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One memory card slot not working after soldering to mother board

The slot for the second memory card on the motherboard adjacent the two main chips and the heat sink fan is not working - I had an overheating problem, got a new main heat sink assembly and fan and soldered a jumper wire and loop across HS2 on the board from the top. The original card in the second slot (adjacent the heat sink devices and the HS-2 slot) did not work when I restarted the machine; removing that card allowed the machine to boot up and operate, although slowly (with only 256 MB). I replaced the original and second cards with Kingston 1-G cards, but the second card slot does not work either. Nothing looks amiss from above. Could my soldering the jumper across HS2 have goofed up something under the motherboard, or is there likely another problem? Please advise on analysis and repair. Thanks.

SOLUTION

Frosty555

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Patent_Atty_Chgo

ASKER

The HS2 pins are a good 3/8 to 1/2 inch or so from the memory slot. I used a very small soldering iron with a pin tip, so unless solder ran beneath the board I can't imagine there was damage by heat; the initial melting of the HS2 pin connections was likely as hot.... I did not use a heat sink on the board, but tinned the wire ends and the sockets to minimize heating duration.

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PCBONEZ

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nobus

did the seconfd slot work before you started? if not, it may just have been bad all the time...

Patent_Atty_Chgo

ASKER

The full memory, both cards, was fine before the system overheated and pulled out the heat sink loop at HS2 on the motherboard. I replaced the main heat sink and fan and soldered a jumper wire across the HS2 contacts as suggested in previous posts; when the system started up again I got the memory error message, and that cleared when I removed the card in the second slot. So it was either the system heat or the soldering that disabled the memory slot - a new 1G memory card also did not work when the system started up, but the system works fine with no card in the second slot and a 1G card in the first slot. Any ideas? The motherboard must be removed from the case to see the underside - a major undertaking....

nobus

it's the only thing to do : inspect your work closely, and double check for shorts; clean it out also (maybe debris fallen in to it..)

Patent_Atty_Chgo

ASKER

Yes, I worry about where the original 2-pin and loop device at HS2 has gone to - can't find it anywhere in the case! Thanks.

SOLUTION

nobus

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Patent_Atty_Chgo

ASKER

A local technician has advised that 1G of memory is plenty unless I'm doing video editing or such, so I'll not worry about the 2nd memory slot. Thanks!

nobus

that depends on the OS you use; with XP i agree ; but with Vista 2 Gb is suggested...

Patent_Atty_Chgo

ASKER

Based on what people say, I'll stick with XP for as long as possible! Thanks again.