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Old April 28th 18, 07:18 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.os.windows-10
VanguardLH[_2_]
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Default Recommend data recovery company?

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

I'd say it's probably worth - if you're considering this route - getting
the hot-air gun. My last 6 months' employment (with a company which
repaired car electronics; I was mostly on dashboards [the bit behind the
dials - it's a lot of the computing in modern cars]) involved a lot of
replacement of surface-mount devices; the devices (packages) themselves
are surprisingly robust, it's the tracks - and especially pads - on the
board that tend to lift. Especially where it's a pad connected to a
track that only goes under the device.


A hot air gun is part of my electronics toolbox. That I don't use it
often doesn't mean it has no value. I've found it handy for shrinking
heat-shrink tubing (rather than wrapping a wire splice with tape),
helped loosen siezed or rusted bolts, bend plastic without breaking it,
and many other uses. Like a hot-glue gun, a heat gun has lots of uses.

A soldering iron would need a super fine tip to solder the ROM chip so
it touched only one pin (and prevent solder bridges between pins). You
could only unsolder one pin at a time which means having to wick the
solder from other other pins but that probably will still have them
slightly soldered the pad. The heatgun lets you melt the solder on all
pins so you can lift off. Likely you won't have to apply more solder
when you heat the solder left on the pads to put on the new chip. Using
a soldering gun with microtip, solder sucker, and solder wick will be
exponentially more difficult than using a heatgun (about $25). It
becomes part of your tool collection. Guys love tools. Girls love
shoes. We both like to collect.

A got a Kill-a-watt meter just to determine if a fridge would work on
the same circuit as other electrics (I was surprised at how little
current the fridge draws). I've then used it on my computer and other
electrics. Sometimes you get a specialty tool and it never gets used
again (so check if you can rent it). Some tools you know will have
future potential use.

Yes, even reading the part number may require optical aid - and it's
highly likely to be a proprietary one anyway, though if you ask (e. g.
here) there's likely to be someone who recognises part of the number.


If the part number can be read. Seems chip manufacturers deliberately
use the palest white ink that makes in impossible to read.

I wonder if a failed head could fail in such a way that it damages the
electronics to which it connects.


Yep. A worn spindle bearing can burn out a diode or regulator because
of the continual higher current load to the motor. I had a PCB where a
tiny diode not only failed but must've exploded because only 1 end of it
was left wave-soldered to a minipad. Took me a while to realize what I
was looking for was not there.

Nowadays (well, for quite a while now) I do image backups (full,
differentials, incrementals) to internal storage and copied to external
storage and off-site media so I don't have to bother doing computer
repairs. Just replace, restore, and move on.
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