Rolo’s electronics projects has an interesting technique for Desoldering an SMD IC with a Candle. This is not the correct way to remove this type of chip, use some hot air instead. He didn’t have any of the proper tools at hand and needed to get his Siteplayer up and running. A trip to the local computer shop scored him some over priced antique computer cards which had the surface mounted chip that he suspected he needed. The defective chip on the Siteplayer was removed one pin at a time with a soldering iron so that the board would not get damaged but this bends every pin of the chip being removed. Since the donor computer cards were only being used for the single chip a non-standard candle method was used to remove the chip, I am surprised at how well it worked!
Once the newly harvested chip was installed the unit worked! This is hack that MacGyver would be proud of.
