Broken Surface Mount Resistor on A7N8X repairable?

[acousticlemur]

Hey i think i may have hit it with a regular screw driver while mounting the heatsink / fan. but i am not sure, that is the only thing i can think of. does anyone know where i could find out exactly what it is, so i can replace it with a new one? I followed the trace, and it goes from the CPU to the Northbridge. But i am not sure what it is and or what it does. here are are some pics.

I called ASUS and they "could not release that information" but they were more than willing to have me send it in and charge me to fix it. i have google'd it to death, and all i can find out is that they are surface mount resistors of some sort, but i dont want to put the wrong one on there and mess up the board even more. thanks...

 

[bigboi86]

Do you have the one that fell off?

I've personally knocked resistors off of graphics cards and motherboards and they still worked perfectly. I'm not responsible if you try it and it goes up in smoke though! lol

 

[mandelore]

yes mate. thats easily fixed. My dad ran an R&D pcb design lab and tought me some tricks.

If you dont have the component anymore, carefully tape 2 thin wires so they lie just over the solder points. taped to hold them in place. Use a fine tipped soldering iron to drop a tiny blob of solder over the ends to seal the contact. If you cant find a fine enuff tip bond a needle to the solder tip using rigid wire. the simply add the replacement to the free wire ends coming from the board. if you want then put a blob of epoxy/glue over the solder point to secure the wires.

if you have the component. put an extra blob of solder on each of the exposed solder points on the mobo, using tweaser nosed pliers, hold the component onto the new solder blobs and apply downwards pressure. then simply touch the sides with the solder iron to bind.

Apologies if your good at soldering not trying to be patronising mate

Good luck!!

 

[bigboi86]

So you're saying just bridge the contact points using wires instead of finding a replacement resistor?

That would probably work in most cases but also could mess things up in some scenarios.

I may have misinterpreted your post though, looks like you're just giving soldering techniques.

If you don't have the resistor, find someone who has the same board, ask them to post a picture or something so you can get the same resistor. If you do have the resistor, then find a resistor color code online and order one.

It's easily fixed, but will be hard to find out which part to use.

 

[mandelore]

no no no, i mean create "leads" coming from the solder points and then solder the replacement to those free wire ends. makes it easier than working on the mobo pcb


ahh, my apologies, im blind. He was after info on how to find out what component it was, not how to repair it doh!

 

[bigboi86]

no no no, i mean create "leads" coming from the solder points and then solder the replacement to those free wire ends. makes it easier than working on the mobo pcb

Yeah after re-reading I gathered that. That is a pretty sweet technique. I've had to relocate caps using that method to accomodate certain heatsinks.

 

[d44ve]

I was thinking the same thing... I thought he wanted you to just solder a piece of wire on there! LOL

Mandelore : great information in there! I am sure one day I will have to put those tips to use

 

[acousticlemur]

Do you have the one that fell off?

I've personally knocked resistors off of graphics cards and motherboards and they still worked perfectly. I'm not responsible if you try it and it goes up in smoke though! lol

it didnt get knocked off, i think i crushed it. i am not sure cause i havent used the board in about 2 years maybe 3. it worked when i put it in the box. and i think my room mate might have used it a few times, so maybe he broke it. i am not sure. but whatever happened it is gone. and i dont even know what "it" was, or what "it" did

 

[acousticlemur]

OK after much more google, i found out that it is an inductor.


"It's not a resistor it's an inductor hence the "L" in the silkscreen callout L32. Inductors like these are mainly for interference supression in a data line or RF interference leaking from that trace pathway. You CAN safely bypass it (short it) and the worst thing you might experience is instability in which case you can call ASUS and ask them the value for the L32 callout on that model."

so now i just need more information.