Killed my OLED

Slowly but surely getting my micro-soldering skills... acceptable. Unfortunately, I suck at using solder wick. After messing up my first job, and replacing my dat0 connection, I popped off the clk and cmd connections. Silly me, trying to clean up the board first, and solder got on that huge (base? plate?) part that helped to hold the X1's frame on the board (under the bit that you cut off to gain access to the clk point). Cleaning that up was very hard, and I ended up exposing some of the ground plane around the clk point. I spent a whole week, taking my time with scratching and applying solder mask, until I could get a solid clk connection. cmd was easy. But... The Switch was dead when I put it back together and tried to apply power.

Found a soft plastic bottle with a needle tip to match, and squirted a bunch of IPA under the X1 chip. A sliver of solder wick came out. Not seeing anything else wrong, I can only assume that the tiniest piece must have caused a short and fried the X1 chip. Damn shame, as I'm positive the wiring I repaired was perfect :(. Guess I have a buttload of spare parts now... and a long wait to see another OLED Switch on the shelf...
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KleinesSinchen
That is depressing.
As much as it gives a good feeling achieving a hardware modification, one has to consider the risks. I personally tend to only try hardmodding stuff of low financial value because I know my skills are limited.

Is ordering a new motherboard a worthwhile option here? (Never had a Switch and know nothing about it)
 
urherenow
KleinesSinchen said:
That is depressing.
As much as it gives a good feeling achieving a hardware modification, one has to consider the risks. I personally tend to only try hardmodding stuff of low financial value because I know my skills are limited.

Is ordering a new motherboard a worthwhile option here? (Never had a Switch and know nothing about it)
Click to expand...
Nah. Per-console keys means any save data and such I've transferred onto that device is lost. Any boards that would be for sale are not new; just removed from a Switch. And the prices... best to just get a new one and have the old one for parts.
 
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KleinesSinchen
urherenow said:
Nah. Per-console keys means any save data and such I've transferred onto that device is lost.
Click to expand...
I didn't think of data when asking about another motherboard – just of reusing all the not damaged parts. Should have read a bit more in the last few years… but meh… no own interest in Switch. Didn't Nintendo offer "Cloud backup" (probably as part of paid online services)? 3DS at least stores saves on SD making backups possible without CFW (if the games are not using Anti-Savegame Restore) – but a motherboard swap would be the end of previous data as well. Since Wii U: No more simple backup options without CFW.

Nintendo won't sell motherboards, so of course the only source are used boards. But I have no clue about the prices. Switch OLED is pretty new so there won't be many offerings.
 
urherenow
KleinesSinchen said:
I didn't think of data when asking about another motherboard – just of reusing all the not damaged parts. Should have read a bit more in the last few years… but meh… no own interest in Switch. Didn't Nintendo offer "Cloud backup" (probably as part of paid online services)? 3DS at least stores saves on SD making backups possible without CFW (if the games are not using Anti-Savegame Restore) – but a motherboard swap would be the end of previous data as well. Since Wii U: No more simple backup options without CFW.

Nintendo won't sell motherboards, so of course the only source are used boards. But I have no clue about the prices. Switch OLED is pretty new so there won't be many offerings.
Click to expand...
Game saves aren't stored on the card, and if you installed games on the card you still need your console's keys to decrypt it. Seeing as how I bricked it before being able to get CFW on it, everything is useless as far as data. No biggie (other than the waste of $$ and the use of a pretty screen) as I still have a launch day Switch, so I'm not missing out on anything while I wait to get a new OLED.

In my situation, portable gaming is king, and Switch is the king of portable gaming right now. Plus I've been with Nintendo since the 8-bit, so Metroid Dread has been causing me to trash some pro controller analog sticks (at least those are easy to replace)... lol
 

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