Hack 9500 into 9700...

[NO LIFE]

Wow, I guess your the first then man.....the first to do the "shady" no resistor mod!

Im hoping I can be the first to do the resistor mod. Im getting my card monday, and since I just finished building my own pocket cd player amp I have a few extra 6.8 resistors, I will just replace the one on the 9500 instead of reusing it. I would recommend anyone doing this mod go buy a resistor instead of replacing the existing one. Those things are extremely cheap....like $.50 for 5.

BTW your scores are very good. With that system 10,000 3DMarks is very respectable. Also, I have never used an ATI card before, so are the Cat 3.0's the best Radeon drivers out?

One more thing....what did u use to test that resistor?

GOOD JOB!!

-JP

 

[Kid98]

I used my Fluke 87 handheld. My trusty old meter from my thin-film production days. (I currently work in aerospace and do instrumentation and metrology, no more manufacturing..hehe) I was a thin-film tech on a production line making those darn resistors!!! We made 1206 parts and going to 0805 looked like a real challenge. Now you have to almost have a magnifier to see the part codes on top. BTW I checked the part over thoroughly to make sure my crazy glue was not covering the solder pads and it was not. I just killed it with heat I guess. The laser patterns on those parts are not designed for robustness, so a line about a human hair wide is all you have to break before you have a bad part. (the patterns are designed for speed in production and accuracy in trimming) I have an upgrade in the works so I will be able to prove to myself that this card has much more to give and that my processor is holding it back.

Kid

 

[TruckChase!]

Nice, thanks for the 411...

BTW, what kinda iron did you use? How many watt? I've got a variable weller and I wanna see what temps others were using to make sure I get it right when I try. Since you burned yours up, I'll probably keep it lower than whatever your iron is.

 

[james.miller]

its not the wattage its the tempreature. ive allready said this.

the wattage only changes how fast the iron can heat up, and how good it is at staying at that temp. like i said before, i use an 80watt, 400c iron and ive never had a problem. either that resistor allready had an imperfection and the heat finished it off, or else he put too much pressure on it and cracked it.

 

[TruckChase!]

Actually, wattage is applicable. Wattage dictates the speed that the heat can be "pumped" to a joint. Too many watts at too high a temp will fry a component a helluva lot faster than a lower watt iron with just the high temp.

To refine my question:

What wattage and temp iron were you using?

Thanks

 

[diehlr]

With larger components, that statement is pretty valid about the low vs high wattage irons. But when you're desoldering something the size of a pinhead, the amount of energy transferred to the joint to melt the solder will be very small. So I don't think the wattage is as important in this case, as opposed to temperature.

 

[TruckChase!]

But when you're desoldering something the size of a pinhead, the amount of energy transferred to the joint to melt the solder will be very small. So I don't think the wattage is as important in this case, as opposed to temperature.

That's a judgement call. I'd still like to know.

 

[Shaotai]

That's a judgement call. I'd still like to know.

Just to add to the discussion, mine was a 20/40 variable watt purchased at Radio Shack for $16! not bad!

 

[R.Rabbit]

you dont need to solder

wow thanx for the info!, i kinda knew about this like 2 days ago,
agiain would a 30watt iron be good?

 

[Silver]

Just ordered one from Newegg and will see how it works out. Am mating it with an xp2700, corsair xms 3500 on an epox nf2 board. All to be air cooled. BTW, if the pcb is the same then might not the vmods for the 9700 be applicable? Just thinking out loud.

 

[Kid98]

I believe this one is rated at 35 or so watts. Sorry to not be precise. (it is a no-name brand unit) I filed down the tip so the heat would be contained to a smaller area over the component. If the shorting of the 1 and 2 posts on the GPU works for others if might be a lot better way to go until we find out if software hacking can do the mod too. (YMMV!!!) Also the melting point of reflow solder is lower in most cases than the standard rosin core I was using. I used to build and test larger versions of these components and they don't like much heat. Best guess for success right now is to buy a few extras. I think the glueing the toothpick to the part is not a bad idea either. A hot air pencil would work way better, but I don't have access to one.

Kid

 

[Tipycol]

hey how about no more soldering
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/story.html?id=1042058170

What do you guys feel about modding it with glue? It does't require solder, but the conductive glue is something like what Kid98 did, because there is basically no resistance between the pins.

So Kid 98 was the first one here to do this mod, though I guess it'll be a different category when someone does the mod by actually moving the resistor.

 

[Kid98]

Please understand what I did.... I super glued a toothpick to the smt resistor in order to be able to move it around and not lose it. I put it at an angle so I had more room to hold it and still work with the iron. I managed to kill the resistor, but simply shorting the posts (1 and 2) worked for me. Who knows, the chip could die anytime due to not having that resistor.... But I decided to take that chance. So far, so good.

Kid

 

[NO LIFE]

So if we did go ahead and reuse the resistor and it happened to be dead would the card die without having a resistor there, or would it mearly not function until you bridge 1/2?

 

[ataxy]

wow thanx for the info!, i kinda knew about this like 2 days ago,
agiain would a 30watt iron be good?

wow thanx you notice

 

[NO LIFE]

Turns out I have 1 resistor left and now my friend wants to do the mod to like me. I went to www.digikey.com to order some more resistors. When I searched for 6.8 ohm resistors it gave me a bunch of different kinds. Do any of you experienced people know the exact technical name for the resisotrs??? Dont be afraid to go totaly geek talk on me either, I can handle it.

-JP

edit: Since they used conductive glue would I be able to just put a line of AS3 between 1 and 2 giving the same effect as conductive glue. Or will that not work?

 

[james.miller]

With larger components, that statement is pretty valid about the low vs high wattage irons. But when you're desoldering something the size of a pinhead, the amount of energy transferred to the joint to melt the solder will be very small. So I don't think the wattage is as important in this case, as opposed to temperature.

That's a judgement call. I'd still like to know.

I agree with diehlr. at the end of the day, Truchchase, the iron is still set to the same tempreature. weather its a 20,40 or 80watt iron set at 350degrees c, the end result is the same.
Very little energy is used to desolder surface mount. It large components like mosfets and heatsinks where the wattage comes into play.

 

[NO LIFE]

Hey at least this mod will be giving me a valid reason to yank the stock HSF off right a 9700 caliber card right???

 

[R.Rabbit]

wow thanx you notice

is that sarcasm? I was being sarcastic!, you cant double sarcasm! thats just plain confusing!

Just ordered one from Newegg and will see how it works out. Am mating it with an xp2700, corsair xms 3500 on an epox nf2 board. All to be air cooled. BTW, if the pcb is the same then might not the vmods for the 9700 be applicable? Just thinking out loud.

hey this is a great thought! but the ram is different so that might be a problem but the core should wold fine(well it makes since in my head)

some one over @ rage3d did the solderless mod at xbit and he got glitches so he moved the resistor but he still got "checkers"(what there calling it over there) and some other people did the solderless mod and didnt get any checkers at all, so im just gunna do the solderless mod

 

[ataxy]

uh me noooooooooooooooo