Retimer chip replaced, still no dice

Xbox One Questions Xbox One X
1

I’m probably just going to have Shanefix deal with this but the long and short of it is I replace my retimer and the situation is unchanged.

I realize there are a few possibilities and I don’t particularly love any of them. My observations are as follows:

The retimer chip had a slightly different code printed on it than the original. The G4 in the bottom right was the same and I think the TDP158 on top, but the middle numbers were slightly different. I realize it’s possible the retimer chip I put in was faulty, but maybe I put in the wrong type of chip?

Also I find myself wondering if I put it in right . Everyone seems to just drop the chip on top of where the old one was, but how do you align this properly? Just sort of eyeball it? I find myself skeptical I didn’t screw this up.

Then there is the possibility that the retimer wasn’t the problem in the first place.

If there are any relatively easy checks I can do I might give it a shot, but I’m probably going to just ship it off.

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As far as I know TDP158 is the only number that matters. Thats the model number. The orientation of the chip matters, just make sure you have it turned the right way. As far as alignment goes, you can just eyeball it. Make sure its as close to centered as you can get it.

You might check the filters that are between the HDMI port and the retimer. They have 10pins, 5 on each side. The two middle are ground. If these don’t have continuity through the filter then they need replaced.

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make sure every every connection point on the chip is correctly soldered, i usually had that issue on my first times replacing that kind of ic’s…

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How do I do that and what am I looking for? Is it the leads from the board and the leds on the side of the chip? Are they supposed to be lined up? Because they’re not. That much I could tell under a magnifying glass, they’re staggered. I thought that might be a problem, but I couldn’t imagine how simply eyeballing it from above ever led to properly aligning those chips in the first place.

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they have to be aligned and also well connected… you need a microscope for that, a magnifying glass is not enough…

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So how are people doing this? All of the videos I see people just eyeball the connection and try to get it vaguely in the middle.

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i haven’t seen anyone doing this whitout a microscope, i can assure you everyone here fixing this uses a microscope, but i could be wrong… check this video… it’s same procedure…

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We’re talking about the retimer chip, right? The section you sent me was if I’m not mistake, the hdmi port?

I didn’t try to replace the hdmi port if that’s what we’re discussing.

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first part of the video he replaced a retimer chip…

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So they’re not just eyeballing it, the video just doesn’t show how they line it up. I have good enough magnification to see, I just didn’t realize that was what I had to be doing. It’s just you can’t really see the metal leads from above. I just can’t see how anyone is actually lining anything up.

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when you melt solder on pads there is a surface tension created between ic and board so the ic aligns itself, obviously you need a lot of experience to do it like he does it… and also you need proper tools as a good microscope… when i started on this (as a hobby) my day 1 tool was a microscope, i tried to start without it and i got stuck since the beginning…

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Ah that explains it. I remember when I first put the chip on it felt like it was orienting itself a little, but it didn’t look right so I second guessed it. Eventually I think the solder hardened too much. Thanks. I’m going to give it another go getting the chip in the right place.

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