Did you ever wish that there was an easy way to replace bad DRAM chips in DIMMs? Probably not, since it’s a lot more fun to just blow more money on another kit, but HardwareLuxx has spotted a neat tool that’s used by manufacturers to quickly and elegantly swap out DRAM modules on RAM sticks for testing purposes. This particular model demonstrated here is employed by Japanese RAM module manufacturer Century Micro, which relies on the hardware for identifying defective memory.
こんな感じで取り出します☝️ pic.twitter.com/YPFtorjbwR
— センチュリーマイクロ株式会社【公式】 (@CENTURY_MICRO) March 4, 2022
Curiosities from the net: Test module enables DRAM chips to be replaced (HardwareLuxx)
- A clamping device made of aluminum is used here, which is clamped around the PCB or the DDR module. Where the individual DRAM chips are located, there are openings into which the individual chips can then be inserted. The chips are pressed onto the contact points of the PCB via flaps with the associated negative portion for the openings.
- Century Micro appears to use the testing module to identify defective memory. A defective DDR3 or DDR4 module does not mean that all the chips on the module are no longer functional, but that individual DRAM chips can also have defects.
- It would be interesting to know whether the memory manufacturers use such equipment to bin the memory chips before they are soldered onto the PCB.