Replaced retimer chip - video still dies

Hey guys,

I got two chips from 2 vendors on amazon. The first chip behaved like the OEM: black screen but console works, can hear menu sounds, can power off with long press and so on.

The second chip worked until the console got hot. Then it started flickering a black screen and eventually it stayed black. I though I didn’t do a good job soldering so I took it off and re-soldered it. Same behavior.

I have checked the HDMI out port and it’s in pristine condition. Components around look normal, no sign of liquid damage. The oem thermal paste was dry, but other than that nothing seemed burnt. I checked continuity across legs of all of those tiny components around the HDMI ports - all good.

I’m having doubt about it being a retimer chip issue. But I guess it is possible that I just bumped into 2 bad chips.

what do you guys think?