I have a dead RAM slot on my 2004 15" PowerBook G4. How would I fix it?

[notabitail]

Hi,

I was given a PowerBook G4 15" 2004 last year, and I found out one of the RAM slots seems to be dead? How would I fix it?

I have a heat gun, though I'm not certain that it will be enough to fix the slot.

 

[phunguss]

How did you determine it was bad (swapped sodimms to opposite sides)?
Are both sodimms identical (speed, size, etc)?
Did you check for damage or bent pins in the socket?
Dust in the socket?

Your heat gun will likely not get hot enough to reflow the socket.

 

[notabitail]

How did you determine it was bad (swapped sodimms to opposite sides)?
Are both sodimms identical (speed, size, etc)?

As far as I could tell they are identical, yes. They look to be the ones that came with the machine (two 512MB ones).

Did you check for damage or bent pins in the socket?

I looked and as far as I can tell there wasn't any damage to it.

Dust in the socket?

There could be, I should check and see.

Your heat gun will likely not get hot enough to reflow the socket.

 

[Zingerpop]

So. I also have a PowerBook G4 with a dead ram slot, the lower one quit working on mine. I dug into this a little bit awhile back and found that this was a super common problem. Apple had a replacement program in place to swap out the logic boards.

As I recall, I found a bunch of folks suggesting to reflow the solder and that should address it, but I have yet to find someone who had actually tried it (or fixed it some other way). Not saying it's not possible, but I didn't want to chance it on mine at the time. If I get some time this weekend I'll dig into it a bit more and if it looks feasible, I'll give it a shot.

 

[notabitail]

I checked mine again last night. The lower one doesn't work. I tried both sticks and it "booped" three times and went silent. I did try cleaning it to no avail.

 

[notabitail]

So. I also have a PowerBook G4 with a dead ram slot, the lower one quit working on mine. I dug into this a little bit awhile back and found that this was a super common problem. Apple had a replacement program in place to swap out the logic boards.

As I recall, I found a bunch of folks suggesting to reflow the solder and that should address it, but I have yet to find someone who had actually tried it (or fixed it some other way). Not saying it's not possible, but I didn't want to chance it on mine at the time. If I get some time this weekend I'll dig into it a bit more and if it looks feasible, I'll give it a shot.

If it works let me know. I want to take mine apart and clean it at some point soon since it's kinda dirty.

 

[Zingerpop]

Well, I gave it a shot! Long story short no luck. Even if it worked, I'm not sure I would recommend it, that tear down was a little brutal. The keyboard comes off easy enough but since the RAM is on the backside of the motherboard, it requires removing the whole logic board (which means reapplying thermal paste on the processor & GPU).

Once it's out, the RAM slots are surface mounted, so there's definitely no soldering iron shenanigans that can be done.

I tried with the heat gun for a little bit, but the issue is the lower slot's connections are behind the upper slot connections that you can see in the picture. It's going to be super difficult to get enough heat under there with a heat gun without melting the surrounding plastic. This is probably a reflow oven situation, and that's assuming the issue even is the solder connections (which I'm not sure is actually confirmed, it just sounds plausible).

 

[notabitail]

Well, I gave it a shot! Long story short no luck. Even if it worked, I'm not sure I would recommend it, that tear down was a little brutal. The keyboard comes off easy enough but since the RAM is on the backside of the motherboard, it requires removing the whole logic board (which means reapplying thermal paste on the processor & GPU).

Once it's out, the RAM slots are surface mounted, so there's definitely no soldering iron shenanigans that can be done.

View attachment 27159

I tried with the heat gun for a little bit, but the issue is the lower slot's connections are behind the upper slot connections that you can see in the picture. It's going to be super difficult to get enough heat under there with a heat gun without melting the surrounding plastic. This is probably a reflow oven situation, and that's assuming the issue even is the solder connections (which I'm not sure is actually confirmed, it just sounds plausible).

That stinks. I suppose there's probably not much else that can be done for it then.