Sega Naomi IC pins repair by Aryssor

I obtained and Naomi mobo from eBay that arrived with some damage to one of the ICs. It was powering up, but showing only a black screen. Upon close inspection It looked like something had been dropped on it and had broken some of the pins.

Here's what I had to work with:

In order to repair this I opted to remove some of the IC cast and solder wire directly to the exposed traces. There are other ways of doing this such as conductive pen/epoxy bridge, however this is what I had to hand, without anymore outlay, and what I believe to be the most reliable connection.

I very carefully exposed the traces using a Dremel grinder bit, like these (on the left) mounted in a drill press for steadyness:

I didn't eat all the way to the traces using the drill, I got as close as I was comfortable with, then used a surgical scalpel to carefully scrape away the last little bit

Just to illustrate the scale...

That's a 0.5mm pencil lead!

A giant pound coin!

To bridge the exposed traces on such a small area, really the only option is Wire Wrap (commonly known as Kynar Wire).

This is basically a single thread of hairline-thin conductive insulated wire - find it on eBay by searching for 'Kynar'.

I first prepared the traces by brushing on some solder flux (it's important to buy non-acidic NOT the kind plumbers use).

Again, this is commonly available on eBay. I use an old model paintbrush to paint it on...

Dealing with such small component areas, I went for a U-shaped application, otherwise the wire gets hot very quickly and the insulation burns off, very difficult to work with.

First soldered to the PCB...

...then folded over with tweezers, one at a time and soldered to the exposed traces on the IC.

I finished the repair off by adding a nice blob of hot glue to protect it and make it permanent (sorry I have no pic of this! Just imagine a big blob of glue over the repaired area).

Fired it back up and hey presto!

Naomi Mugti (sic) System bios? Mmm nice...

And with a proper bios in...

There you have it. Hopefully this mini-guide is of use to those of you with similarly damaged PCBs and a steady hand.