RAM swap woes

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budnespid
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RAM swap woes

Post by budnespid »

I attempted a RAM swap tonight for my wip project. First I desoldered the original chips. Then I replaced the first one with a single RAM chip from a dead rev9 board. I tested it and the board booted fine with only the single chip. Then I replaced the second one with a chip from an expansion pak. I fired up some perfect dark and it says no expansion pak detected. :(

Could it be that the chip from the dead board is dead?

My soldering job is mighty clean so thats not the issue.

I feel so bad that it doesn't work. :(
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Re: RAM swap woes

Post by marshallh »

I'd bet you either have a solder bridge on the pins you didn't see, or damaged one of the traces while pulling the original chips off.
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budnespid
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Re: RAM swap woes

Post by budnespid »

Well actually I went back to remove the first chip (the one that worked) and I bumped the one I took from an expansion pak and it just fell off. :wtf: that was the problem the whole time. Also in the process of it falling off, it tore a trace. So now I am completely out of working n64s.
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Re: RAM swap woes

Post by blaze3927 »

you dont wanna trace it back to an alternate solder spot?
if its just one trace its easily fixable and may only be a tiny bit messy
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Basement_Modder
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Re: RAM swap woes

Post by Basement_Modder »

blaze3927 wrote:you dont wanna trace it back to an alternate solder spot?
if its just one trace its easily fixable and may only be a tiny bit messy
Even kynar wire wouldn't be thin enough for the pins on N64 ram chips.
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hailrazer
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Re: RAM swap woes

Post by hailrazer »

Basement_Modder wrote:
blaze3927 wrote:you dont wanna trace it back to an alternate solder spot?
if its just one trace its easily fixable and may only be a tiny bit messy
Even kynar wire wouldn't be thin enough for the pins on N64 ram chips.
Yea 32 gauge isn't really small enough. Close but VERY difficult if not impossible.
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blaze3927
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Re: RAM swap woes

Post by blaze3927 »

once again, its just one trace right,?
so just bend up the one suspect pin,solder to that,
follow the broken trace back to a place where its not broken, use a fine tipped blade to scratch some seal back to copper, flux, and then solder to that with the other end of the wire.
or am i missing something?
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hailrazer
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Re: RAM swap woes

Post by hailrazer »

blaze3927 wrote:once again, its just one trace right,?
so just bend up the one suspect pin,solder to that,
follow the broken trace back to a place where its not broken, use a fine tipped blade to scratch some seal back to copper, flux, and then solder to that with the other end of the wire.
or am i missing something?
Oh it's one trace. I was thinking multiple. One should be do-able.
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