Seeing the price that currently exists in certain reballing machines, many users have rushed to buy them on Asian sites such as Aliexpress in order to correct the problems with their graphics card . But if you are not an expert in the field, this is not as simple as soldering two wires with tin and what you were trying to repair may end up as a paperweight on your desk. Is it safe to perform this technique at home?
Of course, we start from the basis that we know what a reballing is and what processes it consists of. This technique is having more and more followers among users with problems and you can also find more companies that perform it than 10 years ago. The problem is that few manage to do such a fine job correctly and therefore few units come out really well repaired.
Reballing graphics card at home, is it worth spending money?
The answer is no and the arguments are simple. Machines that are sold for a few hundred euros or dollars are usually neither accurate nor do they heat the area correctly and often do not have enough power to weld the bumps well.
One of the most laborious processes is to maintain precision in welding, since since there are so many bumps, it is easy for one of the thousands to deviate. Precision, a good template and constant monitoring are required for this to occur and of course, a homogeneous and perfect heat that does not break the PCB internally, so it really has nothing easy.
The machines that are sold that are affordable do not comply with any of this and what they achieve, despite the apparent success of the operation, is simply to prolong the agony of the user thinking that he has a successful repair, where then finally what happens is that some time and after thermal cycles the GPU fails again.
And the professionals?
For this reason and due to the high electronic knowledge and precision welding that is needed, together with good components and of course time, what users do is turn to a professional. But, how to know from the outset if it is recommended or not? Well, it’s a complex subject. Previous work can help, opinions of users on the Internet about the operating time of the graphics card (successful repairs can logically lead to deception) and above all, the guarantee that is offered must be taken into account.
This is much of the key to a professional, warranty repair. As we know for sure no one can guarantee the integrity of the GPU as such, but pin-by-pin measurements of voltage, amperage and stability can be taken on the main lines as well as on voltage controllers and VRMs. OR
n correct reballing goes beyond a simple change of soldering, it requires prior verification of the graphics card and of course verification after said technique.
That is where the professional’s guarantee should come from, which is normally a few months. If this is offered and the checks and status both before and after a reballing are commented on, the user knows what to expect. The graphics card may never fail again in its useful life, but it is possible that it will end up doing so in a short time, because as we say, nobody can assess the integrity of the chip except the manufacturer, and neither AMD, nor NVIDIA nor Intel accept chip repairs or replacements, that’s something reserved for manufacturers.
