NerdQaxe++ Repair - These Boards Keep Dying

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Here we have a Nerd QX++ that came in for repair. We worked on a similar unit not too long ago. And let's see if this one has the same issue or a different issue. Customer said it's not powering on. He's local. He dropped in locally.

[00:00:18]And I told him I'll do my best.

[00:00:22]Let me just remove this module sitting right here.

[00:00:30]Just take it out.

[00:00:33]Disconnect any cables.

[00:00:39]And for now, I do not need to remove the fan or heat sink.

[00:00:44]Even though it's a little bit awkward working on it like this, but what can you do? I like to make my life harder.

[00:00:56]Why go the easy way when you can go the hard way, right? No, I'm totally the opposite. I go the easy way.

[00:01:04]I worked hard enough throughout my life.

[00:01:09]Now it's all about working smart and not hard.

[00:01:14]All the knowledge I accumulated throughout the years help me to fix devices faster. And that's how you are efficient and that's how you make money. If you have experience and you can finish the job quicker, you get paid the same amount of money. But if you finish the job quicker and you want to charge less money because it's taking you less time, then how does experience pay, right?

[00:01:39]The only way experience pays is when you get the job done faster. You still got paid the same amount of money, but you do it a lot faster. Instead of taking you 3 hours to troubleshoot and fix, it takes you 5 minutes. Now, the board is not even. So, we are looking at the board at an angle. Some components are going to be in focus. Other components are not going to be in focus.

[00:02:05]Now, I've worked on a similar board before, exactly the same device, and I know exactly where to measure meter and diode mode. And I want to test.

[00:02:19]And look at this. We have a short circuit right off the bat, just like we discovered with the other cord.

[00:02:27]Is the fuse good?

[00:02:30]And the fuse is good. Why should the fuse blow? Right? Just blow out the board and the fuse remains in a good condition.

[00:02:40]It's not blown.

[00:02:43]The fuse is used for a different purpose on this motherboard.

[00:02:47]But I'm not the designer of this board.

[00:02:50]I do not know I do not know the ins and out of how this board works. But right now, we do know that we have a short circuit.

[00:03:01]What we're going to do is inject voltage and see what gets hot on the board.

[00:03:09]Let's see if we can get this board fixed in 5 minutes.

[00:03:15]Okay, so we're going to go under the thermal camera. We're going to inject voltage at the diode.

[00:03:23]And look at this.

[00:03:25]That's awesome news because I do have that chip from the last time that we fixed a similar board. Yeah, we got it.

[00:03:39]I have spare chips from the last order for a similar one. Amazing. So, that's the chip right here. That's what's causing the issue. Just going to mark it. Or it doesn't matter. It's the last chip on the left.

[00:03:57]We have plastic here. So, we need to be careful. We do not want to melt this plastic. We do not want to expose those caps to heat because they're going to pop.

[00:04:07]And when they pop, what's going to happen?

[00:04:10]They're going to aim for the pupil of the eye. They do not miss. They aim straight for the pupil. I know those caps.

[00:04:20]I've worked with them before.

[00:04:22]I taught them lessons many times, but they do not listen. So, we have to be careful. Let me put air flow down.

[00:04:30]And we're going to take it slowly, nice and gentle.

[00:04:37]And we're going to point air away from the plastic and away from the caps.

[00:05:04]That plastic is feeling the heat.

[00:05:07]So, we have to be careful.

[00:05:12]Or what we can do. I think the last time I heat it from the bottom.

[00:05:17]Maybe I should do the same here because the plastic here is starting to feel the heat.

[00:05:22]I'm going to ask Big Buzz to remove the heat sink. Disassemble the board from the housing. And I'm going to apply heat from the bottom so we can safely remove the chip. All right. So, we have the board only. Now, I can heat up from the bottom because guess what? There's nothing on the bottom. Only few SMD components, no plastics. So that's what I did. I forgot that I did this in the last one that I worked on. So to be on the safe side, we're going to hit up from the bottom. It's going to take more time when you hit up from the bottom, but that's the safe way.

[00:06:00]It looks like these boards are failing because of the same issue, short circuit.

[00:06:08]And working on replacing this is not considered easy because of how the board is laid out.

[00:06:17]Right now I'm at an awkward position where hot air is on bottom of the board.

[00:06:23]I'm waiting for the board to get saturated with heat so solder can melt.

[00:06:29]And any slight shake you will knock off like 10 20 components.

[00:06:37]Right now I can feel the heat.

[00:06:42]Heat is pushing sideways and I can feel it on my hand. But who cares about my hand, right?

[00:06:53]One hand burns, we have another one.

[00:06:56]They want to get the job done.

[00:07:04]I had a burn on my hand and it was in one of the videos and I still have that mark.

[00:07:10]It's been like a year. I still have that mark. I'll show it to you.

[00:07:16]But I need to remove this first. You see how much heat it takes.

[00:07:20]We do not have the heat sink. We do not have the housing. And still it's taking a long time for the board to get saturated with heat.

[00:07:29]I'm pointing hot air right under Okay, let's hit while the iron is hot. We're going to apply solder. We're going to tin the pads.

[00:07:59]Now if you look on the bottom here 2 4 six six pins are connecting as one. The top six pins are connecting as one. So it's okay if they bridge.

[00:08:20]Now I need to look for that chip.

[00:08:24]95472.

[00:08:27]What did I tell you? I do have it. I ordered like 10 pieces cuz I know we're going to get more of those devices.

[00:08:47]And just like that, I need to put some weight on the board, otherwise the board is going to fall off because half of the board is extending beyond my bench. So, I cannot lean my wrist on the table on the bench. My wrist is up in the air.

[00:09:07]I'm going to have to suffer for like a minute. But what can you do?

[00:09:14]What's suffering between friends, right?

[00:09:41]All right, I'm going to press and hold.

[00:09:59]And we are good to go.

[00:10:15]Okay. So, we are done. Let's go ahead and clean up.

[00:10:19]And I was working like this with my palm up in the air. I cannot rest it on the bench because the board is extending beyond my bench. So I cannot lean on it and I cannot lean on the table. And that's the burn mark I have from about a year ago. I still have the mark. The hot air station, it touched my forearm by mistake. And I have it on one of the videos. I forgot which video. At that time it was not showing. And then it got worse and worse and worse. And then it started to heal.

[00:10:53]Skin peeled off and new skin. And I still have that mark.

[00:11:01]The scars of work of war. War or work.

[00:11:07]The scars of micro soldering.

[00:11:12]When my wife want to pick up a hot pot, I tell her I'll do it. I pick it up with my fingers.

[00:11:18]And she's like, "How did you do it?" She has to wear the gloves to pick it up.

[00:11:25]I told her, "Heat is my middle name.

[00:11:31]I work with heat every day.

[00:11:37]Sometimes I'm soldering a component and I can feel the heat going sideways on my hand and I continue working until that component is soldered. I do not want to remove my hand and do the job again.

[00:11:53]Just like when I pick up the groceries from the car, I pick up like 20 bags at once. I'd rather break my hand than make two trips.

[00:12:04]What can you do?

[00:12:07]Let's measure for a short circuit again.

[00:12:11]Meter in diode mode. And we're going to measure right here. And guess what? We do not have a short anymore. We are reading 0.4 voltage drop. And we did it.

[00:12:23]We're going to call the customer to come and pick up. He's local. That's the component that we replaced. I hope you enjoyed the video. Let me know what you think of it down in the comments. Don't forget to like and subscribe. and we'll do something else in the next video.

[00:12:43]>> Alex brings the circuits pulse to life.

[00:12:47]Cutting through the static and the strife.

[00:12:51]Northridge Fix has got the power flow.

[00:12:55]Better than the factory, you know. The factory, you know.

[00:13:09]In the valley where the circuit sleeps, a whispered legend that the thunder keeps. Northridge fix the power and the glory. Rewriting destiny's broken story.

[00:13:22]Better than factory.

[00:13:25]Oh yeah. Better than factory.