Replacing a motherboard

[Frank]

My friend's Dell Inspiron PC has failed. I think its BIOS was being
"upgraded" when something went wrong. Anyway, it's u/s.
One of the options we are considering is replacing the motherboard,
possibly with a refurbished one. I have little experience of carrying
out such a replacement. What are the non-obvious pitfalls (I hope the
others are covered)? In particular, will the windows OS (XP) have to be
re-activated and if so is it a straightforward process?

Any advice gratefully received
Frank

 

[Stefan Patric]

My friend's Dell Inspiron PC has failed. I think its BIOS was being
"upgraded" when something went wrong. Anyway, it's u/s. One of the
options we are considering is replacing the motherboard, possibly with a
refurbished one. I have little experience of carrying out such a
replacement. What are the non-obvious pitfalls (I hope the others are
covered)? In particular, will the windows OS (XP) have to be
re-activated and if so is it a straightforward process?

Any advice gratefully received

I'm assuming that you have no XP Install CD. That is, the PC was
purchased with everything installed and ready to go.

Have you contacted Dell customer service, and asked their advice? Or had
a computer tech check the MB. The old MB may be salvageable, if all
that's wrong is the BIOS update wasn't completed.

If this is a laptop, your best option is to buy a new or refurbished one,
and copy your data from the old drive.

If a desktop, install a new motherboard with EXACTLY the same specs as
the dead one. Sometimes a hard thing to do if it's more than a couple of
years old. Even though it may be the same make and model MB a slight
change say like a newer model controller chip because the old one is no
longer made can throw Windows off. Windows is VERY particular. So, be
aware.

If a new "matching" MB is not available, just go with the refurb, and
hope for the best.

Stef

 

[Twayne]

In

My friend's Dell Inspiron PC has failed. I think its BIOS
was being "upgraded" when something went wrong. Anyway,
it's u/s. One of the options we are considering is replacing the
motherboard, possibly with a refurbished one.

A failed BIOS crash may be all that's wrong with it. Check into seeing if a
shop can re-flash the BIOS for you; it's often a simple, cheap process,
before you buy a new MB.

I have

little experience of carrying out such a replacement.
What are the non-obvious pitfalls (I hope the others are
covered)? In particular, will the windows OS (XP) have to
be re-activated and if so is it a straightforward
process?

The biggest problem people run into is mishandling the MB.
Do you have actually experience in handling static sensitive components?
The wrist strap et al? And do you have them available?

They are extremely susceptible to static discharges of any kind. Even a
spark from your finger to a MB trace of solder point of C Pin that you
couldn't see or feel in a completely darkened room can blow certain
components.
Usually there's protection, unless it's a really cheap board, for all the
connectors, but there isn't much protection inside the board itself.
If you have no experience, ask a shop to do it for you. You'll end up
with fewer scratches & scrapes and possiibly lost screws, spacers,
insulators, fan to cpu board mounting, and what-not; the memory can be a
fragile thing when it comes to reassembling something.


HTH,

Twayne`

 

[GS]

My friend's Dell Inspiron PC has failed. I think its BIOS was being
"upgraded" when something went wrong. Anyway, it's u/s.
One of the options we are considering is replacing the motherboard, possibly
with a refurbished one. I have little experience of carrying out such a
replacement. What are the non-obvious pitfalls (I hope the others are
covered)? In particular, will the windows OS (XP) have to be re-activated and
if so is it a straightforward process?

Any advice gratefully received
Frank

I recommend taking the unit to someone who can salvage the MB because
any software licenses that are 'locked' to the MB will no longer be
valid when a new MB is installed. (A new MB 'effectively' determines
that you have a new computer, regardless of how much old hardware is
retained)

--
Garry

Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
ClassicVB Users Regroup!
comp.lang.basic.visual.misc
microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion

 

[John]

My friend's Dell Inspiron PC has failed. I think its BIOS was being
"upgraded" when something went wrong. Anyway, it's u/s.
One of the options we are considering is replacing the motherboard,
possibly with a refurbished one. I have little experience of carrying
out such a replacement. What are the non-obvious pitfalls (I hope the
others are covered)? In particular, will the windows OS (XP) have to be
re-activated and if so is it a straightforward process?

Any advice gratefully received
Frank

First thing to do, as others have suggested, is to contact Dell and seek their
advice and assistance. It may be that you can get a replacement BIOS chip that
you can simply plug in and fix your problem.

If you have to replace the motherboard, you'll need a way to get Windows
installed, and you'll need the drivers for the new board (chipset, LAN, USB, and
maybe more). I don't know what Dell's policy is with regard to these things,
since ( I think) they don't supply Windows install disks or driver disks, only
restore disks. Here again, the best thing to do is to contact Dell for advice
and guidance.


John

 

[Paul]

My friend's Dell Inspiron PC has failed. I think its BIOS was being
"upgraded" when something went wrong. Anyway, it's u/s.
One of the options we are considering is replacing the motherboard,
possibly with a refurbished one. I have little experience of carrying
out such a replacement. What are the non-obvious pitfalls (I hope the
others are covered)? In particular, will the windows OS (XP) have to be
re-activated and if so is it a straightforward process?

Any advice gratefully received
Frank

Check to see if the BIOS EEPROM is socketed.

You can go here, and order a BIOS chip programmed with the
version of BIOS you want. This is an example of a company
providing the service. At one time, you could find a company
like this on each continent, reducing shipping time.

http://www.badflash.com/removbio.htm

Badflash would need an undamaged BIOS file, in a format
they could use. Some "flasher packages" you download for
computers, go to some trouble to make it difficult to
get the file. If you extract the file successfully, it
should be a "power-of-two" size, and it should also
match the claimed storage size of the actual flash BIOS chip.
At least one unzipping tool, does "too much unzipping", and
the BIOS file isn't usable.

If the BIOS chip is socketed, you can stick a working Dell
BIOS in there, instead of the bricked mess currently present.

This is an example of a socketed replaceable BIOS.

http://www.badflash.com/images/new_IO_bios.jpg

Here, they soldered the BIOS to the motherboard. Some
soldering iron work would be needed to put a new badflash.com
chip in its place. When I've done chips like this, with
my crude home tools, I used a miniature $100 pair of
cutters, to cut the legs off and make replacement easier.
Sometimes the solder sucker just doesn't do a clean
enough job for easy removal.

http://www.badflash.com/images/plcc.jpg

*******

The latest motherboards use an 8 pin (serial interface)
EEPROM. Some motherboards solder those in place. Eventually,
a few manufacturers realized, from the amount of tech support
calls they were getting, that the damn thing should be socketed.
If you have one of those, hope there's a socket in place.

(This is just to show what an 8 pin DIP BIOS would look like.
It's the same format of package as one of these.)

http://www.twistywristarcade.com/645-278-thickbox/93c56-eeprom.jpg

Getting an 8 pin EEPROM re-programmed, may be more of a chore
than one of the older formats. Just because the sites that
program these things, don't have an adapter for it.

I've seen a reprogrammer for 8 pin format, offered a number
of years ago, and they wanted $150 USD for it. Which is a bit
too much for a casual, single device fixup. If you're in the
computer repair business, the $150 fee would be worth it.

Paul

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, Paul <[email protected]>
writes:
[]

Here, they soldered the BIOS to the motherboard. Some
soldering iron work would be needed to put a new badflash.com
chip in its place. When I've done chips like this, with
my crude home tools, I used a miniature $100 pair of
cutters, to cut the legs off and make replacement easier.
Sometimes the solder sucker just doesn't do a clean
enough job for easy removal.

http://www.badflash.com/images/plcc.jpg

Yuk, J-lead. I have to be able to do rework of surface-mount components
for my job: I can do 25-thou pitch components. But J lead (the leads
curl round and up underneath the chip body) are (IMO) the hardest to
rework, especially without causing the pads to lift on the board.

FWIW, I don't think I've seen any of my colleagues use a solder sucker:
too hard to get in close enough for fine work. Sometimes desoldering
braid (sometimes called solder wick) can help. As can a suitable hot air
blower, but that depends very much on what other components are next to
the chip: if there are (especially small) components alongside, it's
only too easy to send them flying. It's a specialised tool anyway: for
the home hobbyist, braid/wick is probably the best way of removing. Flux
- in a little bottle with a dropper nozzle - may also help.
[]

 

[Paul]

Here, they soldered the BIOS to the motherboard. Some
soldering iron work would be needed to put a new badflash.com
chip in its place. When I've done chips like this, with
my crude home tools, I used a miniature $100 pair of
cutters, to cut the legs off and make replacement easier.
Sometimes the solder sucker just doesn't do a clean
enough job for easy removal.

http://www.badflash.com/images/plcc.jpg

Yuk, J-lead. I have to be able to do rework of surface-mount
components for my job: I can do 25-thou pitch components. But J lead
(the leads curl round and up underneath the chip body) are (IMO) the
hardest to rework, especially without causing the pads to lift on the
board.

FWIW, I don't think I've seen any of my colleagues use a solder
sucker: too hard to get in close enough for fine work. Sometimes
desoldering braid (sometimes called solder wick) can help. As can a
suitable hot air blower, but that depends very much on what other
components are next to the chip: if there are (especially small)
components alongside, it's only too easy to send them flying. It's a
specialised tool anyway: for the home hobbyist, braid/wick is probably
the best way of removing. Flux - in a little bottle with a dropper
nozzle - may also help.
[]

Doesn't sound tech servicable and would be destined for the eRecycle
circular bin.[/QUOTE]

You'd use a hot air rework tool, and a fitting on the end of the tool,
which just fits over the IC package. We had a setup like that at work,
but I can't say what we paid for it.

The tool comes with a vacuum wand, so that as the item is heated hot
enough for the solder to melt, you can pull on the top of the IC
and pull it away from the motherboard.

We had a whole drawer full of fittings, so already had enough of them
to remove the more common ICs.

We also had a vacuum desoldering station, but that would jam up
without too much trouble. You can use that to do capacitors,
which is what I was working on at the time.

I use both solder wick and solder sucker at home, and I use a fairly
fine wick, as the thick stuff is useless. But doing capacitors, with
leads that are an interference fit, it's hard with just about any
solder removal device, to remove them easily.

(This is the wick I keep in the tool box... 0.025 inch)

http://www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=70125624

Paul

 

[Twayne]

In

I haer 'ya Paul but there is a high level of knowledge
and experience associated to such tight reworking of a PC
board and the inegrity will be degraded even when
successful. Even with a person with such knowledge and
experience.

Nah, not so at all when one is experienced and has the patience that's
required to do thngs properly. Integrity degradation is unlikely in such a
situatiion. Just hadda get in a jibe, huh?