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When You Really, Really Want to Upgrade a Tiny Notebook
Benz145 writes "The famous Sony VAIO UX UMPC may have been cancelled a few years back by Sony, but the community at Micro PC Talk won't let it die. Modder Anh has carefully removed the relatively slow 1.33Ghz Core Solo CPU and installed a much faster Intel Core 2 Duo U7700 (a process which involves reballing the entire CPU). On top of this, he managed to install an incredibly small 4-port USB hub into the unit which allowed for the further instillation of a Huawei E172 modem for 3G data/voice/SMS, a GPS receiver, and a Pinnacle HD TV receiver. All of this was done without modifying the device's tiny external case. Great high-res pictures of the motherboard with the modded hardware can be seen through the link."
Then why link at umpcportal.com instead of linking directly to the story at micropctalk.com?
What is "reballed" as in "reballing the CPU"? I am assuming it's repackaging the CPU or something, but I'm not sure. I read the article but that didn't offer much more insight than the summary.
BGA or "Ball Grid Array" chips don't have a standard socket and are attached to the board using literal balls of solder that melt when the whole thing is put in a re-flow oven. The chip is then soldered to the board. A good video on reballing a CPU is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97nxZwHG5bA
"Bah!" - Dogbert
That is badass! I wish something like this could be done with the MacBook Air. I'm in love with mine - unfortunately, Apple hasn't updated it in forever. If there was a service out there to help folks with MBAs, I'm sure there would be a long line of people.
I think there is probably more involved than switching out the processor. You'd have to replace the current with another one that would be okay with existing cooling/power requirements. Otherwise you'd melt something. I suspect that's why they went with a 1.33GHz Core 2 Duo as opposed to a more powerful processor. I think Apple last updated the MBA mid 2009 but it was only a processor upgrade from 1.6 GHz to 1.83 GHz and 1.83 GHz to 2.13 GHz.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
The original 1.2 GHz Core Solo (I think it was the Core Solo U1400) drew 6W TDP. The new Core 2 Duo U770 draws 10W. The lowest wattage Core i3 or i5 draws 18W. It's probably safe to assume the tripling the power requirement is a bit risky. As for the socketing, the original and new processor use the BGA479 whereas the ultra low wattage Core i3 and i5 use uPGA-989. So there would definitely be some work in socketing.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97nxZwHG5bA
I just watched that video. The BGA reballing process appears to be:
0) Remove all the old solder. First he melted it with a soldering iron and got a ball of solder, which he rolled off. Then he applied a solder wick (with the soldering iron to heat it) and scrubbed gently all over the chip package surface. Finally he wiped the chip package with a cloth soaked in some liquid (a solvent I'd guess).
1) Paint the chip package with some sort of goop.
2) Put a shield on the chip package. This shield has holes that match where the new solder balls must go.
3) Apply some sort of metal powder from a jar. The powder appears to be solder balls, each one just the right size to fit through the holes in the shield. He gently wiped the powder this way and that until there was one solder ball per hole (more or less). Then he took a pair of needle tweezers and carefully moved one ball at a time until there was exactly one solder ball per hole, with no holes empty.
4) Apply heat from a heat gun. Clearly this was to melt the solder balls and make them attach to the chip package.
5) Pop the shield off, and hold up the reballed BGA to the camera so we can see its perfection.
I guess the rest of the process is to very carefully drop the chip package where you want it to go, and convince the solder to melt. How do you do that? You mentioned a "reflow oven"? I Googled that, and there are lots of different ovens out there. I even saw a page for using an ordinary toaster oven for the purpose.
Looks like pretty finicky work to do by hand, but not completely impossible.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
this is like 2 years old.
The key part in the begining was to apply a flux for lifting.
This protected the board and assisted in thermal spread.
Likely he was removing that with the solvent because it wouldn't be too helpful to have that on and attempt to re-attache to the surface.
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
Huawei GSM modems like E172 respond to standard AT commands and work on linux just fine.
I think with the newer core i3 and core i5 they got rid of the external memory controller
Indeed the MCH (northbridge) is gone and most of what was previously part of it is now in the processor with the physical layer for the video now in the PCH (roughly equivilent to the old southbridge/ICH). Further the memory type is DDR3 (the majority of core 2 systems used DDR2). Fitting an i series to a core 2 motherboard or vice-versa is just not going to happen.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
0: Heat shield the board, heat the the chip (~500+F), remove the chip from board. Apply rosin (makes solder flow better + protects from oxidization) and solder wick to clean the board and/or chip.
1: Apply Rosin paste to chip, apply stencil to chip, then apply either solder dust or solder paste to chip.
2: Remove stencil.
3: Place chip on level surface and heat for ~10 mins to the melting point of the solder. Because metals are magnetic, the solder will flow around and form a ball on the contact.
4: Cool.
5: Align on PCB. You need to get it 90% correct on a level surface.
6: Heat chip. The solder will melt and the same principal that holds the solder to the contacts will align the chip with the board.
7: Cool.
8: Test.
9: Enjoy Porn.
Done it a few times, SMT is the worst.