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ASUS ZenFone 2 eMMC replacement questions

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Hello everyone.
This is just for fun and self learning activity. Any help is appreciated. :)
I have a ZenFone 2 32 GB with a faulty eMMC chip. Also, I happen to have a donor 64 GB motherboard with a good eMMC but with fault on network and camera flash due to water damage. The 64 GB motherboard boots up but cameras don't work and there is no network.
If I take out the good 64 GB eMMC and put it on the good board with the faulty 32 GB eMMC, will it boot up right after or do I have to flash it?
Both motherboards are from the same phone model.
 
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It should be a straight swap, no different than adding ram as the phones Rom already allows 64GB eMMC for those.
Let us know your progress.
 
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System Name Coffee | Maximus
Processor Intel Core i7 9700K @ 5.2 GHz with AVX, 4.8 GHz cache clock | i7 9700KF @ 5.0 GHz/4.7 GHz cache
Motherboard ASUS Maximus X Formula | ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger (modded BIOS for Coffee Lake)+TPM2.0 module
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Memory 2*16 GB (32 GB) Kingston Fury Beast @3600 MHz CL17 | 4*8 GB (32 GB) HyperX Fury @3200 MHz CL14
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It should be a straight swap, no different than adding ram as the phones Rom already allows 64GB eMMC for those.
Let us know your progress.
Thanks. Will definitely do. Looking for a BGA 153 stencil for the chip.
 

silentbogo

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Oh, that's gonna be one helluva headache for you, bud.
Few tips:
1) Use PCB pre-heater. Otherwise I guarantee you'll have a couple of missing pads on eMMC IC. This will also help with minimizing risk of overheating and killing the IC.
2) Get a small vial of 0.09-0.1mm solder balls. Don't use paste (at least not on your first few attempts, and not with cheap stensils). Thin stencils do warp a little with heat, which causes solder paste to flow underneath and stick together.
3) Don't use those cheap spring-loaded BGA holders. It'll warp the stencil. Either tape the whole thing to the desk, or get a decent BGA rework kit.
 
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Location
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System Name Coffee | Maximus
Processor Intel Core i7 9700K @ 5.2 GHz with AVX, 4.8 GHz cache clock | i7 9700KF @ 5.0 GHz/4.7 GHz cache
Motherboard ASUS Maximus X Formula | ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger (modded BIOS for Coffee Lake)+TPM2.0 module
Cooling Cooler Master ML240 Illusion | Cooler Master ML120L RGB
Memory 2*16 GB (32 GB) Kingston Fury Beast @3600 MHz CL17 | 4*8 GB (32 GB) HyperX Fury @3200 MHz CL14
Video Card(s) Zotac RTX 3070 8 GB Twin Edge | Galax RTX 2060 Super 8 GB
Storage Samsung PM981a 1TB NVMe+480GB SATA SSD+2 TB HDD | Crucial P5 1TB, Crucial P1 500GB+2.5TB HDDs
Display(s) LG OLED 55 G3, 4K 120 Hz, VRR, ALLM, GSync, FreeSync | Samsung 43AU9070 4K TV, VRR, ALLM
Case Corsair Crystal 460X RGB | Lianli Lancool 215
Audio Device(s) Creative Sound Blaster Z SE | Realtek ALC1150 (Supreme FX)
Power Supply ASUS ROG Strix 750G (80+ Gold) | Cooler Master MWE 650 V2 (80+ Bronze)
Mouse Cooler Master MM731 19000 DPI gaming mouse
Keyboard Cooler Master CK721 65% mechanical gaming keyboard (tactile)
Software Windows 11 Pro x64 |Windows 11 Pro x64
Benchmark Scores Cinebench R20 MT 4200,ST 547 CPU-Z MT 4871, ST 620 | R20 MT - 4158, ST - 534, CPU-Z MT 4798, ST 603
Oh, that's gonna be one helluva headache for you, bud.
Few tips:
1) Use PCB pre-heater. Otherwise I guarantee you'll have a couple of missing pads on eMMC IC. This will also help with minimizing risk of overheating and killing the IC.
2) Get a small vial of 0.09-0.1mm solder balls. Don't use paste (at least not on your first few attempts, and not with cheap stensils). Thin stencils do warp a little with heat, which causes solder paste to flow underneath and stick together.
3) Don't use those cheap spring-loaded BGA holders. It'll warp the stencil. Either tape the whole thing to the desk, or get a decent BGA rework kit.
Thanks a lot. I will surely keep those in mind.
Another thing I want to mention. The motherboard of this phone has the CPU with the RAM as PoP located just opposite to the eMMC on the other side of the board. But that package has underfill on it unlike the eMMC. I hope that won't cause a problem.
 
Joined
Oct 9, 2010
Messages
1,549 (0.32/day)
Location
Kolkata, India
System Name Coffee | Maximus
Processor Intel Core i7 9700K @ 5.2 GHz with AVX, 4.8 GHz cache clock | i7 9700KF @ 5.0 GHz/4.7 GHz cache
Motherboard ASUS Maximus X Formula | ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger (modded BIOS for Coffee Lake)+TPM2.0 module
Cooling Cooler Master ML240 Illusion | Cooler Master ML120L RGB
Memory 2*16 GB (32 GB) Kingston Fury Beast @3600 MHz CL17 | 4*8 GB (32 GB) HyperX Fury @3200 MHz CL14
Video Card(s) Zotac RTX 3070 8 GB Twin Edge | Galax RTX 2060 Super 8 GB
Storage Samsung PM981a 1TB NVMe+480GB SATA SSD+2 TB HDD | Crucial P5 1TB, Crucial P1 500GB+2.5TB HDDs
Display(s) LG OLED 55 G3, 4K 120 Hz, VRR, ALLM, GSync, FreeSync | Samsung 43AU9070 4K TV, VRR, ALLM
Case Corsair Crystal 460X RGB | Lianli Lancool 215
Audio Device(s) Creative Sound Blaster Z SE | Realtek ALC1150 (Supreme FX)
Power Supply ASUS ROG Strix 750G (80+ Gold) | Cooler Master MWE 650 V2 (80+ Bronze)
Mouse Cooler Master MM731 19000 DPI gaming mouse
Keyboard Cooler Master CK721 65% mechanical gaming keyboard (tactile)
Software Windows 11 Pro x64 |Windows 11 Pro x64
Benchmark Scores Cinebench R20 MT 4200,ST 547 CPU-Z MT 4871, ST 620 | R20 MT - 4158, ST - 534, CPU-Z MT 4798, ST 603
I did it I did it. :D

eMMC removed from water damaged donor board:






And success:


The phone works absolutely good as new. I filled up the storage as much as possible to test out the stability of the eMMC.
The phone booted right after the replacement as you all said. However it would not detect the SIM 1 card. On further inspection, I found the baseband firmware was not initialized and the SIM 1 IMEI was shown as NULL. Did a full flash using ASUS Flash tool with the latest firmware and it is back. Detects and catches network in both SIM slots, SD card slots work, cameras work, everything is great.
Thanks for the inputs everyone. :)
 
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