Minimum tools/skills required to deal with BGA mounted chips/components?

Life Technology
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So I’m just curious, what kind of tools/skills does one need to deal with BGA chips, like removing or replacing one? I don’t think I’m going to go deal with them, but I’m just wondering what do I need at the very least, and how do I make sure that the stuff is actually electrically connected properly without burning up the chip? How fine of a line is there between soldering it and burning the chip? Seen a few videos on this and they make it look easy.

One video I’m watching they’re using leaded solder, as it melts easier than lead free solder. I’m not sure why so much emphasis on lead free solder because if they only used leaded solder, the defect rate on them would probably be next to none.

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Issues over toxic lead in PC components.
I believe the EU has outlawed lead in such components.

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you can find videos on YouTube with folks doing it with hot air. Doable sometimes, if there’s no underfill, might be worth trying for something you own, but I wouldn’t sign up to do it that way for money.

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I’ve removed VRAM off an obsolete GPU before using a heat gun. I don’t think this is the hard part.

The hard part is getting it on and off without destroying the chip, and I heard the line is very fine… like literally 10 degree more than solder melt temperature and you kill it.

So I am sure I’ll need more than a heat gun.

I just watched a video on upgrading the SSD on a macbook pro. They underfill the HECK out of it. They are so anti repair that they will make it hard even for experienced tech to do it. I think they’d epoxy pot the whole thing if there was no cooling consideration or anything else (basically if they could) just so that not even Apple could fix it.

This is aside from all the software/firmware crap they put on the memory chips so they won’t even work unless you are able to reprogram it.

Safe to say I won’t be owning Apple devices. I’ll probably practice on obsolete motherboard or GPU that’s known to be good.

I was hoping marco would weight in as he seem to be an electronics guru.

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underfill is to protect the joint from mechanical stresses so that repairs are not as likely to be needed.

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Or they could just stick a M2 slot in the board so you could use standard SSD and not be stuck with inadequate storage until you buy a new macbook. That and have firmware on a separate ROM chip or something.

I mean used to be changing storage or RAM wasn’t a big deal on laptops and now they’re all soldered and underfilled to heck.

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You can buy hotplate gadgets that will solder a properly-bumped BGA on a PCB with perfect solder paste application, but why on earth would you want to do such a thing? With 200-400 pins, it’s hit-and-miss at best. If it’s a laptop/gadget repair, get it done professionally.

These things fail in the first place because BGAs are basically a bit shit. Even with ideal conditions and good process control, the concept is inherently flawed.

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Supposedly because they had a choice between qfp or bga and bga allowed looser positional tolerance compared to qfp. Why can’t they just surface mount a pga package? Easier to inspect for one.