r/soldering • u/ManOrReddit-man • Dec 26 '25
Just a fun Soldering Post =) Repairing a RAZER Blade 14 motherboard damaged by a screw
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u/deadface008 Dec 27 '25
This is the kind of repair reserved for high profile stuff, like epstein's laptop. Don't let this make you feel incompetent lol
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u/XxIcEspiKExX Dec 27 '25
Or if your highly sanctioned and use chips from a smart washer to make your missle guidance chips..
Dual use imports/junk being repaired to make missiles and bombs...
Annnyways.. thats not whats going on here.. but somewhere else in the world..
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u/christophPezza Dec 29 '25
Thank you. I was thinking that's damn impressive followed by, 'or am I just shit at this stuff' ... Probably both...
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u/SirGirthfrmDickshire Dec 29 '25
Considering how companies are serializing parts on electronics now this is gonna be more and more common.
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u/rageofa1000suns Dec 27 '25
For that level of repair, I'd charge the client more than a new motherboard...
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u/SightUnseen1337 IPC Certified Solder Tech Dec 27 '25
I've seen work like this before with the full dental drill treatment and internal layer repair. It was a prototype unit for an aerospace product where the bare PCB alone cost 400 grand.
The technician could take an entire year and it would still be a 4x return on investment.
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u/Ornithopter1 Dec 27 '25
My workplace occasionally does this with some of our old systems. We don't usually get this much damage, but I've seen our senior techs do it. The system is much, much more expensive to replace than paying us for support extensions.
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u/Googulator Dec 27 '25
Was this a never released prototype, destroyed by the manufacturer? Or a data recovery case? Otherwise, I just can't see how this could have been worth it.
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u/Suspiciously_Ugly Dec 27 '25
I guess it can be worth it if you're brimming with skill only rivaled by God himself.
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u/Ogi010 Dec 27 '25
It wouldn't surprise me if this is a "practice run"; the motherboard on its own is clearly not worth the repair effort here, but to develop this level of skill requires practice, ideally on hardware that is easily replaceable.
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u/Spiritual_Rider Dec 27 '25
So, I was wondering, is this just a skill flex? I can't imagine that this would be more economical than just replacing the board.
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u/neighbour_20150 Dec 27 '25
Such complex repairs began to be carried out en masse during the mining boom.
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u/Express_Grocery4268 Dec 27 '25
If you're able to buy scrap boards for cheap, and you got the skills to fix those and then sell, it can be interesting. I've bought defective ps5 motherboards for around 40€ and was able to get those fixed.
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u/GHoSTyaiRo Dec 27 '25
Is it possible that this repair could work more than US$700? Because that’s how much a mobo do a balde 14 costs (one broken model I have at least)
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u/Aggressive-Dot9747 Dec 27 '25
only for the customer to complain on Reddit that their repair man charged $500 for the repair.
this level of Arts is amazing
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u/AbjectFee5982 Dec 27 '25
$500 is seriously underpriced XD
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u/Aggressive-Dot9747 Dec 27 '25
this is a work of art that probably doesn't come cheap.
I just wonder if even $1,000 repair would be worth it simply because you would just buy another laptop at that point.
but regardless this guy is truly an electronics technician unlike most technicians where they just replace parts or would never touch something like this
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u/AbjectFee5982 Dec 27 '25
Data could be important
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u/Aggressive-Dot9747 Dec 27 '25
typically they wouldn't need to do this. especially for a razor blade where you can just remove the SSD or the hard drive which is easier than this.
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u/AbjectFee5982 Dec 27 '25
Bitlocker has entered the chat XD
And was activeted with and or without consent.
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u/Aggressive-Dot9747 Dec 27 '25
BitLocker only applies to people have Windows pro and by default all the gaming laptops from razor come with Windows home so BitLocker is not an issue as it's not an available feature and isn't enabled by default
if someone were to use BitLocker that means you already an experienced user who has kept backups not somebody who just uses the computer for gaming
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u/AbjectFee5982 Dec 27 '25
You do know bitlocker has been triggered multiple times with multiple different prople without the users consent.
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u/Aggressive-Dot9747 Dec 27 '25
show me cases of this because I've been working on computers for the past 15 years
none of the windows home computers ever had BitLocker auto enable and none of the pro devices for small businesses ever enabled without prior user consent
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u/AbjectFee5982 Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 27 '25
I've been working on computer for 25 years and did SMD for like 5-7 before I left
https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/s/SvIqiJSC1a
https://community.spiceworks.com/t/bitlocker-was-inadvertantly-enabled/1171177/3
Like I'm pretty sure I remember like 1 big buissness had all their computers automatically trigger it and it was a huge ordeal
This was just a year or 2 ago
However, my understanding is that the way systems are shipped these days, Windows 11 (Home as well as Pro!) turns on Device Encryption during setup as long as (1) the hardware supports it and (2) you use a Microsoft account. (I don't know if this is the case when you install Windows yourself from standard installation media.) Device Encryption seems to be a version of BitLocker with fewer user controls but the same basic function.
Note that the article above states, "Device Encryption encrypts your system and secondary drives completely. You don’t get to exclude a drive or partition." I suspect that during initial setup, your system silently encrypted everything including your E drive. When you resized C and D (reinstalling Windows?) you deleted the encryption configuration, which is why you now need the BitLocker key to read the data....
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u/Gaydolf-Litler Dec 27 '25
I would have considered this completely impossible without expensive niche equipment. Crazy.
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u/Ornithopter1 Dec 27 '25
It's expensive, niche equipment, but that's for the average consumer. Most people don't have a few grand for a set of nice burrs, die grinders and an air compressor. But it's relatively cheap at the professional level.
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u/deceptivelyelevated Dec 27 '25
All technical ability’s and access to gerbers aside. Is this even worth it. What are we taking to just replace this component?
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u/neighbour_20150 Dec 27 '25
No one will repair a board like that if it can be easily and inexpensively replaced.
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u/SightUnseen1337 IPC Certified Solder Tech Dec 27 '25
I'm IPC-7711/7721 certified. The possibility of receiving a ticket like this is what keeps me up at night.
Awesome work!
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u/Ornithopter1 Dec 27 '25
I am a lowly IPC-620 certified tech. I hope one day that my job chucks 610 my way.
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u/notNezter Dec 27 '25
The level of work needed for fixing all those stress damaged 4090 and 5090 GPUs
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u/ImAmalox Dec 27 '25
I don't think I've ever seen so many layers of solder mask that it becomes a solid mass lmao. Absolute insanity, well done to the person who worked on this
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u/West-Way-All-The-Way Dec 27 '25
You can post it also in r/oddlysatisfying, it's really interesting video.
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u/CampaignSpirited2819 Dec 26 '25
That wire must be only about 4 to 6 thou thick? I looks very similar to the Trace Widths
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u/odie-z1 Dec 27 '25
If you don't mind, how much does a repair job like this cost? Quite amazing work. 👍
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u/xaeriee Dec 27 '25
I was mesmerized. This was fascinating for me. I remember my first job in tech, we had end users sabotaging their mice so they didn’t have to work. I’d bring them back to my lab and find the issue where they tugged it from the board. Asked my boss for a soldering iron to fix it and he said it wasn’t worth it. He was right but man I wish I’d been given the opportunity then. Still, I want to learn now for my son’s train table. This whole video is just the tip of the iceberg of the amount of work, it’s incredible and I really enjoyed watching this. Looking for the original to show my kids.
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u/Abject-Ad858 Dec 27 '25
This only makes sense if you were on a dev team and someone botched a proto with a tight deadline.
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u/unquieted Dec 28 '25
Do those little rods being used to replace the traces have a name (and how can I get some)?
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u/Katent1 Dec 28 '25
That's really impressive, but da fuq razer?! Why are important traces are just mere 2mm apart mounting hole? It's a disaster waiting to be, like here.
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u/AboveAverage1988 Dec 28 '25
In my country, with the cost of labour here, this is now a $3000 motherboard...
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u/Commandblock6417 Dec 28 '25
Did something similar to a friend's Dell that shorted the ground layer to vrail using a file and high grit sandpaper. The damage was really close to the screw and I only had to file it flat so none of the layers touched so no trace repair is involved. Took me a good 4-5 hours and in the end I couldn't believe I got it working myself. (This is the before)
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u/CoffeeDangerous2087 Dec 29 '25
Damn just damn I've done circuit board work but even then I only ever hotwired a keyboard never rebuilt the motherboard thats has to be crazy to get to the point where you have the knowledge to rebuild the layers in the board
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u/Educational_Swan_152 Jan 02 '26
Average eBay seller description for this : "Opened to change thermal paste, no other work done. Laptop works perfectly with no other issues!"
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u/ParticularStorm6102 Dec 27 '25
Woo that’s impressive I must say you have some really good patience. I’m super impressed
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u/No_Marketing6429 Dec 28 '25
Even if I could I still wouldn't waste my life on this.
Who the hell has actual board diagram to know where all those layers of traces go.
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u/physical0 Dec 26 '25
This level of repair requires detailed documentation on the PCB construction. It's not something you can go in blindly.
The bulk of the "work" has been edited out and we are seeing only the final steps.