mobo bios chip swap

My computer has been giving me BSOD issues lately, and after some initial investigation my partner determined that it was either:

• the memory
• the CPU
• the motherboard
• the BIOS

Swapping the primary BIOS chip (my mobo has a backup as well) is the least expensive solution at roughly $20 to buy one on eBay, so I've given that a try.  Unfortunately it was not a simple matter of unplugging the old chip from a socket, and plugging in the new one, as the chip was soldered directly to the board. >.<

Fortunately I've learned how to deal with removing these kinds of components by reading online and doing trial-and-mostly-error with non-critical components.. trying to scavenge parts from old hardware.

First I applied some flux to the chip's tabs and then with a wide flat tip on my iron I used some desoldering braid to wick up the solder holding the chip to the board.  I was then able to gently pry the chip up and away from the board with out damaging the traces.

The shiny area is where the chip was.. that's leftover flux which I cleaned up using alcohol and cotton swabs.  The chip above it, with the yellow dot, is the backup BIOS, which looks exactly like the original main BIOS chip.

Getting the new bios in place involved applying a little flux to the board and using that to stick the chip in place while I flooded the tabs with solder.  There were a couple of "bridges" of solder between the chip's tabs, but a little careful wicking with the soldering braid took care of that.  Handy stuff. :)

I also use jeweler's loupe's, which I picked up at Sayal, to help me see what I'm doing.  I'm also very near sighted in my left eye, which acts a bit like a magnifying glass for doing this kind of close up work.. if I ever get my eyes lasik'd I'll miss that super power. *heh*

Here's the new chip in place.  The machine booted up just fine and so far there has been no BSOD, but it's a bit early yet to say that this has fixed the problem.

Fingers crossed.