anything wrong with this?

[dood]

I'm sure the suggestions are going to be not to do it, but is there anything wrong with just ripping the caps off the motherboard without desoldering them, then soldering the new caps onto the legs that stick off the board from the old caps?

Just curious...

[willawake]

Re: anything wrong with this?

because it is ghey

[dood]

Re: anything wrong with this?

yes, that is very adult and moderatorish of you.

My issue is that I'm afraid I'm going to kill the board doing this project, as I've never tried to solder multi-layer boards before. I'd rather it look like crap than kill the board. And if it works just as well....

[willawake]

Re: anything wrong with this?

seriously though, you have to be careful with the soldering iron on the front of the board, might burn something useful. it is not going to be easier that way. yes you would minimise possibility of damaging the lead port but it is going to look sloppy. it is already proven that beginners around the world can do it the proper way. you will have to leave a longer lead on the cap and it is better to have a shorter lead for best performance.

what is the board and your equipment? we can help you every step of the way. recap something else first like a dead board or a network switch etc, get used to the technique. i only busted one board an asus s478, it was difficult to get the solder to melt in a few positions. other boards, a few i did real sloppy evening jobs and was fine.

[willawake]

Re: anything wrong with this?

after you learn to recap you will be invincible

[dood]

Re: anything wrong with this?

Thanks for the response. The board is a Gigabyte GA-7VKML, and there are 6 caps to replace, all around the motherboard. It's not going to be a huge loss if I kill the board, as we've been throwing them out up 'til this point. I finally just decided that I wanted to try a recap. The board belongs to the school that I work for, but I paid for the caps out of my pocket because they didn't want to try with their money (a whole $10.60)

Anyway, the caps should be on their way, as I ordered them on Wednesday, I think. My equipment consists of a standard soldering iron, some thin solder, and some solder wick. I've never used the wick before, as I've never had to desolder anything. But that's about it for my limited resources

[willawake]

Re: anything wrong with this?

what is the wattage of your standard iron? is it grounded? you will wear antistatic wrist strap while you work. you will test the iron to remove caps successfully from a trash board without excessive length of heating to see if it is sufficient.

6 caps is not a big job. what other brands of caps are on the board? the board is still posting right?

some like solder wick but i do not. better to use a sewing needle held in an electrical block to clean the holes. you will need a board holder, two big wood clamps upside down on the desk are nice.

you will add solder to the pads on the back of the board before you start to wiggle the caps out. try heating and wiggling one side and then the other. do not force the caps out. ensure that the holes are clean with the needle before you put the new caps in. they should fit easily no pushing. then you solder them on the back of the board, this is easy, just need to heat the lead and pad and close the hole.

make sure you put the new caps with the same polarity as the old ones. trust the old caps orientation not the board stencil.

[dood]

Re: anything wrong with this?

I've got a 15 watt grounded iron. ratshack special. Don't know the other brands of the caps, as I'm not sitting in front of the board right now. One board still posts, but only one cap is visibly bad. The other board doesn't post at all, but all 6 GSC caps are pushed up and leaking. Maybe I'll try removing the caps from the board that doesn't post before trying the board that still works. My plan is to replace the one cap on the good board for starters, just to make sure that I can do it and still have it post, then do the rest once I've confirmed that.

[willawake]

Re: anything wrong with this?

15 watt is probably too low. see how you do on the no post board but if you have to heat so long your hand is tired then it will not be ok.

[Topcat]

Re: anything wrong with this?

Funniest thread EVAR!

[willawake]

Re: anything wrong with this?

Funniest thread EVAR!

aw jeez the boss is here. its friday night i cant make some jokes?

i wanna see dood recap the board successfully. it is scary yes but so damn satisfying when it posts.

[kc8adu]

Re: anything wrong with this?

get a good iron and do it right.
if you can talk the school into giving you the boards rather than trashing them you might make enough off them to pay for the tools and then some.
and what the hell is ghey?

[Topcat]

Re: anything wrong with this?

LMAO Will.... I was laughing half way through it.... If it weren't a somewhat serious question, I'd move it to the lounge.......but atleast the thread starter got his question answered and maybe laughed at a little...

[willawake]

Re: anything wrong with this?

and what the hell is ghey?

ghey; it means more gay than gay (not the homosexual kind, the lame kind).
Dana: You're gay.
Melanie: You're g-h-e-y ghey.
Dana: *cries and trips over rock on floor and falls on face and the rats attack her, then the pigeons attack her and cries some more*

http://www.urbandictionary.com
good reading for over 30

get a good iron and do it right.

this is gonna be the problem here. need a good iron or it will be difficult. even a corded but at least a 40-60w

[davmax]

Re: anything wrong with this?

Hi Willawake and Dood.

It does seem that Dood is not well equipped to remove the caps. A 40W+ solderin iron at preferably 800F is required. I find it difficult propping up the mother board and working on both sides and with a needle (needle method requires a hot iron). Working from the back of the board (facing upward), heating each cap lead in turn with the cap body grasped (from now the underside) and moving the cap from sided to side gently with the heating of the leads to ease the cap out.
Once the cap is out use the soldering iron and a solder sucker together on the back of the board to remove solder from the hole. If a hole is difficult do not continue with the solder sucker but use the needle method of for those better equipped, clean out the hole with a 0.8mm drill.

Is it worth it for Dood? There needs to be some investment in better tooling or borrowing some. Perhaps more boards can be renovated if investing more to get it right.

Willawake. Did you get your caps successfully?

[willawake]

Re: anything wrong with this?

Willawake. Did you get your caps successfully?

no i have been totally occupied with accountancy progs and simulating the closing year on new system win2k and data on samba server. figured it out though today yessss! i am invincible. jeez i hope they give me some good amount of the profits i saw for comps next year. i am so close to having it like i want.

[Newbie2]

Re: anything wrong with this?

Ripping the badcaps off the board and soldering the new cap's leads on the old ones!

Not a good idea. Make sure dood gets a soldering iron that's right for recapping.

[arneson]

Re: anything wrong with this?

soldering the new cap's leads on the old ones!

You may find this humorus but to be fair I admit to sometimes replacing components this way. Usually diodes and in a situation were the bottom of board is potted or otherwise not accessable.

[AK0R]

Re: anything wrong with this?

You may find this humorus but to be fair I admit to sometimes replacing components this way. Usually diodes and in a situation were the bottom of board is potted or otherwise not accessable.

There's a difference. First, you're doing it that way out of necessity, not because of concerns about being able to do the job correctly. We have all learned to do it, and soldering/desoldering are not hard skills to learn. Second, with a through-hole device with exposed leads (like a diode), you can clip the leads close to the board, leaving just enough to attach the new part, with little or no effect on performance. Radial lead caps, properly mounted, don't provide access to the leads (between the cap and the board), and in order to have enough space between the cap and the board for soldering, requires long leads that are great for picking up stray or induced voltages. Also, tearing the old part off the board, even if the leads are left behind, can cause mechanical stresses and broken traces. A broken trace at a pad is a bitch to detect, and may be difficult to repair, but a broken trace on an inner layer is usually unrepairable (unless you can find a through-hole via for a jumper) and renders the board useless (except as a source of parts).

Dood: Much better to go slow and take the time to do the job right. After you've done a couple successfully, you'll find out what works, what doesn't, your confidence in your ability goes up, and you're able to do a recap quicker and with less effort, because you're past the learning curve.

[dood]

Re: anything wrong with this?

Nothing like laughing at a newb to make you feel better about yourself, eh guys? My thanks go out to the people who've made useful posts.