Re-capping went.. well? Impossible! :P

[mikebdub]

I re-capped my Dell Inspiron 9200 today and it went 'OK' I guess.. I had no problems getting the old ones out, but I did have a bit of a time with clearing the holes. I have soldered before, but not very much so I was not expecting the computer to even work by the time I was done! Got the new caps in even though my soldering was not the most beautiful but she booted right up! I really have no faith in my soldering abilities, but something must have gone right or I am pretty sure she would not have even started up. I have been running Prime95 for 2 hours now and all seems well.. Are there any ways to 'test' my soldering connections on the caps while they are on the board?

[LDSisHere]

Re: Re-capping went.. well? Impossible! :P

Congratulations on getting your computer working again. It takes a lot of effort to replace MB capacitors it can be very discouraging if it fails to work. There may be others that can give you better advice than mine however I will give you my 2 cents. If you gently try to rock the capacitor with the tip of your finger it should firmly resist movement. When you are doing this you should observe the leads where you soldered them and you should not see any movement. On my first few attempts I would get the capacitor leads hot enough for the solder to bond to them but not the motherboard because it was not hot enough. The result looked like a lollypop, in other words a ball of solder on a stick.

[Agent24]

Re: Re-capping went.. well? Impossible! :P

Upload a photo of your soldering, it should be obvious how good they connections are