No please. Not again. 2915 GPU

[G.Beard]

Who else is seeing this terrible work carried out by whatever mongs have the audacity to exist on this planet.
Before even removing the chip there are signs of extreme rapeage... This is a refurb by APPLE, not a 3rd party

The Green dot:




A little hint of what to expect under the chip:






This green dot is always depressing!

 

[Sykulski]

I am also seeing it on regular basis :-|

 

[ALB-Repairs]

Ive not been keeping my eye out for the green dot. Didnt know it was a thing.
Ive hadd 2 apple rework boards both with a huge amount reserve/Not connected pads nowhere to be seen.

The best one i saw was an apple rework (with edge bonding still intact) 820-3332 VRAM block that had about 30% missing pads, so they dug into the pcb and soldered vram to the via's.

Apples refurb boards are Awful! ill keep my eye out for the dot.

 

[G.Beard]

Judging by the darkness on the VRAM side, they have all been done twice. From my expirience so far, a third time replacing the chip can be touch and go.
Green dot on the chip. always comes with very dark caps zone 2 area and no solder mask on most of the traces on the BGA site.

On a third party note, that guy on eBay claiming to be using liquid nitrogen and nitrogen atmos reflow process and magic robots!.... If they are on this forum, mate, you sound like a mug.

This guy:

PEP-CD
43 Baccara Grove, Bletchley,
Milton Keynes
Buckinghamshire
MK2 3AS
United Kingdom


I have one of his failures here. It's bad. Really bad.
If I get baned for giving his details, I could not give a two-bob fuck... The guy is a scam artist.

 

[ALB-Repairs]

Whats the quality of his work like? Im interested because if the gear is actually his, and he's using it correctly then his work should be pretty good.

his advert is not well written, ill give you that, But he has a nitrogen capable machine, An air-vac onyx 29 by the look of the nozzle a proper rework station (if the pictures are legit)

The only thing that i imagine he means by dipping the chipset in molten solder is actually solder paste dipping the chip (also an onyx29 feature). Paste dipping these chips would in theory help with the rework process.
Nitrogen mainly in manufacturing PCB's for better pad wetting and to essentially make a soldering profile render better results. well thats what ive read but im not hugely researched on it.

Also the main failure mode im seeing on reworked boards with many cycles is BGA pad failure caused by wicking. I have a semi auto air-vac DRS model rework station, I am trying to set it up for contactless site cleaning. Sadly my stations currently a brick though.

But yeah, its not well written or explained in his listing but, nitrogen and paste dipping are genuine options when looking at top end rework stations.

 

[2informaticos]

Why would someone look for nitrogen, x-ray and god knows what other things when replacing BGA for a 6-8 yo machine?
Do someone want to have it fixed for next 100 years???
Is almost impossible to find new chips even for these boards.
How can will help nitrogen, solder paste, etc to last a zombie chip???

 

[ALB-Repairs]

Why would someone look for nitrogen, x-ray and god knows what other things when replacing BGA for a 6-8 yo machine?
Do someone want to have it fixed for next 100 years???
Is almost impossible to find new chips even for these boards.
How can will help nitrogen, solder paste, etc to last a zombie chip???

2011 macbooks are not the only application for good rework stations. There are still good chips out there, just people in the know dont talk about it.
I dont care how or why he purchased the rework station.


A big misconception is that fake/reballed/zombie chips dont work for more than a week or 2. Good process engineering and rework practice reduces risks, lowers returns and increases success rate, regardless of chipset quality. Yes fake chipsets will last 6/12 months, and im not suggesting you go spend 100k on a rework station, but owning a top end station isnt a bad thing.
Id rather be replacing BGA's on a high end station than be replacing the same chipset on my somewhat unpredictable Chinese rework station.

 

[G.Beard]

Whats the quality of his work like? Im interested because if the gear is actually his, and he's using it correctly then his work should be pretty good.

his advert is not well written, ill give you that, But he has a nitrogen capable machine, An air-vac onyx 29 by the look of the nozzle a proper rework station (if the pictures are legit)

The only thing that i imagine he means by dipping the chipset in molten solder is actually solder paste dipping the chip (also an onyx29 feature). Paste dipping these chips would in theory help with the rework process.
Nitrogen mainly in manufacturing PCB's for better pad wetting and to essentially make a soldering profile render better results. well thats what ive read but im not hugely researched on it.

Also the main failure mode im seeing on reworked boards with many cycles is BGA pad failure caused by wicking. I have a semi auto air-vac DRS model rework station, I am trying to set it up for contactless site cleaning. Sadly my stations currently a brick though.

But yeah, its not well written or explained in his listing but, nitrogen and paste dipping are genuine options when looking at top end rework stations.

It's bullshit.
This same guy has been hired and then FIRED by one of my good, long term customers when I stopped doing GPUs for a bit.
Every board this guy did has failed.
Let's deal with removing the VRAM edge bonding properly before we do anything else. Let's also not tell the customer we replaced the VRAM when there is still bonding under the chips!

 

[G.Beard]

Why would someone look for nitrogen, x-ray and god knows what other things when replacing BGA for a 6-8 yo machine?
Do someone want to have it fixed for next 100 years???
Is almost impossible to find new chips even for these boards.
How can will help nitrogen, solder paste, etc to last a zombie chip???

There are good chips. If you have a good source and you know the right Cinaman and you have a few 10k bundels laying around.

 

[ALB-Repairs]

It's bullshit.
This same guy has been hired and then FIRED by one of my good, long term customers when I stopped doing GPUs for a bit.
Every board this guy did has failed.
Let's deal with removing the VRAM edge bonding properly before we do anything else. Let's also not tell the customer we replaced the VRAM when there is still bonding under the chips!

Garbage chipsets? or just poor work?
I dont doubt the equipment was all im saying. i have also noticed he sells HD6970M cards on ebay, we all know that there real unobtainum.

 

[G.Beard]

Garbage chipsets? or just poor work?
I dont doubt the equipment was all im saying. i have also noticed he sells HD6970M cards on ebay, we all know that there real unobtainum.

Board I have here has a DC1627 on a 0084.... Hang on a fucking minute, I just realised it's a 0084 and not a 0001.
Man, what a bag of bellends. The guy has not even changed the chip.

 

[ALB-Repairs]

Board I have here has a DC1627 on a 0084.... Hang on a fucking minute, I just realised it's a 0084 and not a 0001.
Man, what a bag of bellends. The guy has not even changed the chip.

What a waste of top end equipment aha.