Has anyone replaced soldered ram in rmbp

The rub here is you need the proper equipment to solder on the chips (on the other side) without messing up the other exposed components from to much heat.

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A coworker runs an electronics assembly lab with all the necessary reflow obens, is that the kind of equipment required?

Feb 15, 2015 by wayleth

You would be taking a big gamble here. I would strongly recommend you do some deeper investigating and research that this posting. You still need to find a source for the correct RAM chips and you will also need the other support components that are not present on the board. I would recommend you get a 16GB board so you can compare your 8GB board to. Once you figure it out take lots of notes and pictures so you can create a IFIXIT guide on how you did.

Feb 15, 2015 by Dan

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A coworker runs an electronics assembly lab with all the necessary reflow obens, is that the kind of equipment required? — wayleth
You would be taking a big gamble here. I would strongly recommend you do some deeper investigating and research that this posting. You still need to find a source for the correct RAM chips and you will also need the other support components that are not present on the board. I would recommend you get a 16GB board so you can compare your 8GB board to. Once you figure it out take lots of notes and pictures so you can create a IFIXIT guide on how you did. — Dan

Ken Mason @kenmason Rep: 1 Industrial Power & Microelectronics, L.L.C. 1 · Answer 1 · 2018-05-26T10:05:57-07:00

RAM chips on a Retina are difficult to source and not an economically viable undertaking - not even including labor cost / risk. Micron has a look-up tool online where you find mfgr part number by entering the bottom code on the FBGA. Google for sources of that mfgr part number and you'll find that 16 chip x ~$20 per chip buying in lots of 1-10 leaves you with another problem; if only you could somehow identify WHICH RAM chips are good still / which are bad. Trial and error / common sense (LOOK!, is there board flex? lose solder balls floating around?) / luck.

The required tools needed are (at minimum) Quick 861DW hot air rework station (because of the 1000W power rating). Micron's data sheet or someone else's spec on soldering temps curve (you can manually control temp curve against timer with). You need skill and practice and nerve. You need an underheater. Trial and error. Belief in yourself. Make your own flux out of Colophony /99% alcohol to the consistency you want; runny.

I would / could do it if it made sense - but a good replacement board can usually be had from ebay for less than chips cost. Weigh all the variables here and you'll see that it is a laughable undertaking under ANY circumstances that I can imagine.