Can a broken pin on a rom chip be repaired? Or am I screwed?

Dremmel and small "ball mill" and diamond edged disc to cut between pins

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

Even if all you can get is a temporary pin connection, you could then read the rom contents with an eprom reader and then burn it into an equivalent eprom for use as a permanent fix.

If it's a plastic chip (not ceramic), it's pretty easy to scrape away enough surrounding the broken pin to provide enough metal to solder to.

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take a scribe or a small sharp tool and scrap back the plastic around the leg. there is a good chance it has a long run in there. scrap the exposed leg so that the surface will grab the solder.

What game is it? I'd be shocked if the ROM images aren't among the tens of thousands that are archived.

It's actually the sound rom from a conversion kit for the Star Wars game that lets you switch back and forth between Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back. I think it's a specially made rom that has sounds for both games on it. I'm not sure of the details here but it is labeled "SND 1 J/K". I can easily find the rom image for either Star Wars or Empire but since I think this is some combo of both I'm not sure. And the guy who makes the kits apparently isn't selling individual roms. I've written to him about making an exception but haven't had a reply yet.

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Hmm... Assuming the images of both games have the same size, you only need a double size EPROM. One address line to do switching between the games. Almost sure the guy that made the ROM did something similar. But if it is a custom made ROM you may need to do quite some reverse engineering to find out the pin assignment of the beast. Don't you have a schematic? That may help a lot.

Even if you succeed in repairing, I advise to find out the pin assignment and make a dump of the content. Repairs like this may last for years, but also may fail tomorrow.

petrus bitbyter

As others have said, you should be able to scrape back enough plastic to solder a thin wire to it. Solder the wire to it after the chip is in its socket if you can. That way the connection won't be stressed by it being inserted in the socket. A ceramic case will be more difficult, but not impossible.

If all else fails, you should be able to access the pin using some conductive paint. Then copy its contents to a new ROM.

There's always a chance the pin that broke off is unused, or not needed in that application. Andy Cuffe

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I did the same thing many years ago when i try to hotswap a asus bios chip. I broke one of the leg off the chip. Fortuanely, There's still tiniest metal on it and i was able to resolder the leg back. Here is what i do to resolder

First put the broken leg back to the socket( use tape if needed), Then put some tape to cover other legs( in case they get the solder.) and put the chip back Heat the iron , put some solder on the iron. The iron should have a bit solder on it. finally touch the leg with an iron to make the connection. And it's done

I don't know the size of your chip, but it works on computer PLCC chip.

Once you've fixed it stick it in a turned pin IC socket and use it like that.

Is it Clay Cowgill's kit? I'd be surprised if he won't sell you a replacement ROM but then I've heard of people having problems with him not being very responsive.

Yeah, it's his. I wrote to him a few days ago but haven't heard back. Possibly because of the holiday. But I've heard from several people that he's not answering e-mails much these days. Not sure why though.

Well if you can tack a pin on there for long enough to read the chip you should be able to burn a new one. Alternatively if you can find someone else who has that kit they could read the chip.

I found a couple people on one of the arcade groups who had the image file for this rom. So I'll be able to have my buddy burn a new one for me. Thank you all for your help!

Ouch. I've fixed such problems by using a really fine soldering iron tip & soldering a piece of wire-wrap wire to the stub of the missing leg. If absolutely neccessary, scrape away some of the body of the package with a very sharp blade.