Corroded legs on IIsi CPU

JeffC

Tinkerer
Sep 26, 2021
122
79
28
Seattle, WA
I'm doing some troubleshooting on my IIsi board. I put it under the microscope this morning and took a bunch of photos so I can sit down later and take a very close look for broken traces, however as I was taking the photos all the traces looked in excellent condition, even the ones around the old caps (recently replaced). I did notice the legs of the CPU closest to C34 were looking pretty grungy. I used a pick and pushed on one of the corner pins, and it broke loose from the board. Fortunately, the leg itself looks in decent shape and doesn't look like it is going to fall off the IC.

I'm looking for suggestions on how to deal with this. I am working with a nice solder station and a cheap hot air station. I have recently taught myself to solder SMD ICs, and I am pretty good with chips like the RAM and UE5 chips, but I have never done any fine-pitch work. From what I have seen on youtube videos the CPU might be a good candidate for removal with ChipQuik and re-soldering using solder paste, but I have never used either. The other option I see is to scrape the pads and legs as clean as I can with a pick, add a bunch of flux, and re-flow.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

Edit: added second photo of CPU, zoomed out
 

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Last edited:

JeffC

Tinkerer
Sep 26, 2021
122
79
28
Seattle, WA
Apply flux to the pins, reflow with hot air. Clean with acetone, repeat.
I ultimately wrote this board off and repaired another IIsi board I had. I did a bunch of work to this one and could never get rid of the death chime. I replaced the onboard RAM with known good chips, replaced all the ALS245s, beeped out all the traces going to/from the RAM and ALS245s. A bunch of other stuff I don't recall the details of as well. There is probably a broken trace somewhere but I wasn't able to find it. Since I had another board that was a much easier fix, I have relegated this one to a parts board.

@nottomhanks sorry no, I am hesitant to work on other people's machines, and definitely not a IIsi board. They are notoriously finicky. What is wrong with yours?

Edit: @YMK I ended up removing and re-soldering the CPU. I made multiple attempts to reflow the legs, there were a couple that I just could not get to take. I scraped the legs and pads, added flux, and after many attempts I was never able to get a couple of the pins to make a good connection to the pads. Just too much grunge on the pads/legs. After I removed the chip and cleaned the pads it soldered back down nicely.