Capacitor leads that won't come out..

[Solder Boy]

Hi well I ended up killing a perfectly good P4 motherboard today...

It had a whack of blown caps by the CPU socket, everyone came out except for this pain in the butt. The one lead busted off the capacitor and was stuck in the hole.

I tried using the iron and small tweezers to try and get it out to no avail.. even tried adding fresh solder and trying to get it out that way with my solder puller.

Anyone ever had this problem? What did you do? Thanks!

[gdement]

Re: Capacitor leads that won't come out..

I've had it happen, but was always able to get it out with pliers.

If that cap is in parallel with others, then you should be able to live without it as long as you can keep the total capacitance up near where it should be. Just use bigger caps in the remaining spots, and also be mindful of the combined ESR (which is divided by the number of caps installed).

If you see any unpopulated positions nearby then check with a multimeter, they might be on the same circuit as the one you lost.

If these are Vcore caps, then the loss might not be critical if you aren't running the top-end processor. Something with less current draw, higher voltage, or broader tolerances won't be as demanding from the caps. Also using lower ESR than the originals can reduce the required capacitance, at least on Vcore.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Capacitor leads that won't come out..

I agree with gdement.

You can also try using a stainless steel needle + solder iron heat to push it out.

If you abandon the spot then make sure you clean the area up well.
Don't leave any surplus solder to short traces.
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[Huckfinn]

Re: Capacitor leads that won't come out..

Solder Boy:

You do not indicate what type of soldering/desoldering tool[s] you are using. Not to be a funny man, but your name being what it is, you may want to try using soldering and desoldering equipment made by Hakko [or Pace if you like]. You should then not have any problems removing caps from motherboards. Check out their respective web sites. They make awsome soldering/desoldering tools. I especially like Hakko. They are pricey, but well worth it.

Huck

[Solder Boy]

Re: Capacitor leads that won't come out..

I use a Weller soldering station with adjustable heat setting. I also use a tool called Soldapullit, to suck up the molten solder. I had my iron set at a high enough temp to get the caps out quickly without heating the board unneccesarily, so I was a little surprised the one didn't want to come out at all.

I get enough dead or unwanted MOBO's in my line of work so I'm going to brush up on my skill.

Thanks for the info everyone