DC Jack replacement - tips?

[spleenharvester]

Hey all.

I've done a few DC jack replacements in the past, not as easy as every single youtube video seems to make it appear, but most of them have been successful.

I've got a D531 I want to sell but the DC jack has a lot of wiggle in it, and I don't want the buyer to have to experience the jack snapping a few months after buying it.

What worries me it's one of those horrid 7-pin things Dell seem to love.

On one of these same jacks, on a Dell X1, I could not get it removed at all. Despite a rediculous amount of wicking and flux it just refused to go anywhere. Eventually I lost my patience, and took a heatgun and a pair of pliers to it. It still would not move in the slightest, as if it were bloody fused to the board or something. I did eventually get it replaced, it took about an hour, and having the board flex about 45* and spray capacitors at my face. I did manage to reattach them all believe it or not.

I'm worried the same will happen again. My procedure is as follows:

1) Cover both sides of the jack in flux where it meets the board.

2) Melt leaded solder onto the tip of my iron, use solder wick to pull the solder.

3) Repeat for each joint.

But every time I have done this, there seems to be a tiny little bit still on the joints, and the jack refuses to budge. And I end up putting it under a heatgun every time.

I use a 15W Antex chisel-tip but I've tried a 40W iron too. Could it be crappy flux? Wick??

Any advice would be appreciated!

Cheers

[selldoor]

Re: DC Jack replacement - tips?

Thinking along a different line - if it is/was electrically a sound connection
running at correct speed and charging then consider just epoxy gluing it down?

[smason]

Re: DC Jack replacement - tips?

I have done about 5 of these. Dell D810 820 830 Inspiron 1525.
The 830 was the worst, because there were some surface mount components on the PCB inside the footprint of the jack.

Most I just used my Hakko 936 cranked up, and a soldapullt, mixing fresh leaded solder in first.
The 830 pissed me off, so I wound up using Chipquick on it. Put some on all of the pins, and yanked and twisted with some pliers. Out it came finally. I was worried I'd damage the board, but it was ok. I usually buy the jacks off of ebay, and get a few extra to keep in stock.

[smason]

Re: DC Jack replacement - tips?

Thinking along a different line - if it is/was electrically a sound connection
running at correct speed and charging then consider just epoxy gluing it down?

It's not always a bad joint on the board, a lot of these jacks fail internally. the plastic breaks and it gets wobbly, then stops working.

[beggi90]

Re: DC Jack replacement - tips?

I have done about 5 of these. Dell D810 820 830 Inspiron 1525.
The 830 was the worst, because there were some surface mount components on the PCB inside the footprint of the jack.

Most I just used my Hakko 936 cranked up, and a soldapullt, mixing fresh leaded solder in first.
The 830 pissed me off, so I wound up using Chipquick on it. Put some on all of the pins, and yanked and twisted with some pliers. Out it came finally. I was worried I'd damage the board, but it was ok. I usually buy the jacks off of ebay, and get a few extra to keep in stock.

I've started using Chipquick on all the dc jack replacements, and after that everything started working more smoothly.

I start by putting flux on the back of the board.
Adding ChipQuick with the iron on about 270-300°
Remove the Solder with solder wick.
On the connections that still have some solder in them I add fresh solder, put the iron to 350° and take it up with the de-soldering pump.
Most times I have to use small tweezers to yank it out.

I still usually do some damage to the connector itself but never to the board.
But I'm always replacing a broken one with a new one so that's not a problem.

[trebo]

Re: DC Jack replacement - tips?

I have given up on taking those 9 pin dell sockets off in one piece, what I do is use a mini hacksaw cut across the top, (front to back) pull each casing half to the side a bit then remove one side at a time, I am left with the plastic inner, I just saw some cuts into it and put a screwdriver in the cuts and twist to remove the plastic so that I am left with just the brass bits to remove, I deal with them one at a time, more or less, then clean the holes up after.
It might sound messy, but some tape and paper to catch the metal filings
from getting on the board and a bit of time, I get there in the end with plenty of flux, leaded solder and braid, it works for me

[katzcaps]

Re: DC Jack replacement - tips?

Easy removal for these multi pin jacks;

Simply snip away at the jack with cutters/appropriate tool, taking "bites" out of it until you are down to the legs.

At that point, apply flux to both sides of the board & unsolder the legs individually. A solder sucker or desoldering gun cleans the holes up nicely.

I've done many this way, it sure beats trying to heat gun it & pry it loose with pliers. Plus, you risk damage to the board by pulling the entire jack with pliers.

[momaka]

Re: DC Jack replacement - tips?

I use a 15W Antex chisel-tip but I've tried a 40W iron too.

I'm surprised no one caught this.
Trying to work on any motherboard (be it laptop or desktop) with anything less than a 50W soldering station is just torturing yourself. You can get a cheap decent soldering station under $100 these days almost anywhere online, so if you're planning to work on motherboards a lot, you should invest into one.

The way I normally do it is I heat the area I'll be working on the board *fairly slowly* with a heat gun. Then I put flux on the joints, pickup large gobs of solder with the iron, and make a huge blob across most or all of the pins on the connector (note: if you use this method, you may want to have the board lying vertically to avoid any of the solder rolling off). Finally, I heat them all up with the iron (350 to 400C) and pull out the connector (note 2: wear thick gloves when doing this as molten solder can fall out with the connector and burn your fingers/hands).

I've pulled out VGA and serial connectors from motherboards before using this method, and it has worked great for me. No damage to the board or the connector either.

After pulling the connector, you only need to worry about cleaning the holes (which can also be challenging sometimes). Wick works, but only when the solder is fully melted and can easily flow to it. Another thing is, with this method, you can reuse your blobs of solder indefinitely. I always do.

[bp1]

Re: DC Jack replacement - tips?

I did one recently using a hot air station. The hot air station i have is a cheap ebay under 100 GB pounds which seems good for my needs. My method was lots of flux. Heat the station at 350C and heat the socket underneath. The socket was very easily removed. I then used a 60w soldering iron and solder sucker to clean the holes.
Like the posts above the key thing is enough heat.