A Nintendo Switch typically displays a blue screen only when charging or powering on. This often occurs when the device is bent or warped.
Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)
The frame is often bent.
A BSOD on the Nintendo Switch usually indicates that the CPU or memory cannot communicate properly with the rest of the motherboard, often due to cracked solder balls or broken traces beneath the chips. The motherboard is very thin; even slight bending can cause solder balls to crack or traces to break. Next, we will try to identify which part of the board has the crack or faulty solder joint.
Inspect the motherboard for bending, especially around the CPU or memory areas.
If the chip area appears bent or warped, try pressing down on the chip with your finger while attempting to charge or power on the device. If the Nintendo logo appears, you know the issue lies with the chip you just pressed. Note that you may sometimes need to apply pressure to both memory chips simultaneously to get the logo to appear, particularly if the bend in the motherboard aligns with the memory chip locations.
If the Nintendo logo still does not appear, try using a hot air station set to 150°C–200°C to heat each IC for about 10–20 seconds, then attempt to power on or connect the charger to see if the logo shows up. Be careful not to damage the plastic frame or the LCD; if the board is still inside the frame, use only low heat for a short duration.
Now that we have identified the chip causing the BSOD, we can determine the best repair method for your specific situation.
Reflow:
Reflowing the solder beneath the problematic IC is undoubtedly the simplest solution, though it is often temporary. However, if you lack the knowledge, tools, or experience to perform a full reball, a reflow is a good option. Keep in mind that reflowing does not guarantee a fix, especially if there is trace damage.
First, remove the motherboard from the housing. If the shield covering the CPU and memory hasn’t been removed yet, release the clips around its perimeter to take it off.
Next, use isopropyl alcohol to clean off the old thermal paste covering the CPU. If you leave the old thermal paste on, the reflow process will be uneven—especially when reflowing a CPU rather than a memory chip.
Apply a ring of flux around the CPU or memory chip.
Set your hot air station to between 375°C and 450°C with moderate airflow; remove the nozzle tip, and begin heating the CPU or memory area using a circular motion.
Continue heating until you can gently nudge the IC with tweezers, causing it to shift slightly and then snap back into place; this indicates that the solder balls underneath have fully melted and re-bonded.
Remove the heat source and allow the motherboard to cool, then clean off any residual flux using a solvent (such as isopropyl alcohol).
Once the board has cooled, reinstall it in the casing and test whether it boots up without a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). If a BSOD still occurs, the issue persists; you should proceed to the reballing steps described below or attempt to reflow the chip on the opposite side of the board.
If the system boots normally without a BSOD, proceed with full reassembly, ensuring you apply fresh thermal paste between the heat shield and the CPU, as well as between the heatsink and the CPU heat shield.
Reballing is slightly more challenging, but if done correctly, the problem should not recur unless the motherboard is subjected to excessive stress again. You will need a reballing stencil for this; for CPUs, a stencil with a magnetic base is recommended to keep components properly aligned while applying and heating the solder paste (as shown in Figure 3). RAM ICs are easier to reball and can be handled using a standard flat stencil without a magnetic base.
If you haven’t performed the reflow process yet, be sure to remove the motherboard, take off the heat shields covering the CPU and memory, and thoroughly clean the old thermal paste off the CPU. Take a photo or note the orientation of the chip before removal so you know the correct alignment when reinstalling it on the motherboard.
Just as with reflow, apply a ring of flux around the CPU or memory (depending on which IC is the issue).
Set your hot air station to 375°C–450°C, remove the nozzle, and use medium airflow to begin heating the area around and on top of the chip you intend to reball.
Continue heating until the chip shifts slightly when nudged and then settles back into place—indicating the solder balls have melted—then use large tweezers to slowly lift the IC off the board.
With the IC removed, carefully inspect the board for any torn or loose pads. If you find any, you will need to run a jumper wire to restore the missing pad.
Fortunately, most pads prone to tearing on the Switch motherboard have traces connected to them that are easy to trace from the pad’s location.
Follow the trace to a secure section, then scrape away the coating until the copper trace is exposed.
Solder a jumper wire or a soldering lead to the exposed trace and route it to the location of the missing pad beneath the IC you just removed.
Cover the exposed trace with UV-curing mask to rebuild the pad area, and use a UV… Use an external light source to cure it.
To re-ball the chip, first apply some flux, then use a soldering iron with low-melting-point solder to coat the IC pads, aiming to make the height of the pads as uniform and low as possible.
If the low-melting-point solder alone isn’t enough to flatten the solder on the chip, use a desoldering wick to thoroughly flatten all the pads after applying the low-melting-point solder.
When using the wick on the chip, be very careful with the pressure applied by the iron, as the IC pads are easily damaged. You should use the wick so that it barely touches the IC—applying just enough pressure to remove excess solder and flatten the pads.
Once the pads are flattened, clean the IC thoroughly with isopropyl alcohol and a cloth. Then, place it into the stencil base (if using the magnetic stencil shown in Figure 2) or position the IC on a folded paper towel or rubber base, place the stencil over it, and ensure the stencil apertures align with the IC pads.
Apply solder paste (medium- or low-temperature type) evenly across all the stencil apertures, then scrape off any excess paste remaining on the surface of the stencil.
Using a hot air station with a medium-sized nozzle, set the temperature to 350–400°C and the airflow to low or medium. Begin heating the perimeter of the stencil using a circular motion, then slowly move the hot air over the solder within the stencil apertures. …solder paste, until all the paste has turned into solder spheres.
You may need to apply pressure to the top of the stencil to prevent it from deforming. Once you have reballed the IC, you need to prepare the board to reinstall it.
First, apply flux, then use a soldering iron and low-melting-point solder to flatten the pads on the circuit board—just as we did when preparing the IC for reballing.
You will likely need a larger soldering iron tip than the one used for the IC itself, because the motherboard acts as a large heat sink; smaller tips lack the thermal capacity to melt the solder effectively, especially on ground pads.
After applying low-melting-point solder to all the pads, use a desoldering wick and the iron to flatten the pads completely.
If you aren’t comfortable using the iron directly on the wick, it might be easier to heat the wick with hot air and then—while continuing to apply heat—drag the wick across the heated pads like a brush.
Clean off the flux residue on the board left over from the desoldering process.
Apply a very even layer of flux to the pads (heating the board before applying new flux helps it spread more uniformly).
Now that the motherboard is ready and the IC(s) have been reballed, we can place the reballed chip onto the board, making sure to align the orientation mark correctly. …into position.
Once again, take the hot air nozzle—set to low-to-medium airflow and a temperature between 375°C and 425°C—and begin heating the area around and above the IC using very slow, circular motions. Continue until a gentle nudge with tweezers causes it to snap back into its proper place. You can usually tell when the solder balls have melted and the chip is correctly positioned by watching the flux beneath the chip begin to “pulse” at the edges. As the solder melts and bonds to the motherboard, the chip is pulled toward the board, compressing the flux; the heat from the hot air causes this flux to create a “pulsing” motion along the bottom edge of the IC.
After the motherboard has cooled and all old flux has been cleaned off, plug in the power to verify that the issue is resolved and the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) no longer occurs. Next, reapply thermal paste to the top of the CPU, replace the protective covers over the CPU and memory, and ensure a fresh layer of thermal paste is applied between the CPU shield and the heatsink.
If you are still experiencing BSODs, it suggests the chip may not have been reballed correctly, other ICs might have issues that weren’t addressed, or there could be torn or loose pads that were missed. In rarer cases, a faulty eMMC can also cause BSODs, though the culprit is usually the CPU or memory.
