EZ Flash IV - memory fell off

[billym8]

so this sort of sounds crazy but to give some context, I have owned one of the original white mini SD EZ Flash IV carts since they were still relevant, but mine has never been able to play games larger than 8mb in size, back then I had little hardware knowledge but with some age and experience I felt comfortable checking the PCB for any signs of something being obviously broken, so, I opened it up and to my surprise one of the memory chips just fell out, it looks as though it may have left the factory like that, it seems as though the pads on the PCB are fine and that the solder balls on the memory itself still have flux on it, there is potential that it may me that the memory pulled the pads off with it and what i am seeing is PCB though i am doubtful of this, due to the pinkish color and the fact that it has worked like it only had half the memory it should and also that the pads on the PCB itself seem fine, i simply am curious if i was to get a heat gun or similar, would i potentially be able to put the memory back on?

*note* I do have clear images of the PCB end Memory but I can't post them, happy to pm them or something if needed.

 

[EZ-Flash2]

You can upload the images to the free image host like Imgur.com, then post the image link here.

 

[FAST6191]

Don't know that I have seen such a thing before but it within reason and a lack of such a chip might well yield the symptoms. I would be wary of what happened to the chip and cart (something could have shorted) in the meantime.

The balls are an attachment method known as BGA aka ball grid array.

You could use a heat gun (though I would head more towards hot air station than raiding a painter and decorator's van for their paint stripping heat gun), in higher end repair setups and industry it tends to be more infrared soldering that is used, and they might also have tools to position it (physics gives you some leeway). It will tend to involve pre heating as well and a fairly complicated series of actions compared to soldering wires or legs on chips, chip not adhering being one of the potential results of a failure in those steps. Depending upon where you are you might have a hard time finding someone with such toys and the inclination to help locally.

Spammers and ban evaders ruined the fun for links in early accounts but if you want to host it on something and break up the link a la http : // www. somesite .tld /identifier or note the identifier and site in question then I will edit it back in/we can see.

 

[billym8]

so as far as a hot air station, it's something I would love to have but doubt would happen anytime soon and being in australia tech repair isn't a booming business here, I do have some general knowledge as far as BGA, mostly from the YLOD and RROD era and how some people would go about fixing them so I have at least some idea on what was going on. from sitting the memory on the pcb the balls on the underside of the memory pretty well sit into the pcb so i'm not entirely worried about lining it up as I feel I could probably get away with it, I mostly asked about using a heat gun as if I can repair it on the cheap so to speak, it would be nice, if not at this stage I have already replaced the cart regardless.

as far as link the 1st pic is the memory itself, the 2nd is the pcb.

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appologies for how scrambled the link is, I tried to have each line be at the start of a forward slash and then it's just a few spaces.
Click to enlarge.

 

[FAST6191]

Grabbed them and attached here.
That looks like some ripped pads to me -- copper coloured on the balls and black/no copper/no solder on many of the pads, possibly plus some bridges by that might be by design.

Looks like you will be enjoying a size limit -- one or two pads being ripped from a BGA you can bypass, maybe 10 if it is a valuable device. That many though... the time alone would probably see you able to buy a fleet of modern flash carts to equip yourself for 8 player tournaments.

 

[billym8]

looking at the balls on the memory and then the solder pads on the PCB, none of those look damaged, those holes with the black and copper seem to not align with any joints on the memory itself, but the ones that do all seem to be fine and have some solder already pre-tinned at least by the looks. as far as the balls on the memory itself, it doesn't seem to be copper on top of them, the photo isn't the best nor was the lighting but it appears to be something pink on top of the solder balls. if a heat gun would be enough heat to flow all the solder i may still try it anyways, at this point i have replaced the cart as most the games i want to use it with are too big for it anyways, so even just to see what would happen i'd be happy to try it

 

[ghjfdtg]

Dunno, some pads look lifted in the second picture. If they are not then give chip and pads a good clean. Also remove any solder from the pads before attempting a reflow with plenty of flux. Alignment is very important.