There's three ways to remove the soldered on chips. Desolder, heat gun, or grind them off. The beat-it-to death-with-a-hammer routine won't do you much good in this case. I don't know how to desolder, and my attempt to use a heat gun only blew up a neighboring capacitor. So I use a Dremel tool with a cut-off wheel. Wear safety glasses and a dust mask if you go that route. And don't purchase a cheap Harbor Freight Chicago brand knock-off rotary tool. They don't last. I found that out the hard way.
The ones that are soldered on the same side where the chip is can be removed with a wood chisel. Make sure you know where both hands are or you can wind up with stitches or scraped knuckles.
I only do this on low grade boards. Removing them from higher grade boards will devalue the boards







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