Slashdot Mirror
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?
I'm even willing to shell out 5k
That's an excellent start when it comes to wishing for products from Apple.
Unfortunately, most MBAs are beyond hope. Sure, in our polite society we like to shuffle them along, giving them middle management positions and places in government bureaucracy, but we have yet to understand the fundamental problem that drives people towards getting an MBA.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
Who cares about updates to the Macbook Air?
All that matters is that it can fit in a manila envelope.
Someday we'll hit the human carrying capacity. And the band will just play on.
640 pixels ought to be enough for everyone.
Let's suspend the "Redundant" mod for this particular occasion. This is really, really beautiful work, and if a bunch of Slashdotters offer Anh all kinds of applause for this mod, he deserves every bit of it.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
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
Well, I googled it, and - whoops! NSFW! NSFW!!!
We apologize that this was not a Serious and Constructive article about the Serious and Constructive uses of Serious and Constructive computers.
We humbly suggest that if you are keenly interested in Serious and Constructive uses for Serious and Constructive computers, that you seek out Serious and Constructive forums.
Those of us that appreciate what is known as a "cool hack", on the other hand, will not miss you one little bit.
"I would not trust this long-term."
As it's not YOUR computer, it's not your worry, is it?
Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
These are 500px wide...
If 640 is enough for everyone, 500 should be enough for 78% of the population.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
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
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
If you are not sure you want to reflow BGAs yourself, you don't want to.
I haven't got the balls for it.
Or, to be honest, when you bought a laptop.
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