IBM A31 with 64 MB Video ram ??

[dongle]

Hi
i have a ibm 31 with 16 mb ,after i replace 2x8 MB with 2x16 MB, is 32 mb is ok but my problem is where is free place on mainboard for another 2x RAM i soldered 2x16 MB RAM,now i have 4x16 MB hardware in on board but in video setting is only 32 MB if some body know about that or a trick to help me

thanks

[ARD]

Please tell us how you soldered video ram on the motherboard.
That would be most interesting.

[proaudioguy]

Yes, since I have one of the boards on my other A31 that needs it's RAM replaced, I'd love to hear about how you did this.

[k2jsv]

It requires some expensive equipment for working with surface mount components. Not to mention, that when doing that, when you screw up... you screw up big.

[Stargate199]

That is mazing what you did. Your problem is most likely caused by the video chipset. It probably doesn't support more than 32MB of VRAM.

[dongle]

That is mazing what you did. Your problem is most likely caused by the video chipset. It probably doesn't support more than 32MB of VRAM.

look hear

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0087581203

i think the problem is in video bios

Moderator note: Shortened URL to prevent left-right scrolling

[proaudioguy]

So did you buy a used ATI Dell card and pull the ram off it?

I'm curious what kinds of tools are needed for this. I have been soldering for 20 years, but not SMD. If I had a very pointy tip, a solder sucker, and the tip was grounded, would that be enough? I'd really love to fix my other A31.

[rkawakami]

It may just be that one or more pins of the memory devices are loose on the motherboard. If the memory chips are packaged in what's called SOIC or TSOP then there are specialized soldering stations like this one:

http://www.okinternational.com/product_ ... on/hct_900

which can allow you to re-flow the solder or remove such devices. Those types of tools aren't cheap. If you just have a regular fine-tip soldering iron, you can possibly get the replacement chips off the board by using solder wick and a dental pick to gently lift up each pin one-by-one. Note, that this operation usually requires THREE hands (soldering iron, wick, dental pick). You then have to re-bend the leads so that they are in the same mounting plane to install on the motherboard.

However, if the memory is in a BGA package, then it gets a little tougher. You basically use the same type of soldering station as pictured, but with a different hot air tip and a vacuum extraction tip for lifting up the package when all of the solder balls have melted.

I have an A31 with a video problem that's probably similar to yours (colored blocks or stripes or dots appearing on the screen). It seems to be a common issue. I'm assuming that it's just due to a bad solder joint(s) and not a defective memory chip.

[proaudioguy]

I have an A31 with a video problem that's probably similar to yours (colored blocks or stripes or dots appearing on the screen). It seems to be a common issue. I'm assuming that it's just due to a bad solder joint(s) and not a defective memory chip.

So are you going to try to fix it? If so, could you report back?

[rkawakami]

It's another one of those items on my "to-do" list .

Hopefully it will solve my intermittent RCBOD© (Random Colored Blocks of Death) issue. I know it really won't do any good to post a repair method which requires the use of expensive tools so I'm going to try to do this with regular soldering irons and/or hot-air guns.

[Oahu]

Ever since I got my first A30 I have 4 and 2 a31's. It seems eventually they all develop a video problem, I've poked around on the system board and been able to stabilize it with pressure. Im guessing its a cold solder or broken solder joint somewhere. But where? Based on my experience I would say its a very common problem, is there any known facts on this problem?

[proaudioguy]

Ever since I got my first A30 I have 4 and 2 a31's. It seems eventually they all develop a video problem, I've poked around on the system board and been able to stabilize it with pressure. Im guessing its a cold solder or broken solder joint somewhere. But where? Based on my experience I would say its a very common problem, is there any known facts on this problem?

It would mean so much to me to fix this problem on my other machine. I wish someone would give it a shot and let us know how it went.

[rkawakami]

I'm in the process of assembling some "tools" to see how easy/possible it is to accomplish a safe and cheap home-based repair. Since I am assuming that the problem is similar in nature to the T42 shutdown issue and there are reports in that thread which detail a hot-air reflow solution that appears to have worked, I'm looking for:

- ideally, a non-contact (i.e., infrared) thermometer for about $25-$35. A K-type thermocouple could also be used but that involves afixing the probe to the item being heated. Meter needs to measure at least to 300C.
- low airflow, hot-air source. It looks like an embossing tool can be used as long it can provide 300C. Variable heat control would be nice, but not essential. Adjustable airflow a definite plus. The wife has one which outputs 650F (343C) but might put out too much air. Cost hopefully around $20.

I'm basically trying to see if I can keep the cost below $50 as it doesn't make much sense speading more than that if the tools are only going to be used once. Granted, a non-contact thermometer can be used for other things besides measuring how hot a BGA package is getting, but unless you are into rubber stamping or other hobby crafts, the embossing tool will probably collect dust.

[beeblebrox]

I'm in the process of assembling some "tools" to see how easy/possible it is to accomplish a safe and cheap home-based repair. Since I am assuming that the problem is similar in nature to the T42 shutdown issue and there are reports in that thread which detail a hot-air reflow solution that appears to have worked, I'm looking for:

- ideally, a non-contact (i.e., infrared) thermometer for about $25-$35. A K-type thermocouple could also be used but that involves afixing the probe to the item being heated. Meter needs to measure at least to 300C.
- low airflow, hot-air source. It looks like an embossing tool can be used as long it can provide 300C. Variable heat control would be nice, but not essential. Adjustable airflow a definite plus. The wife has one which outputs 650F (343C) but might put out too much air. Cost hopefully around $20.

I'm basically trying to see if I can keep the cost below $50 as it doesn't make much sense speading more than that if the tools are only going to be used once. Granted, a non-contact thermometer can be used for other things besides measuring how hot a BGA package is getting, but unless you are into rubber stamping or other hobby crafts, the embossing tool will probably collect dust.

I think this topic of loose soldering joints has been discussed a few times before and the cheapest solution that brought reliable results with these BGA chips was either using a hot air gun for stripping paint or a cheap propane gas torch (for caramelizing sugar) from the kitchen supply. Temperature control can be achieved by simply placing a piece of soldering on the chip itself.

Google is your friend: BGA chips, soldering, iBook, Sony GRX 416 loose VGA chip, etc.
lots of pictures and even some YouTube videos showing the repair of an iBook BGA chip.

[proaudioguy]

OK so I'm sitting here reading the X60 forum and my only GOOD working (video) A31 develops the checked video problem just like so many before it. This one is a little older than my other one but had less hours. I guess it caught up since I stopped using the other one due to this issue. Now the video is messed up on 2 A31s in my house. IBM should RECALL these machines. This is ridiculous!

[rkawakami]

I'll go out on a limb here and say that both of your A31s have probably been moved around some. The A31 I use at work has been in a port replicator since it was given to me to replace an HP desktop (guessing about a year and a half ago). The system has left the port replicator two or three times, other than that it sits on my desk with the lid always opened. I typically power it up every day and put it in hiberation every night. I never leave it on over the weekend. It does no harder work than web browsing, Lotus Notes, an occasional spreadsheet or word document and telneting into a couple of Sun systems. It has never shown any video problems and has passed PC Doctor diagnostics. It was previously used by one of the VPs at work but I don't think he carried it around too much either. I'll post the manufacturing date tomorrow to give everyone an idea of its age.

[proaudioguy]

Yes they have been moved around A LOT. Not only do they move around a lot, they move from room to room when I'm at home. I am so fed up I just took my old one that had a much more severe, but still intermittent video problem apart and cleaned it and hit it pretty good on both sides on the video ram with a hot air gun. A few reboots or a few days/ weeks will tell if it worked. I actually got it hot enough to hear some crackling and figured it was cooked, but after resetting the time, it booted right up and has no sign of the problem. That's not to say it's fixed though since it would only have the issue 3 out of 4 boots.


Edit I checked the old one and it's showing 16 megs VRAM. I don't even care if it will just continue to work.

[proaudioguy]

OK so the update now is the one that was showing 16megs and working perfectly upon the latest reboot shows 32 megs and it NOT working perfectly. In fact it looks like crap.

The one that developed it's first sign of issue last night, got better upon going into and out of hibernation, but then this morning it completely flaked out. It's doing things that make it completely unusable.

I cannot see a way to get it hot enough with hot air to melt the solder without damaging lots of other things on the board. I'm thinking I will get a really tiny tip for my soldering iron.

If there is a place I can send these motherboards in one at a time and have them re flowed professionally, or even have this VRAM replaced, please tell me. In fact if I could remove the ones that are bad on THIS machine it seems to work fine when it doesn't find them upon bootup. My future video needs on this machine are not critical. I'm not playing games on it anymore. I just need to be able to use it at work without it embarrassing me. Once I get going the X60 T will take control of it.


Hey does anyone know if this problem shows up on remote desktop? That would be the last straw for me. Why has this not been made into a class action suit?

[rkawakami]

Manufacturing date on my work A31 is 06/02.

Using a hot-air source does have its problems as you pointed out. You have to shield the surrounding components from the heat so that THEY don't become a problem. I've seen aluminium foil to copper-clad printed circuit boards used. The better (read: expensive) solution is to use an infrared heat source like in the commercial reflow equipment. Also, if the airflow is too great, you risk moving (or blowing away) smaller parts near your target.

My assumption is that the GPU is the source of the problematic connection and not the video memory, but YMMV.

As to the legal (non-)action... My guess would be that you could only bring a suit if IBM/Lenovo declined to service the equipment within the warranty period. Once the warranty has expired and as long these failures don't pose any personal injury or safety issues, then I don't see any legal grounds for it. But I'm not a lawyer.

[proaudioguy]

On my original machine I put a stack of post it notes on top of 1 of the VRAM chips and I can now make the problem GO AWAY by pressing on the keyboard above the F6 key which is right over the post its. It's not a solution but it seems to have isolated the issue on THIS machine. On the other machine it's doing some really ugly things so it may indeed be the GPU.

Manufacturing date on my work A31 is 06/02.

Using a hot-air source does have its problems as you pointed out. You have to shield the surrounding components from the heat so that THEY don't become a problem. I've seen aluminium foil to copper-clad printed circuit boards used. The better (read: expensive) solution is to use an infrared heat source like in the commercial reflow equipment. Also, if the airflow is too great, you risk moving (or blowing away) smaller parts near your target.

My assumption is that the GPU is the source of the problematic connection and not the video memory, but YMMV.

As to the legal (non-)action... My guess would be that you could only bring a suit if IBM/Lenovo declined to service the equipment within the warranty period. Once the warranty has expired and as long these failures don't pose any personal injury or safety issues, then I don't see any legal grounds for it. But I'm not a lawyer.

[proaudioguy]

OK so just so you know the post it note thing didn't really work that well. I could at times push on that spot and get the garbage to go away, but it would come back.

SO, I stayed up all night tonight. I guess being tired I finally got the nerve up and I took my SECOND machine, the most recent victim, completely apart and covered most of it with aluminum foil. I stuck a piece of solder on the GPU, and hit it with the old wagner paint stripper I normally use for heat shrink. I do a lot of audio related soldering, mostly cable and connectors so this is a bit out of my league. I had a mill spec soldering class when I was 18, and there was no such thing as a BGA back then. At one point the solder melted into a ball and I knew I was close but the air was about to blow it on the MB whihc I was sure would be a horrible splatter so I stopped for the moment to pick it up with a pair of electrical strippers. THE GPU MOVED. Oh man I was [censored]. I mean it only moved the smallest amount but it DID move. I figured even if I didn't totally screw up the MB with the heat (took way too long), moving that BGA certainly shorted some of the contacts. I let it cool for about 3-5 minutes, then I carefully ripped off the aluminum foil and realized the one plastic piece I missed around the audio jacks had completely melted. Bummer, but easily replaced.
I brought it from my garage to my living room, stuck it on a suspended surface and turned on the ceiling fan. 10 minutes later I was putting it back together.

Long story short, I'm typing on this thing right now and it has no sign of the GPU video garbage. I've been fooled before so i'll give it a couple days/ weeks to see what happens.

IF this works, and if what I have read turns out to be true, this is NOT a heat issue at all. It's a flex issue.

So listen up A31/P owners. DO NOT pick up your computer with 1 hand. If you start getting cracks in the plastic body parts, HANDLE WITH GREAT CARE. I do not believe these computers are STIFF enough. The MB flexes a bit and the large (ceramic?) GPU snaps some of the solder joints off the MB. This could be considered a FLAW in the design. I honestly believe if they mounted these BGAs, and the VRAM to a card, and used a pin socket config to mount the card, NONE of this would be an issue, with the bonus of possible upgrades. Alas they would not sell as many new machines.

[proaudioguy]

Also can anyone confirm if the VRAM is also BGA or just visible edge contacts?