later anyways. But by the time that happens I will either reflow the board the right way or find a professional to do it for me. I might know a little shop nearby that does BGA reflowing as well, we'll see. Anyways, if anyone does ever run into this issue, and people surely will because I can't be the owner of the only switch that has a bad solder connection on the whole world, this thread may serve as a good help to find a solution, like it did for me as well.

I'd like to thank everyone for suggesting how to fix the issue, and for taking their time to help me troubleshoot. I wish I would have tried reflowing earlier, but at least we came to a solution in the end.
I might stick around this forum for longer though, some threads about the switch are rather interesting and people actually contribute to threads.

So, if no further questoins come up, we might consider this thread as closed. Thanks!

Did reflow Xbox 360 the same way. Also this is the way to easily remove an iPad screen from the iPad . Good to hear you fixed it! Now you can enjoy the Switch!

 

[guily6669]

Did reflow Xbox 360 the same way. Also this is the way to easily remove an iPad screen from the iPad . Good to hear you fixed it! Now you can enjoy the Switch!

I used a high wattage hairdryer to open my Xperia Z2 ...

Anyway my friend tried with a heatgun on the PS3 and sadly it worked for just like half an hour and the second time he fried\melted everything lol.

But this is so sad, ROD, Ylod... And now on the Switch too?

Ps: it seems every god damn device nowadays need to have a reballing at some point. My friends switch also gave problems on the 2nd day, but he switched it for a crap PSVR instead.

 

[BvanBart]

Reballing is a very common problem: this because of the new regulation about solder with far less lead (Pb) then it used to be. Now wax etc are in there so the melting point is much lower. Around 80 degrees Celsius things can get messy.

 

[guily6669]

Reballing is a very common problem: this because of the new regulation about solder with far less lead (Pb) then it used to be. Now wax etc are in there so the melting point is much lower. Around 80 degrees Celsius things can get messy.

Yeah, which is stupid since it's just the small connectors below the chip...

Anyway the service I know they claim they use a way better solder than the original and I think it's mixed with a bit of lead for corrosion resistance too, but I don't think they even have the blueprints or work on switches yet, no idea.

 

[Moquedami]

Hello!
Everyone here seems to know a lot, so i was wondering if anyone could throw me a bone to solve my problem in this topic:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/broken-usb-c-port-or-charging-control-chip.498339/

Thanks in advance!