Wave soldering machine - they basically suspend the whole board above a vat of solder, it bonds anywhere it can. So if they don't need that chip on this model, it's getting solder anyway.
There are other empty spots without solder on them tho
Anywhere that's not masked on the board will get solder. Anywhere.
Some IC's are electrically or thermally bonded to the board, e.g. MOSFETS and other power handling components, which is certainly what would have gone in this spot. The part where the MOSFET's heat spreader would touch the board is not masked, ergo it gets solder on it. Your other missing-chip spots definitely have solder on their connecting pads, where the pins for those chip(s) would go.
That's just how it works. This is not unique to ASUS or any other manufacturer.
They only put solder where some models need connections. Your cheaper model is missing some part.
Soldering the whole board would make it defective.
No I mean there are other marked spots with connections coming to them that are empty but devoid of solder. If they were coating everything in one go those would be coated too, no?
Edit: nvm
They should be. Are you sure it's not just a really thin layer on the smaller pads?
Wave soldering machine - they basically suspend the whole board above a vat of solder, it bonds anywhere it can. So if they don't need that chip on this model, it's getting solder anyway.
There are other empty spots without solder on them tho
Anywhere that's not masked on the board will get solder. Anywhere.
Some IC's are electrically or thermally bonded to the board, e.g. MOSFETS and other power handling components, which is certainly what would have gone in this spot. The part where the MOSFET's heat spreader would touch the board is not masked, ergo it gets solder on it. Your other missing-chip spots definitely have solder on their connecting pads, where the pins for those chip(s) would go.
That's just how it works. This is not unique to ASUS or any other manufacturer.
They only put solder where some models need connections. Your cheaper model is missing some part.
Soldering the whole board would make it defective.
No I mean there are other marked spots with connections coming to them that are empty but devoid of solder. If they were coating everything in one go those would be coated too, no?
Edit: nvm
They should be. Are you sure it's not just a really thin layer on the smaller pads?