motherboards power socket reapir on laptop

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote in news:3271315f-dff3-40a0-91e2-11829f986ea0 @i36g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

Buy a soldering iron that is the right size at radio-shack. Could be cheap, provided you practice, a lot, soldering on old PCB boards.

Fix your board yourself.

Use GOOD solder 63/37 NOT 60/40.

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bz    	73 de N5BZ k

please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an 
infinite set.

bz+ser@ch100-5.chem.lsu.edu   remove ch100-5 to avoid spam trap

Doesn't sound like you know how to solder at all.

Do a bit of Googling on soldering techniqes, you'll soon learn how to do it properly, and practice on a bit of scrap PCB if you can find any - you need to be quick and efficient to prevent damaging your motherboard further with excessive and prolonged heating.

Your idea of dropping a drop of solder just will not work - the basis of soldering is that you have to heat up both items to be soldered together to a temperature sufficient to melt the solder. Solder will not bond to a metal colder than its melting point, you will get what is called a dry joint or cold solder joint. You will be able to just scrape the solder off with your finger. You need to heat up both the component and the PCB solder pad simultaneously with the iron, then apply solder and let it melt over the entire joint area, then remove the iron and allow to cool.

If the solder pad is damaged, you may have to add some thin wire to effect a good repair.

Good luck, and DO practice first, trust me on that one.

Gareth.

60/40 is _bad_ solder ? 63/37 is _that_ much better? Or did you mean

40/60 which _is_ bad solder ?

If you're patient with eBay, you can get a Metcal in parts for

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote in news:0f0e8190-5002-4df7-a522-d77de45c1a20 @v1g2000pra.googlegroups.com:

Yes. It passes through the 'plastic' stage during cooling. Do NOT jiggle or you get a cold solder joint. It melts at a higher temperature. Harder to get melted and get good solder flow.

63/37 is _that_ much better?

Yes. Get a eutectic solder. [melts at the minimum temp for an alloy of those metals].

Or did you mean

50/50 is worse than 60/40 and 40/60 is even worse. [bad and good in relation to electronics usage. If you are a plumber, 50/50 might be better for your work.]

A GOOD, temperature controlled, soldering iron is, OF COURSE, better than a cheap iron.

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bz    	73 de N5BZ k

please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an 
infinite set.

bz+ser@ch100-5.chem.lsu.edu   remove ch100-5 to avoid spam trap

Yep, that's the way it's done and why.

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Forbidden
http://img.skitch.com/20080614-ra41s6rberibgxgmf6y9w8pa76.jpg

r 0 a

Once you do solder it successfully, I would use a glob of epoxy to help hold things together, not just depend on the glue to hold on by itself. Good solder bonds can eventually break if they are under a constant strain, the epoxy just might help lengthen your repair.

Bob Hofmann

Once you do solder it successfully, I would use a glob of epoxy to help hold things together, not just depend on the glue to hold on by itself. Good solder bonds can eventually break if they are under a constant strain, the epoxy just might help lengthen your repair.

Bob Hofmann

I use my hot melt glue gun a lot. They are cheap and the main advantages are that you can always peel away the glue if you need to, and it remains flexible to absorb shocks and allows things to bend rather than snap. Epoxy is pretty much permanent.

Gareth.

Superglue doesn't work with the plastic sockets. Use 24 hr epoxy (not the 15 minute crap), and let it harden for a while. Obviously, keep it away from the metal contacts.

Ok, it's arcing. What happened is that the wiggling of the socket created an annular ring around the solder pad. In some positions, there was enough of a gap, and enough current, to create a miniature arc welder. That sometimes destroys the board. See my photos at:

Sorry about the lousy focus job.

The problem is that the carbonized PCB material mixes with the solder when you try to resolder the connection. All you get is a mess. Take a sharp pin, awl, wire brush, screwdriver, scraper, whatever, and get as much of the carbon off as possible. Then solder.

You need an expensive iron with a small tip. Large tips are fine, but you have to work fast or you'll torch the connection. There are plenty of cheap, thermostatically controlled irons, with transmormers in the stand, thermistors in the iron, replaceable tips, and temperature controls. Consider it a good (lifetime) investment.

Glue it while it's open. Better yet, get a replacement connector. They're all over eBay:

Find someone who can solder to do this. The practice with a decent soldering iron and some junk electronics. When you figure out which end of the iron to grab, you're ready to attack the laptop.

Incidentally, I'm impressed that you're able to take it apart. That's generally not an easy thing to do.

Thanks. You should have mentioned that first.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Take the computer to a service place where they have the proper tools for soldering and they do this type of work all the time. This will avoid you from damaging the mother board. If you cause damage, you will need a new mother board!

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JANA _____

I'm not much of a solderer, just have a cheap soldering iron with a large tip. Is there a pretty much common method to repair this, I was thinking of dropping a drop of solder where the solder failed instead of finding somebody to repair it. Then putting the laptop back together and see if it works and do a re-superglue of the offending loose socket.

Thanks for any tips or suggestions. Tools needed, over my head in my abilities?

It's a compaq presario 1692

Thanks

(snip)

(snip rest)

The most important bit of all. The solder joint should NOT be expected to provide the mechanical support for the receptacle - only the electrical bond. If you glue it first (with a decent material, NOT a brittle "superglue" type) and THEN repair the solder work, you'll have a much greater chance of a long term result. Some glues applied after soldering will actually pre-stress the solder bonds and predispose the assembly to further failure.

I've repaired two different laptops of different manufacturers where both by design depended solely upon the solder to support the jack. They both got glued down with epoxy.

Baloney. Every single laptop I've repaired or inspected, has the solder leads and circuit board provide the only means of support. A few provide added protection in the form of a metal cover shield, such as the HP laptop in the photo:

I just ordered some connectors for a Compaq 1692 that also has a metal shield. The shield helps, but is not that common.

The most disgusting was some ancient laptop, that used a surface mount power connector with no holes through the board. The other connectors were attached the same way. They died in a few weeks, or when the owner tweaked the cords, whichever came first.

Incidentally, I have a pile of 12 laptops waiting for me to spend some time repairing them. Most have broken power connectors. Some have butchered power connectors where the owner attempted to repair the connector. It's a very common problem that would easily be addressed by a magnetic latch connector (as used by Apple) or mitigated by a right angle power connector, which would rotate rather than peel the connector off the board.

What would you recommend instead? I use 24 hour epoxy.

Huh? Most glues shrink, not expand when drying. What type of glue are you thinking of? The Duco and plastic model cement glues won't stick to the plastic. The Urethanes work as good as epoxy, but is not very good at gap filling or for non-parallel surfaces.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

I think we're on the same side, but seeing things from a differnt point of view.

Certainly the manufacturers rely only on the solder to provide the mechanical support - that is exactly why these failures are endemic.

One of my Acer laptops has a right-angle connector and has surviced for about ten years of in-vehicle use.

Yep, that's my preference if people have the patience.

It doesn't matter whether they shrink/expand/whatever, they invariably seem to cause some attempt at movement - and that applies mechanical stress to the solder bond. If you glue first, then solder, that issue is avoided.

Yea I took motherboard pictures and needed a small magnifying glass to get a remotely good picture.

Mine looks OK.

It still has solid solder, do I need to remove that, if yes any way of faking it.

Yea I found one. Well, not sure what it costs though. I've read about how they heat up.

Large tips are fine, but

Yea if I might just do that.

I might consider that in the future, the current one looks like its still viable.

As far as gluing, I got my question answered of doing it before soldering, as the connection might break and it's pretty loose to begin with.

I watched an amateur do this a few or more times.

The practice with a decent

I think I got past the wrong end part, more than a few times,

I might have some boards of this and that under the house crawlspace.

Thanks, I kinda looked at how it was put together, then thought how to do it in reverse. I just took my time, do a post or two on the usenet, get back to it. I took pictures through the process though.

I have looked for a motherboard for it, but no luck. I still might try this.

r 0

I have 60/40, will that work OK though? This computer is a 733Mhz processor so it's not modern.

a

Thanks for the replies to this post.

It still has solder there, do I need to remove it?

I'll post a few semi-viewable pictures.

or

er

/50

n a

Hi, here they are

It's right under L50, note the existing solder, I will try to clean it off. What is it called, from the solder in the first picture left of the L59, trace? Anyway under magnification that looks good. So would this be the only place that needs the solder?

Thanks for comments, suggestions.

Maybe. Certainly additional reinforcement would be helpful. But that will just create the situation I saw on much older (286/386/486) generation laptops with the big parallel port connector. The plug and cable was so stiff and the connector was certainly strong with all 25 pins soldered into the board. However, that didn't stop users from literally cracking the PCB with pressure applied to the connector. It wasn't until manufactories started reinforcing the DB-25S connector with a metal backplate, that the boards stopped cracking.

Again, I beg to differ. When I do an autopsy on a broken power jack, it's the plastic shell that usually fails, not the solder connections. I commonly see them with the metal contacts and leads intact, but the plastic shell totally destroyed. If the solder was weak, it would pull the contacts out of the board.

Well, now that you mention it, I have seen one Acer Aspire 3000 laptop where the connector lifted out of the board. However, it did that intact because Acer forgot to solder the connector. There was no solder on the pads.

I've seen adapters for right angle power connectors, USB connectors, and possibly some others. It's a great compromise. I just replace the power plug with a right angle equivalent, which is cheaper and easier (for me).

The right answer is Magsafe connectors:

I typically have a 3-4 day backlog. Tearing the laptop apart and putting it back together usually takes at least 1-2 days. Somehow, it always takes me twice as long to put it back together as it does to take it apart. Overnight drying is mandatory. By the time the customer gets it, the epoxy is dry. The trick is in the mixing. It has to be exactly 50-50 or it will either not harden or fall apart.

I have never seen that problem. Few connectors are flat on the PCB. There are usually tiny bumps or spacers under the connector to allow for flux removal. The connectors won't go through conventional hot freon or IR soldering processes, and have to be hand soldered. The bumps allow for some misalignment and movement. It might be a problem with some connectors that I've never seen, but for the typical laptop power connector, it doesn't matter. However, I will admit that I always reflow the solder connection after gluing, mostly to make absolutely sure I have a decent connection. That will take care of any real or theoretical tensioning.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

No. AFTER gluing the connector, and waiting for the epoxy to harden, hit all the solder pads with some clean rosin core solder until it reflows and is shiny. If inexperienced, practice with some eWaste.

Yep.

I haven't. I was holding the soldering iron in my mouth and managed to burn a big hole in my jacket.

Check the local eWaste depository.

Hint: The hard part is remembering where the screws go. That's why I take photographs with a digital camera. As soon as I get the covers off, I print the photos on my laser printer. I then circle the screws as I remove them. On Compaq hardware, which tends to use many different sizes and lengths, I place a 2nd copy of the print on a piece of styrofoam. I then shove the screws through the print, and into the styrofoam. No more guessing which screw goes where.

If it's only the connector, you're on the right track. No need to replace the board. However, if you have the time, I would replace the connector instead of gluing it. I only glue connectors on worthless laptops, or where the customer is in a big rush and can't wait a few days for the connector to arrive.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

view.

A DB25 is mechanically a different story entirely, and I don't believe you can apply the same results/observations to a two/three-pin power receptacle.

We clearly have very different experiences then. Almost without exception, the power inlets I have had occasion to repair have had the hardware intact and the solder bonds separated, often with evidence of significant arcing.

I've seen some evidence of very_poor attempts at soldering, but none to date of no solder.

Crikey, that's a lot of time to spend on each.

Yep, been using the stuff since the '60s.