The 'just solder it' crowd has never worked on a多层 board with buried vias

I run into this all the time on forums. People see a bad cap and think a fresh solder joint fixes everything. Last Wednesday I had a guy argue with me for 10 minutes about reflowing a chip on a 6-layer board. He said I was making excuses. I told him to come watch me trace the internal ground plane that delaminated after heat stress. Has anyone else had to deal with customers who think microscopes and thermal profiles are optional?

2 comments

2 Comments

sullivan.finley1mo ago

Damn, did you end up fixing that laptop board or did it go in the trash?

lee721mo ago

Used to be one of those "just hit it with the iron" guys myself until I tried fixing a laptop motherboard with buried vias. Completely ate my lunch. Had to eat crow and admit multi layer boards are a whole different beast. Now I tell people straight up that if you can't see the trace and don't know the stackup, you're basically guessing. Heat guns and solder can make things way worse when you're dealing with hidden layers.