Question Short Between 1.8 V and Ground

[Epprot]

Hey guys, I'm pretty new to Wii portablizing and am building an Ashida. Today I wired up VGA and went to test it only to find a short between 1.8V and Ground. I've disconnected 1.8 from the PMS-Lite and looked around but can't seem to find the short anywhere. Any ideas?

 

[Luigid]

Hey guys, I'm pretty new to Wii portablizing and am building an Ashida. Today I wired up VGA and went to test it only to find a short between 1.8V and Ground. I've disconnected 1.8 from the PMS-Lite and looked around but can't seem to find the short anywhere. Any ideas?

Check that solder ball on the 1.8V LDO.Check that solder ball on the 1.8V LDO; it could also be the regulator itself. Try desoldering it and taking the measurement again.

 

[Epprot]

I desoldered everything connected to the wii and cleaned up the blob on the LDO as well as some other points but the short remains

 

[Archoni]

make sure there arent any shorts on the edges of the trim, look closely

 

[Luigid]

I desoldered everything connected to the wii and cleaned up the blob on the LDO as well as some other points but the short remains

One final test is to remove the LDO completely—it might well be the culprit; if you have a bench power supply, you can apply voltage to see if it heats up.

 

[YveltalGriffin]

Just checking... what's the exact resistance you're measuring between 1.8V and GND, with nothing else connected to the motherboard?

Continuity mode can be deceiving on some multimeters. ~36Ω between 1.8V and GND is normal.

 

[Epprot]

One final test is to remove the LDO completely—it might well be the culprit; if you have a bench power supply, you can apply voltage to see if it heats up.

If I remove the LDO would I need to get a new one or something? I only have a PMS-Lite so I can't use it in place of the LDO.
Unfortunately I don't own a power supply either.

Just checking... what's the exact resistance you're measuring between 1.8V and GND, with nothing else connected to the motherboard?

Continuity mode can be deceiving on some multimeters. ~36Ω between 1.8V and GND is normal.

The multimeter says 0.1Ω so I don't think that's the case.

 

[Kowabungus]

make sure there arent any shorts on the edges of the trim, look closely

gonna piggyback off what Archoni said a bit
those board edges look a little blunt, I'd suggest to resand at a slight angle so that you can see a clear distinction between the layers all around the board like this:

Can be achieved working through grits 180-> 320-> 600 -> 800 -> 1000+ for example. I personally like to sand up to 2k grit, probably overkill but comes out really smooth and easy to see. Also be sure to tape up the cpu/gpu/ram before, and clean really thoroughly after -especially the sanded edges.

Hopefully this helps solve the short!