Currently we continue with the typical thought that if something breaks it is better to pull an RMA and if this is not possible to buy another new product. But for those who are a bit handy and don't want to wait for the typical bureaucracy of manufacturers, there is a very interesting and at the same time curious solution that no one had thought of. What if RAM memory chips could be changed, tested and repaired "hot"? Well, with this accessory now you can.
It is a tedious task to be testing module by module until finding the error and if it occurs we do not know what is really happening. There is no software, at the moment, that can diagnose in which chip the fault is detected, so we would have to replace the complete RAM module or better, the kit in order to adjust the tertiary timings to the maximum and achieve the best performance. That can be in the past seen the seen.
Century Micro Releases DRAM Testing Fixture
There are two ways to approach this peculiar accessory and everything always from the point of view of repair: do it in situ in the module or do it outside in a NAND Flash tester. In either case there is a common previous movement, and this is nothing more than desoldering each chip.
Logically these come with a pretty good flux with the PCBs so we will have to have a fairly good soldering station along with a quality blower and solder solvent to do it effortlessly and in the shortest possible time. With this in mind, the Century Micro accessory is peculiar, since it is a kind of structure that adheres just above the RAM module as if it were a heatsink.
In part it is, since it directly touches the NAND Flash and helps dissipate the heat generated, but that is not its main function. What this accessory does is to press the chips in an optimal way taking into account that they may or may not have their soldering done. For this, there is a mold that leaves the chips in their perfect position and a lid adapted to the millimeter seals them so that they do not move.
Repair RAM memory and its chips hot
It is not the typical repair where with voltage in the module you replace one chip with another, that obviously cannot be done as it was done with the EEPROM of the BIOS at the time. Here what is attempted is to desolder the chips and test module by module with stress software such as Karhu or RunMemtest Pro, removing and inserting chips to determine which one fails.
A NAND Flash tester can tell us if the input and output voltage is correct, but it won't tell us if the memory cells are working perfectly. With this accessory we can remove or add chip by chip and try software until we find the one that fails, being able to buy a new one, solder it and finally replace it in just a few minutes.
This very peculiar Century Micro repair accessory is available for DDR3 and DDR4, where they may have the DDR5 ready in a short time.
