Future thread on recapping Aopen p3 mobo with many blown caps

[_dangtx_]

first of all i would like to thank trodas for letting me know of this great place. on the pcper forums he has shown his maestry in a few threads, i lurked for a few hours here and this place is a goldmine of information and especially great place for the person in need of help with caps and what not.im bad at soldering and stuff,but i want to learn.
so,what do i need,like what size/power tools and so on? how do i clean the crap that has leaked?
the mobo is a skt 370 from the year..hmm...2001? its an aopen,have to look up the part number.the caps are compeltely blown,the bigger and the smaller ones.it still boots but is not stable.when i got to my fathers place i couldnt believe my eyes.

thank you!
dan


i cant rmemeber if its the ax34 or ax34pro but they look quite the same..


http://usa.aopen.com/Museum.aspx?fromPage=products
http://usa.aopen.com/products_detail.aspx?auno=147#

[Topcat]

Re: Future thread on recapping Aopen p3 mobo with many blown caps

Welcome aboard! Recapping isn't hard with the right tools. A good hot iron, dental pick or pneumatic solder sucker (or whatever tool you feel most comfortable with to clean out the holes), solder, some new caps, and a little patience.

I see aopen's with bad caps almost every day, their recovery rate is nearly 100%.

[_dangtx_]

Re: Future thread on recapping Aopen p3 mobo with many blown caps

alright...question is can someone point me to the tools? you have soem kits i nyour sig..do i need those? treat me liek i never heard of caps,electrolytes,etc i have no idea,clue,no se :p
also,i see you fold im with amdmb : http://stats.drautage.com/memberdeta...rname=_dangtx_

[davmax]

Re: Future thread on recapping Aopen p3 mobo with many blown caps

I guess the picture is not your board. It shows good quality Rubycon caps in good shape.

[gonzo0815]

Re: Future thread on recapping Aopen p3 mobo with many blown caps

First you need a Soldering Iron, if you want to spend some money, i suggest a good 60 or better 80w soldering station with Temperature between 310 - 450°c. Additionally you need a chisel typ tip, as those round tips can not transfer enough heat to a board. This should be about 80€ to 100€ for not that high end, but quality equipment.
Next thing is an tip cleaner, the name is Tippy, a small box with cleaner & tinn mixture. Without that, you would not have mutch fun at soldering temps near 450°c.
Then a dental pick, some syringe needles and a solder sucker is my suggestion for cleaning holes.

Dependent from your location, you can obtain caps from TC, RSonline, Trodas or other bigger elektronic store in your area.
Just be shure, to obtain one of the good brands you can about here (namely the Faq). I personally habe used Rubycon MCZ and Panasonic FM (wich i consider to be a superior universal cap series, but not for all boards). Samxon caps should be a reasonable brand too.

[_dangtx_]

Re: Future thread on recapping Aopen p3 mobo with many blown caps

hmm...i was thinking to spend maybe 50 bucks on a (used or not) soldering iron kit to start out.the board has only sentimental value lolz :p
thanks

ps im in canada, trodas is in chech rep. i believe.

[willawake]

Re: Future thread on recapping Aopen p3 mobo with many blown caps

if you want cheap then look for a 60w corded iron preferably from a good manufacturer. it MUST be grounded though. if you have any interest in soldering for the future then probably the best deal you will find is a hakko 936-12.

http://www.tequipment.net/Hakko936-12.html
http://cgi.ebay.ca/936-12-Hakko-Sold...QQcmdZViewItem

occasionally there are specials on this item so check around.

[PedroDaGr8]

Re: Future thread on recapping Aopen p3 mobo with many blown caps

By the way, an easy way to check which version of the board you have check the number of bios chips down by the bottom of the board (black chips next to the white PCI slots). The regular only has one chip, while the pro has two (redundant bios). Also, I have the hakko soldering station. Works wonderfully. Much better than my 30W weller pencil (nothing like waiting minutes and minutes for solder to melt, while with the hakko it melted in a matter of about a second).

[mbates14]

Re: Future thread on recapping Aopen p3 mobo with many blown caps

ive had issues removing caps if the negative lead is on a big ground plane, as the ground plane sucks the heat away from the iron. i use 100w gun.


what works for me, is using a heat gun and blasting the underside of the board with the heat gun, the capacitors just "fall out", but carefull of nearby components as they attend to fall out too. LOL.

[_dangtx_]

Re: Future thread on recapping Aopen p3 mobo with many blown caps

ok,il ltake that in account.ill have to settle for a radio shack unit lolz for starters.if i get the gigle of it ill get a 80$ one i saw in a computer store the other day..altough ,my pops should have some old school ones,good but old :p

[Fizzycapola]

Re: Future thread on recapping Aopen p3 mobo with many blown caps

It's good idea to recap when you see faulty caps visually. Else you could wind up increasing voltages to compensate for the failing caps to keep the PC stable, inevitably more than the caps will fail, it's not long after caps fail that chips fail and then hard drive CPU graphics card have to go in the bin, but recap when you see them fail and enjoy another lifetime of usage.

ive had issues removing caps if the negative lead is on a big ground plane, as the ground plane sucks the heat away from the iron. i use 100w gun.


what works for me, is using a heat gun and blasting the underside of the board with the heat gun, the capacitors just "fall out", but carefull of nearby components as they attend to fall out too. LOL.

lol

Effective but risky. I had the same issue, I moved the solder out the way with my mighty chisel tipped iron and it was a bit easier, this was with 40w iron.

[gonzo0815]

Re: Future thread on recapping Aopen p3 mobo with many blown caps

ill have to settle for a radio shack unit lolz for starters.

It is ok to start low, i started wit an 80w 5€ monster, it worked, but it was getting very very hot. A few seconds too long and by by epoxy PCB.
But i am soldering for ages with crapy tools, thus i know, how to overcome this.
But be aware of cheap paper based PCB`s (beyond IT equipment it is standard, as it is cheap), thyre not very forgiving and delaminate very fast.

Under all circumstances choose at least 60w, better more (if you rely want to get a cap out , some have more luck and managed it with 30w or 40w, i never).
If managable, buy a iron coated chisel tip. Anything else is a pain.
I was used to spend one tip per board with the above mentioned iron (pure cooper tip tined) ok, it was only about 1€ but it rapildy erodet due the high temp and thin i needed to have proper thermal kontackt.

ATM i have a 60w 10€ tempperature controled mains operated iron. Bought a tip set for about 6€ too. it seams to be ok....