Original subtitles

ASUS refused to fix this ROG alloy,

claiming that it had liquid damage. The

seller that sent this to me said that

there was never any liquid damage, but

he did try to make a few repairs himself

that didn't end up working out, which is

why he sent it to ASUS. In this video,

I'm going to take this apart, see if

there's any liquid damage, and see if we

can fix it. The viewer that sent this to

me said he tried to fix his micro SD

card. He tried to reflow the components

by applying solder paste flux and

heating it up. He then proceeded to

close everything up and turn it on. He

said that did actually work, but then he

restarted the device and it never came

to life again. ASUS said they wouldn't

fix it under warranty, but they would

fix it for $867.

I'm curious to see if there's any

evidence of any sort of liquid damage

once we get this opened up. Now, I don't

see any evidence of liquid yet. I can

see that this thing's been taken apart.

I started taking it apart already, but I

want to check and see if it'll charge

with an SSD installed. There's not

currently one there. So, I don't think

that matters. I don't think that would

keep it from charging, but I do want to

check just to be sure.

Storage device installed. Now, the thing

with ROG Allies is you have to cover

this sensor right here. This is a light

sensor, and that tells the system

whether the back cover is off or not.

So, I'm going to cover this, and that'll

make it think the cover's on. and then

plug it in and see if we get a charge

light. Okay, covering this

and

no lights, no nothing.

Doesn't power on. Just nothing happens

at all. It's like the battery's

unplugged, which I don't think it is.

No, it's not unplugged, but okay. So, we

need to take this thing apart further,

see what's going on on this board. Or I

mean, it could be just a battery issue.

I don't know. Let's take it apart,

though. and figure this thing out.

And with the battery out, still no

clues. Get this SSD back out and get the

thumb sticks and the boards off, the

fans out, and then we'll see if we can

see anything from there.

Okay, one thumb stick module is out. Got

to say, the seller of this seemed to do

a pretty good job overall. I mean, other

than the fact that, you know, it's not

working. But what I mean by that is

there's not a bunch of broken ribbon

cables or missing screws or anything

like that. So, really not too bad

overall.

This ribbon cable was unplugged from the

board down here. So, we'll need to make

sure and plug that in. Speaking of the

seller doing a really good job,

actually, I mean, it it's possible I

just pulled it out when I was pulling

that thumb stick out. Okay, there we go.

Okay,

so far

everything is looking just fine. I don't

see any evidence of any sort of liquid

damage. This is the SD card slot. So,

I'm guessing maybe the other side might

show us something.

Okay, now we need to unplug everything.

Power button. I've forgotten to plug

that in before. Okay, how we looking?

Okay, this seems pretty good.

And it is coming out.

Okay, and there we go. All right, now

let's see what we got for liquid damage.

So, right down here is the SD card area,

this whole area. And I can definitely

see

some kind of residue on this chip.

But other than that, like there's just

nothing. I don't see any like liquid

damage indicators or anything on this

board.

So, as far as I can tell, the only

reason they would say that there's

liquid damage on this board is because

there's a little bit of residue on this

chip. Let's get under a microscope and

take a closer look at this. Okay, so

this is the SD card slot right here, and

this is the backside of it. So, this is

why they were saying it's liquid

damaged. While I can say that there's

little bits of what looks like probably

flux residue, there's absolutely no

corrosion or anything like that on this

board. So, for them to say it's liquid

damaged,

I'm just not sure I'm on board with

that. Now, it is true that the person I

bought this from did mess with this. He

said he heated it up to reflow these

components, and that actually got the SD

card working, at least for a while. So,

I mean, technically he did mess with the

inside of it, but at the same time, I

can't say that I would say this is

liquid damaged. I can say there has been

some liquid on the board, meaning flux,

which is kind of like meant to be on

boards. I mean, at least enough for it

to do, you know, soldering and stuff

like that. Normally, you clean flux off,

but it also usually doesn't do any

damage for it to be there. So, tell me

what you think in the comments if ASUS

should have denied him a warranty on

this or whether you think they should

have went ahead and fixed it. Now that

we've explored that a little bit, we've

got to figure out why this thing isn't

working. One of the things I noticed is

there's this random capacitor that's

like

off center. Oh. Oh, that's like broken

off.

Okay. Um Well, I mean that could be a

problem. I mean, it also might not be,

but that could definitely be an issue.

So, the problem is that that pad

probably under there is probably torn.

That being said, we need to explore

that. I'm going to get a soldering iron

and see if we can just resolder this

guy. So, I'm going to come in just a

little bit of flux. That's just going to

help the solder flow. I've got our fume

extractor turned on. Our iron is nice

and warm. Let's see if this thing will

solder. So, if that pad is torn, there's

a good chance this isn't going to solder

down correctly. Also, how did this

happen? That's what I want to know. I

feel like I mean, obviously something

broke it off, but that's kind of

strange.

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. Okay,

that capacitor seems to have a broken

pad on one side. So, first thing we're

going to do is remove it. Try to remove

it without breaking the other side pad.

Let's get some flux on that thing. Got

flux on one side, but not really the

other side.

Not there.

Close enough. All right.

Now, we should be able to desolder this

side.

Just like that. Okay. Now, we can see

what we're working with.

Hey, let's try and put some solder on

that. See if it'll stick.

Okay, we got solder to stick there.

That's good news. All right,

let's try and restick this capacitor

back on here.

Yeah. See, there's something going on

with this thing.

It refuses to stick down.

Oh, actually, okay. Let me try my larger

iron. Maybe I can get

Maybe if we bring a little bit more heat

in here, that'll work.

Nope.

Okay. So, we got to figure out what's

going on with this board and why

nothing's sticking.

Let's bring some more flux in.

Okay, that that seems to be working fine

now.

Also, we got to get the solder off of

these pads that I accidentally soldered

together. Let's get some

get some solder wick on here. See if we

can wick wick enough of that up to get

it out of there.

There we go. Okay, now back to our

original project.

See, it looks like we've got solder

sticking there, but when I go to put

the capacitor on, it doesn't like it.

It could just have a broken capacitor,

too. That is always possible.

Ah, got it. Okay, that took a while.

Let's make sure that's nice and strong.

Yeah, we're good. Okay, I'm not sure why

that took so long. It just didn't want

to stay on there. But sometimes that's

just how it is. So,

I checked the capacitor to make sure it

wasn't broken. I checked the pads to

make sure they were good. That's why I

knew it was just a matter of time and

trying to get that thing on there

correctly. Now, is that the only problem

with this motherboard, though? That's

what we got to figure out. Let's take a

look at the rest of it and see if we can

find anything else wrong. Okay, on the

screen now is a major problem. I'm going

to give you a second to see if you can

find it.

It is right here. We've got a completely

blown capacitor. It blew out the side

right there. Maybe more, but for sure

this one. That tells me that there was

probably a lot of voltage that went

through this, which tells me that

somebody who took it apart probably

bridged two points that weren't supposed

to be bridged and caused a voltage spike

that blew out this capacitor.

Now, it is possible that that capacitor

is the only problem on this board, but

it is also possible that voltage went

through this capacitor and into other

chips on this board. And if that's the

case, this board might be toast. But I

think what we should do first is replace

this capacitor and see if that takes

care of the shorts. So, what I'm going

to do is remove this capacitor. Then I'm

going to get a capacitor from a known

good board. Now, before we solder on a

new capacitor, let's see if our short is

gone. If the short is gone, there will

not be no beep. If we hear a beep, that

means the short is still there.

Okay, that's great news. So, let's

install a known good capacitor.

And with that capacitor replaced,

let's see what happens

when we put our probes on here and see

if it's shorted.

320 ohms on one side and 1 ohm on the

other side. That's about what it should

be. So, I feel like I haven't I don't

see any other problems on this board.

So, I think now is the time to put this

back into the handheld and see if that's

all it takes to fix this board. Okay,

now we just got to get this motherboard

fitted in here. It's almost where it

needs to go. It's not quite down in the

slots. This ribbon cable needs to be

What are we doing here? There's a little

bit of damage on that cable. I don't

think it's enough to cause a problem.

Okay, I'm going to plug the power button

in before I do anything else because

I've forgotten that before and it really

threw me off.

Okay,

let's get a few screws in.

All right. Now, we need to make sure all

the buttons and everything are lined up

and clicky.

Yep. Okay. Everything's good. Now, I

just got to get the rest of these ribbon

cables in and screws in. And then we can

put the thumb sticks in the fan and heat

sinks and the battery.

Okay, so we've got this all back

together. The next move is to reconnect

the battery and hopefully nothing

explodes. Here we go.

Battery

plugged in.

Okay,

no smoke. Don't see any problems there.

All right, let's give it a test. Okay,

my finger is over the optical sensor.

Let's plug it in. Oh, we got a charge

light.

That is great news. So, I'm going to let

this thing charge for a little bit. I'm

going to get the back cover on and then

we'll test it after it's fully charged.

But first, let's just try and press the

power button again and see what happens.

It just turned on. Okay, I'm still going

to get this fully charged. I'll put the

back cover on and then we'll test it

again and make sure it all works. I

can't believe that just turned on. Let's

get the back cover on.

There we go. Now, this didn't come with

the original SSD. I'm using a

replacement, so I don't know. I might

have to install some software onto this.

Okay. And we are in recovery mode. Okay.

I'm going to get the software loaded on

and then we'll start it up again and see

what happens. Right. And we're almost

done downloading. Just a little bit more

and then we should be able to start this

thing up. And there we go. Windows is

installed and this ROG Ally is now fully

working. Let me know in the comments if

you think ASUS should have taken this in

for a free warranty repair or whether

you think they did the right thing by

declining it. If you like this type of

video, you'll probably like the video

where I've bought eight broken handheld

PCs to see if I could fix those. I'll

put a link for that video up on your

screen now so you can come hang out with

me over there and see if I could fix

them. Thanks so much for watching today

and I hope you have a good one.