Help! Small solder joints.

[ajcox1234]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

Here's the link to the new board. If you look closely at the picture in the body of the listing, you can see some Nichicon model numbers. HM, HN, HD, etc. The polymer capacitors are Sanyo's, it has a few KZG's in it, but KZG's just don't like heat. This board has 6, and it's 8 years old and they're still working. I believe that they'll be just fine. http://www.ebay.com/itm/270925234344...ht_6588wt_1044

[ajcox1234]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

I know, but it has OST's all over the board. I found another one on eBay with Nichicon and Rubycon capacitors on it.

[Agent24]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

If yours works now with new capacitors it should be just fine...

[ajcox1234]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

Found a board on eBay with all Panny's... I may buy that one, and replace the whole board.

[ajcox1234]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

I'm not taking it out of the case again. It's working perfect now, Prime95 will run for hours. The new capacitors seem to be working fine, as the system is perfectly stable. I'm typing this on it right now.

[Agent24]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

If you can post a photo of the joints, it might give clues as to why they look bad.

[ajcox1234]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

Desoldering wasn't a problem, soldering the new caps in was hard, the solder looks terrible on the new joints, but they do work. I've put pressure on them, the joints are secure, just not good looking, at all. The Dell Dimension 3000 I recapped from a bad Nichicon HN (2005 date code) with a Rubycon MCZ 10v 1000uF took solder really really well. I thought I killed that ASUS, it amazed me that it POST'd when I pressed the power button.

[Agent24]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

Preheating definitely helps.

[retiredcaps]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

I'm never soldering on an ASUS motherboard, ever again. lol.

It is not just ASUS. Pretty much all motherboards are multilayer and the copper planes suck up all the heat from the iron tip making it hard to desolder. Having a clean tip, flux, 60/40 solder, and the correct tip helps alot. A chisel tip is good for desoldering. The sharp conical tips don't have a lot of surface area for heat transfer.

[ajcox1234]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

Recapped the board tonight, was a pain in the a$$, thought I killed the board, but it's booted up and playing a YouTube video as I type this. I'm never soldering on an ASUS motherboard, ever again. lol.

[ajcox1234]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

I've ran small FFT's on it in Prime95 for about 2 hours and 30 minutes now, still going strong.

[mockingbird]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

They're OST (I know they're a bad brand, but if you keep them cool, they'll be fine), and UCC KZG (They don't like heat either, but I keep at computer pretty cool, so I won't replace the rest of the capacitors unless they bulge.

OST and KZG don't always bulge... You should have replaced them.

[ajcox1234]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

It was an 8 piece set. No reason to, none of the other capacitors are bloated. They're OST (I know they're a bad brand, but if you keep them cool, they'll be fine), and UCC KZG (They don't like heat either, but I keep at computer pretty cool, so I won't replace the rest of the capacitors unless they bulge.

[mockingbird]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

Yea, I'm pretty sure their stuff is legit. Did you order only two? Why not re-cap the whole board?

[ajcox1234]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

I bought them from here http://myworld.ebay.com/ny-electroni...id=p4340.l2559

They all have the same date code, 0524. The bung in all of them look the same, as well as the vent. They don't look fake to me, and I've seen a lot of MBZ's.

[Agent24]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

Unfortunately just because they don't say Rulycon doesn't mean they're not fake.

eBay is a big haven for fake capacitors. The fact they gave you more than you ordered seems suspicious to me - why would a legit seller with a genuine product give you more than you paid for unless by accident?

Who did you buy them off?

[ajcox1234]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

I haven't tried desoldering or soldering on it yet. I will tomorrow once I get the 45w desoldering iron. I got my Rubycon MBZ's today, I ordered 8, and I got 12! Score! Thanks eBay! And they're not Rulycon fakes either!

[Agent24]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

I've struggled with some boards, with a 60 watt digital soldering station and even an 80 watt desoldering gun I borrowed, and after research and a bit of testing I have come to the conclusion that some boards (or some areas on the boards) are really only easy to work on with pre-heating.

[momaka]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

Another thing you can do is pre-heat the board. I have a sub $20 heat gun for this that works great - I just blast the area of the board below the caps for 10-20 seconds or so and then use the soldering iron to heat the pads one by one on each cap and then wiggle the cap out. If you don't have a heat gun, a hair dryer will can also work okay - you'll just need to heat the board for a bit longer.

Flux and/or 60/40 lead solder is also very helpful.

In any case, don't be afraid that you'll burn the board with your soldering iron - you very likely won't. Keeping the iron on a joint for 10 seconds or more is usually not fatal.

Lastly, make sure the tip of your iron is clean and well tightened.

[barry wilkins]

Re: Help! Small solder joints.

A good quality flux will help because it allows the heat to melt the solder.Manufacturers of electronic PCBs seem to make the PTH,s very small so components are a tight fit. If the capacitors are defintely going to be replaced you could always cut them off the board and take the pins out the board.
Barry Wilkins