Hello, I’m Bernhard, senior developer for hardware at ELITKon GmbH, recreational author, community member, married, stressed and much more. Of course, I also have to say a few words about my employer, who was kind enough to let this relief action go through. Elektro- und Informationstechnik Konrad (ELITKon for short) is a spin-off development arm of IMPKON, which in turn operates EZModding and specializes in the distribution of water cooling components.
Last year, the idea came up to intensify the development of own products in the end customer area. Kevin Konrad, the CEO of ELITKon GmbH then merged with me, Bernhard Baumgartner and my company called CrankzWare. Once the acquisition and technology exchange were complete, we were able to continue with the development and strategic direction of our small company. The focus here is on the development of computer hardware and electronics for end customers and the repair of PC hardware. We now have both industrial and private customers. Not to forget our own imprint, we also offer attractively low engineering prices for individual projects in the field of optoelectronics and case modding for the private user. There, that’s enough.
Today I (Bernhard) simply take you by the hand and with me into my laboratory. There we highlight the repair of an AMD GPU from the IgorsLab community (see picture above) as a nice practical example.
Important preface to the oven taken with pleasure
Let me say a word to you and your health first: Please stop trying to re-solder electronic components in your in-house oven. As a picture I attach a so-called reflow profile according to JEDEC-Spec and then you know why you should not always do what looks so easy in YouTube:
- You are exposing yourself and your oven to dangerous gases that you will never get out of the oven (formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and resin and possibly lead gases), which will then be reheated every time you prepare food
- You can’t even remotely meet the reflow profile in terms of time or temperature, which means your hardware and the components on it will suffer even more.
So, now enough of the words of my impressive warning, let’s set off for the ELITKon laboratory:
As you can see, my small lab consists of a working PC for developing hardware, a SMD rework station is available as well as a hot air soldering station and also a normal soldering iron. Two separate laboratory power supplies provide the crackling excitement while working, and a third hand with magnifying glass and illumination compensates for a lack of dexterity. A mobile exhaust system is available, as are respiratory protection and an oscilloscope. For my daily work quota I have many other smaller, but partly also expensive tools, which are not visible here on this picture.
But what is actually the big problem with PC component repair that drives us to enforce enormously restrictive T&Cs? First, there is the document situation. You get again schematic, nor board layout of these cards, so we have no tool for orientation, how the individual components are exactly interconnected. However, this is exactly what would be absolutely necessary for a targeted repair. Further complicating our work is the sheer complexity of the hardware.
Several thousand capacitors, resistors and chips, which all have a different task and different values are not easy to bring into a logical structure. Previous damage, such as short circuits caused by liquid metal or water damage, can also invisibly damage the components and destroy circuits before or behind them as well. It’s just always a ride on the cannonball into an unknown land. Of course, it helps to have many years of experience in hardware design and to have repaired thousands of devices, but still, as so often in life, there is no guarantee.
But who is the patient now? An AMD RX 6800 referred to us by Igor, which currently neither outputs a constant image nor starts the fans. But the symptoms become even more diffuse: The GPU lets the PC boot up in the background without a picture and the fans are triggered briefly when shutting down. In parallel, the card is also said to smell burnt and yes, the olfactory factor in such a repair is definitely not to be underestimated. Apart from the Marlboro man burned into the nose. Let’s go!
- 1 - Graphics card death, eBay and the circumstances
- 2 - Initial findings and head shaking
- 3 - Wound dressing and referral to specialist
- 4 - ELITKon who? Things that only the specialist can manage
- 5 - Disassemble, test and measure
- 6 - Flux, Reflow and the Miraculous Recovery
- 7 - Commissioning, summary and hospital address
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