Reconnecting lots of fine leads ...

"Hamad bin Turki Salami" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@Spam.aol.hotnet.ibm.net...

Assuming that the joints have just fractured, and the underlying print has not detached from the pcb substrate, then you would deal with refixing them in the same way as you would any s.m. high pin density chip. The trick is not to worry about the pins shorting together during the resoldering operation.

You should first use a good quality solder wick to remove existing solder from the tops of the connector pins. Then, treat the connector pins to a coat of liquid flux. Next add solder to the pins, using the finest gauge of solder that you have, and the finest iron tip. Always pull the iron tip back away from the connector whilst the solder is molten. This, plus the action of the liquid flux in assisting good joint wetting and hence capillary draw of the solder into the joint, will go a long way to stopping the solder running across multiple pins, but you will probably still get some cases. DO NOT worry about these at the time, just finish the job.

Finally, check carefully with a strong magnifier, to locate any solder blobs between pins, and remove these by quick use of clean good quality solder wick, applied to the vertical faces of the shorted pins. When you are happy that the blob has gone, clean up the flux residue using a proprietry flux remover and an old toothbrush ( try it out on the toothbrush first - some cheap ones are made from plastic that disintegrates when the flux remover is applied ).

I would suggest that you practice first on a scrap board, but if you can solder in the first place, and use the right kit, you will find it an awful lot easier to do than you imagine.

Arfa

"Hamad bin Turki Salami" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@Spam.aol.hotnet.ibm.net...

If you're not experienced at this sort of work, take it to someone who is. Such an expensive item is not the best place to learn such skills! If any tracks are damaged you're looking at a new system board, but if it's simply a case of resoldering, try to find somone who's experienced with board-level laptop repairs and get them to do it. It should be much cheaper than $600.

Dave

Well, given my skills, carrying this out was like a 400 lb man running a marathon. I am astonished, but I actually finished and it fixed the laptop.

The scariest part of this was seeing all the excess solder after soldering the connector back on the board. The pins are only 1/2 a millimeter apart and I made quite a mess of it. Probably a fourth or a third of the pairs of adjacent pins were shorted initially. It took me quite a while to wick up that solder.

Thanks a lot for that advice.

Glad it worked out for you. As with a lot of these things, the main ingredient is confidence ! Well done.

Arfa