Chip-Level Repair Lab
Interactive blueprint boards. Click any part to see animated multimeter probes move to it and measure it. Press โก Power-up to watch the power sequence flow through the board. Choose Simulate fault to practise finding real faults, then use ๐ฅ Inject voltage to see the shorted part heat up. โถ Auto demo plays the whole diagnosis like a video, with captions.
How to use each board
Click a part โ choose a โ| diode or ฮฉ test. The red probe goes to GND and the black probe to the test point. 0.000 = short.
Watch each rail light up in order. The current graph shows what a bench power supply would show. The first rail that fails is where the fault is.
Choose a Vโ test after power-up. The black probe goes to GND and the red probe to the rail.
Pick a fault, find it with the meter, then open Show answer & fix.
๐ท Diagnose a real board
Take or upload photos of the faulty board, enter the model number and the complaint, then follow the guided checks: look first โ power-OFF component tests โ power-ON voltage checks โ repair. Upload a photo and press ๐ง Scan photo for chips: the lab reads the chip markings, tells you what each chip is, how to check it, and what board this is. Type each meter reading and the lab tells you whether it is good, and what it means and what to check next if it is not. โถ Animate checks on photo shows where to put the probes on your own photo. For an AI opinion, ๐ Free AI writes a ready prompt for free ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek, Grok, Copilot or Perplexity (no API key, no cost) and turns the answer into the same step cards. New here? Read the ๐ Manual.
1 ยท Job details
2 ยท Photos
๐ Free AI โ Claude, ChatGPT, Geminiโฆ (no API key, no cost)
Complaint in the prompt: โ (change it in the Complaint box above)
- Copy the prompt the lab wrote for you:
- Open a free AI chat (each button copies the prompt again and opens the site):
Paste the prompt (Ctrl+V), attach your board photos (๐ or +) in the same order, and press Send. - When the AI answers, press the copy button under its reply, come back here and paste it in this box (Ctrl+V):
๐ Sign in to your free AI accounts (do this once per browser)
Sign in on each AI's own website with your email, Google or Microsoft account. Your browser remembers it, so the buttons above open the chat already signed in. The lab never sees your passwords. Free plans have daily limits โ if one AI says "limit reached", use another one.
See the prompt text
โ Settings (shop name, server sync, paid API)
Photo viewer
๐ Click the photo to mark a test point.
Chips on this photo
Jobs
๐พ Save keeps jobs in this browser. โ Save to server shares them with all your shop computers and phones (set the PIN first โ see ๐ Manual โ Admin). โฌ Export makes a backup file.
๐ User manual
How to use every part of the lab, step by step: from a photo of a dead board to a found fault, a replaced part, a printed report and a job every shop device can open. Also: the tools and spare parts to buy, and the admin guide for your server (files, PIN, server sync, updates, troubleshooting).
Real multimeter & component bench
A realistic 3ยฝ-digit manual-ranging multimeter (DM-9205 style). Turn the dial by clicking a range label, clicking the knob, or using the mouse wheel on it. Pick a real component, then a test step: the probes move to the right pins and the meter shows what a real meter shows โ including โ1โ = overload when the range is too low, and fewer digits when it is too high. Switch to โ Faulty part to see bad readings.
Range scaling (ฮฉ example)
Rule: start on a HIGH range and turn DOWN until just before โ1โ appears. That range gives the most digits.
Complaints library โ fault types
Every common complaint for laptops, desktop boards, SATA SSDs, NVMe, RAM and HDDs, split into its real sub-types. Each one lists the checks in order: meter mode, where to probe, the good reading, and what a wrong reading points to. Where a simulator exists, practise that fault on the board.
Multimeter & circuit basics
Try the meter on example parts, learn the diode-mode scale, and watch a buck converter and a MOSFET test in motion.
Meter playground
Diode-mode reading scale (red probe on GND)
Buck converter: how every rail is made (animated)
Phase 1: the high-side FET is ON and current flows from VIN through the inductor. Phase 2: the low-side FET is ON and the inductor keeps current flowing from GND. If the high-side FET shorts, VIN reaches the output and damages every chip on that rail.
MOSFET test: step by step
Meter
All types: SSD ยท HDD ยท laptop
Every drive or laptop type uses the same circuits as the boards in this lab. Use this page to identify what is on your bench and which board simulator applies.
SSD types
HDD types
Laptop board types
CPU / GPU / BGA rework (animated)
A CPU or GPU die cannot be repaired. The chip can be removed, reballed and re-soldered, or replaced. Press play to watch the whole process.
Steps
Is it the CPU or the board?
- Measure VCCIN/VCORE to GND (ฮฉ and โ|).
- Socketed: remove the CPU and measure again. If the short is gone, the CPU is bad.
- Soldered: inject 1 V. If the CPU package heats up evenly, the die is shorted.
- Check the tiny caps on the CPU package first. One shorted cap is common and removable.
Temperatures
- Preheat bottom: 150โ180 ยฐC
- Lead-free melts ~217 ยฐC, peak 235โ245 ยฐC
- Leaded balls: peak ~200โ215 ยฐC
- Use a thermocouple next to the chip
Socket & package faults
- Bent LGA pins: missing RAM channel, no POST
- Cracked BGA: works when warm or pressed
- Reflow = temporary test; reball = real fix
- Replacement chip: same part number/stepping
Fault finder
Answer the questions with your meter readings. Every result can open the matching fault on a board simulator.