[lactose]

I learned a couple of interesting things when I broke the USB on my Classic. It would sometimes charge if you hold the cable correctly, but BB link would never connect. Windows would report an error with the device. Linux dmesg would show errors when reading the descriptors.

1 This means no way to properly back up the phone since BB link offers only a limited connection over WiFi, you can't do backups with it.

2 It took a couple of trips to the warranty repair folks. I was annoyed when it first came back with charging fixed, but no USB data (no mass storage, no BB Link) because they went to the trouble of including a piece of paper claiming they had tested all functions. But on the second trip they said they actually re-flowed the solder. It works fine now. I was surprised to hear a warranty shop putting this much effort in, I assumed they tossed anything that wasn't a minor repair. Come to think of it, I bet sticking the PCB into an oven would probably fix a bunch of weird problems you see with modern phones. I get the feeling that modern soldering processes are prone to exhibit problems not detected in early testing. I know, at a previous job, we would send our design out and less than half of the boards we got back were functional. This was several years ago when lead free soldering was newer.

[diegonei]

Just... don't...

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Title is a little misleading....

The key with soldering... heat the connections and not the components.

[lactose]

You make a good point. Depending on the chip packaging they could have just re-soldered leads. If the chip has pads on the bottom, the oven approach is probably needed.

[crackbrry fan]

Actually you should try stove top.... It's crisper !!

Posted via CB10

[Troy Tiscareno]

With surface-mount components (which includes most micro-USB ports), a proper job is done with a reflow/rework station, which is essentially a hot-air wand where the temperature and air rate can be controlled with very small tolerances, and different-sized nozzles can be used to localize the heat. The contacts are often too small and too close together to use a soldering iron, and again, are often on the bottom where an iron won't work well.

Putting the phone, or even the motherboard of the phone, in an oven can damage or destroy components as well as cause the board itself to warp. It's a really good way to take a repairable device and turn it into scrap.

[Prem WatsApp]

With surface-mount components (which includes most micro-USB ports), a proper job is done with a reflow/rework station, which is essentially a hot-air wand where the temperature and air rate can be controlled with very small tolerances, and different-sized nozzles can be used to localize the heat. The contacts are often too small and too close together to use a soldering iron, and again, are often on the bottom where an iron won't work well.

Putting the phone, or even the motherboard of the phone, in an oven can damage or destroy components as well as cause the board itself to warp. It's a really good way to take a repairable device and turn it into scrap.

Agreed.

But costs money. This is ONLY a last resort attempt for anyone who can't afford to fix it. I'd rather save up if I couldn't.

I have a BOSCH electronic heat gun with a nozzle, I can adjust the temp in 10C degree increments from 50 to 630C. Good enough for occasional use or home use.

Also: Use common sense... :-D

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