19 Feb
2011
19 Feb
'11
9:38 a.m.
On 2/18/2011 6:03 PM, Philip Pemberton wrote:
Well I certainly can't say this evening wasn't
entertaining.
<snip>
Hmm, still no go. So I pulled the RTC chip, put it
dead-bug style on the
desk, and started looking at the tracks again. And then I saw it, out of
the corner of my eye...
The VCC pin had broken off the RTC chip. So what did I do? I fixed it.
I took a fresh turned-pin IC socket, and inserted a piece of 22SWG
tinned copper wire into the top-right corner socket (i.e. VCC). Clipped
it back to ~5mm, then put the socket to one side. Next, I used a
triangular needle file to cut a notch into the plastic of the chip,
right above the VCC pin stub. A bit of scratching with the Xacto got me
enough Vcc pin stub to solder a wire to. Lightly tinned the VCC stub,
just for good measure.
RTC chip goes into the socket, and the stub was soldered to the 5mm VCC
wire. Into the motherboard it goes. POST card in, speaker (on POST card)
connected, power on.
Way to go! I once did something very similar to a 386EX, except I used
a Dremel tool to cut down into the rather hard material (a ceramic?) to
access the pin stub. My ever funny cohort looked at me and asked, "Do
you suppose we voided the warranty on that chip?" BTW, the board did
continue to work for quite a while afterward with that patch. It saved
us a bunch of time, and eventually wound up hanging on his office wall
as "engineering art".
Later,
Charlie C.