Don’t use a hot air station on soldered RAM unless you’re ready to lose the board.

You’re right—the risk is very high. Hot air can easily damage the motherboard, nearby capacitors, resistors, and even the RAM itself. The soldered RAM (especially LPDDR) is often glued down with underfill, so just heating it won’t pop it off cleanly. You end up cooking the board, lifting pads, or bridging solder balls under the chip. Even experienced repair shops brick boards this way.

If you absolutely need to try, you’d need a preheater, proper flux, and precise temperature control. And still expect a failure rate above 50%. The average laptop with soldered RAM is not designed to be serviced—it’s designed to be replaced.

Better to buy the right RAM config upfront. This is not where you save money.