Soldering a socket on your board

Mainboards where the BIOS chip is soldered onto the board (and not in a socket) are usually problematic for coreboot developers and especially users, as one incorrectly flashed image will render the board unusable.

Requirements

• A board with soldered-on (PLCC) chip
• Soldering iron
• A PLCC socket (SMD type)
• Desoldering station or heat gun
• Tweezers
• ...

• 

  ...

• 
• 

  ...

• 

  ...

• 

  ...

• 

  ...

• 

Preparation

• Take a picture of the board and ROM chip. You might need that later in order to add the socket in the correct orientation.

Desolder or cut away the ROM chip

• 

  ...

• 

  ...

• 
• 

  ...

• 
• 

Clean the pads on the board

• 
• 

Prepare the PLCC socket

• 

  ...

• 

  ...

• 

  ...

• 

Solder the socket onto the board

• 
• 

  ...

Resources

• HOWO: replace a PLCC chip with a socket "ghetto style" (Tutorial for doing this without desoldering station by cutting the chip)

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.