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DIY Soldered BIOS Repair

Unless you have extensive Soldering Experience, we would Not Recommend you try fitting a soldered BIOS Chip Yourself. I strongly suggest you send your machine in to us rather than attempt any of the proceedures below yourself, especially so, if you are not familiar with electronic repair procedures.

You are very welcome to use our Soldered  Mainboard BIOS Repair Services, and doing so may save you having to replace your mainboard.

Hot Air Stations

Using a hot air or IR rework station are some of the best/easiest methods of removing your soldered BIOS chip assuming you have access to them.

Low Melting Point Solder Alloys

Various low melting point solder Alloys are also available to help remove surface mount devices.

However in the absence of these modern chip removal aids one has to improvise.

PLCC EEPROM Removal Using Minimal Tools

Article is designed for people that do not have access to a hot air station or any other expensive equipment. The method can be successfull if great care is taken. In all cases it would be best to practice the proceedure first on an old mainboard. Removing a PLCC EEPROM using minimal tools..

Fitting a PLCC 32 SMD Socket

See also fitting a PLCC 32 pin SMD socket by hand with a small soldering iron.

DIP EEPROM Removal

DIP EEPROM can often be socketed and all you would need is an extractor. However if soldered in place they can be removed in the same way as the PLCC type's above without using any expensive tools.

Dificult Cases

In some instances manufacturers embed the soldered BIOS chips in epoxy resin or some other hard compound. I've had to do repairs on chips that have been arranged like this.

I find the best procedure, is to use a Dremmel or similar hobbyist's rotary tool fitted with a miniature disc cutter or mill, do wear some sort of eye protection. Cut the legs as closely as you can to the edge of the chip.

Work down carefully as close to the board surface as you dare, check first to make sure no other components are embedded within the epoxy.

Care must be taken not to go to close to the board surface, or you will damage the tracks.

Repeat this process on all four sides of the chip, in some cases the chip can then be gently levered from the board. If necessary more cuts can be made through the epoxy covering to ease removal of the remaining pieces.

I generally use a scalpel then to test how well the remaining epoxy pieces are adhered to the board. If your lucky the pieces will come away clean and easily, without lifting the tracks.

At this stage the more channels you have cut through the remaining epoxy the better, as it will ease the removal process. As long as there are no other components embedded within the epoxy, you can use the disc cutter to carefully remove most of the remaining epoxy resin.

I will attempt repairs to any motherboard, Laptop or control board that has a soldered PLCC 32, TSOP, SPI Serial flash or DIP EEPROM Providing a rom file is available for it.