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strong thermal glue for laptop DC power jack?
- Thread starter bvanevery
- Start date
The problem is that your efforts at desoldering may have removed tracks or even shorted them.
We may be able to advise you of some corrective action which might give you a better chance.
If you can't take photos (do you have access to a scanner, that works too?) or find someone who can, then I guess you can go ahead and hope for the best.
We may be able to advise you of some corrective action which might give you a better chance.
If you can't take photos (do you have access to a scanner, that works too?) or find someone who can, then I guess you can go ahead and hope for the best.
Here's what I see. I seriously doubt there's anything you can tell me about this board that would be repairable anyways. The board has no surface exposed tracks. There isn't a pile of silver solder going here and there, like I've seen at the bottom of a power inverter for instance. This is a tiny daughter board, all of it blue plastic, with seemingly some underlayers of darker blue plastic. The blue tracks around my holes are few in number.
There are some green scorch marks on the board, and one of them is part of a blue track. None of the green scorching looks severely crisped, more like discolored and slightly bubbled. I suspect this board had some kind of sealant on it before I got aggressive with it, based on how the solder would bead, roll away, and not stick to anything. But maybe that's just what solder does and I'm a noob.
I definitely have solder scraps to clean up. They were the price of my learning curve and/or getting the job done. The back plastic holes are a bit gouged from the cone tip, but not too badly and they don't touch each other. The front holes are in better shape, they still have their oval integrity. Hopefully I did not kill the copper layer going through the board. I made it a point to never use force on the pins I was trying to remove, because I knew that the surrounding copper that completes the join could come with the pins. That part of my technique research was good at least.
I've run a fair amount of heat through the board, but I don't know how much in the scheme of things. Hot enough that at times I couldn't hold the board with my fingers. In the face of frustration, I concluded it either has to be robust enough to survive the heat, or just die because it's too finnicky and fragile to take my primitive hand soldering. I really didn't see what I was going to do about it other than order a $70+ temperature controlled soldering iron and wait, or some Chip Quick like solvent and wait. I really don't have the time and interest to wait at this point, I'm supposed to be hitting the road in 2 weeks and I need to get this job done for my neighbor if it's going to happen at all. So I hope this board could take some modest heating. I made an educated guess that the board is tougher than it looks and that I needn't worry about babying it. If I was wrong, oh well. My neighbors already wrote off this laptop. Even if I bought better tools to deal with the problem, maybe I had already done the damage anyways, and it would be a waste of money.
The logic I've applied to this project, is I was afraid of my carburetor once upon a time. It kept me from rebuilding it, and that turned out to be baloney. It was fairly easy.
There are some green scorch marks on the board, and one of them is part of a blue track. None of the green scorching looks severely crisped, more like discolored and slightly bubbled. I suspect this board had some kind of sealant on it before I got aggressive with it, based on how the solder would bead, roll away, and not stick to anything. But maybe that's just what solder does and I'm a noob.
I definitely have solder scraps to clean up. They were the price of my learning curve and/or getting the job done. The back plastic holes are a bit gouged from the cone tip, but not too badly and they don't touch each other. The front holes are in better shape, they still have their oval integrity. Hopefully I did not kill the copper layer going through the board. I made it a point to never use force on the pins I was trying to remove, because I knew that the surrounding copper that completes the join could come with the pins. That part of my technique research was good at least.
I've run a fair amount of heat through the board, but I don't know how much in the scheme of things. Hot enough that at times I couldn't hold the board with my fingers. In the face of frustration, I concluded it either has to be robust enough to survive the heat, or just die because it's too finnicky and fragile to take my primitive hand soldering. I really didn't see what I was going to do about it other than order a $70+ temperature controlled soldering iron and wait, or some Chip Quick like solvent and wait. I really don't have the time and interest to wait at this point, I'm supposed to be hitting the road in 2 weeks and I need to get this job done for my neighbor if it's going to happen at all. So I hope this board could take some modest heating. I made an educated guess that the board is tougher than it looks and that I needn't worry about babying it. If I was wrong, oh well. My neighbors already wrote off this laptop. Even if I bought better tools to deal with the problem, maybe I had already done the damage anyways, and it would be a waste of money.
The logic I've applied to this project, is I was afraid of my carburetor once upon a time. It kept me from rebuilding it, and that turned out to be baloney. It was fairly easy.
We don't know if it's repairable or not. I'm assuming it is. We don't know if (or what) damage you may have done removing the connector (charitably, we'll assume none)
There's nothing much short of showing us a picture or flying one of us out to see you and the board that we can ask that will allow us to refine our knowledge. (I can ask you "Are there any lifted tracks, solder bridges, or nearby components that have become desoldered and shifted", but you may not be able to recognize this. And in any case if you were to say "yes", we'd ask for a picture so we could evaluate if and how you could fix them.
I'm not trying to be discouraging, but we're at the point where there are some possibilities, and depending on whether any of them are true you would need to take different action. Taking the wrong action may be worse than taking no action. And you may realistically may only have 1 shot at this.
So we can't offer you any more advice that increases the chance of you getting a successful result.
On that basis, you should either give up or just go ahead and try replacing the connector. If you have the connector there is not much point in giving up.
There's nothing much short of showing us a picture or flying one of us out to see you and the board that we can ask that will allow us to refine our knowledge. (I can ask you "Are there any lifted tracks, solder bridges, or nearby components that have become desoldered and shifted", but you may not be able to recognize this. And in any case if you were to say "yes", we'd ask for a picture so we could evaluate if and how you could fix them.
I'm not trying to be discouraging, but we're at the point where there are some possibilities, and depending on whether any of them are true you would need to take different action. Taking the wrong action may be worse than taking no action. And you may realistically may only have 1 shot at this.
So we can't offer you any more advice that increases the chance of you getting a successful result.
On that basis, you should either give up or just go ahead and try replacing the connector. If you have the connector there is not much point in giving up.
I'm wondering if you read closely what I wrote though. There are no tracks of factory solder on this board that anyone can do anything with. The tracks are all substrate in the board, printed and sealed. How can you possibly rework something like that? Suggest a method.
Any bridging from stray solder is going to be cleaned up.
There are no nearby components that have been desoldered or shifted. Remember, I had trouble getting anything desoldered on this board at all. I didn't drill a hole through anything else when I used a drill bit to grind off the original DC jack either. I have some habits of carefulness from years of auto repair. Wanna talk about flare wrenches and stripping hex nuts?
So yes at this point if you want to offer repair advice, there's something you can do in the absence of a picture. You can either conclude that I've pretty well assessed what's possible, or else you can say there are in fact a lot of techniques I could apply to printed, substrated tracks.
Any bridging from stray solder is going to be cleaned up.
There are no nearby components that have been desoldered or shifted. Remember, I had trouble getting anything desoldered on this board at all. I didn't drill a hole through anything else when I used a drill bit to grind off the original DC jack either. I have some habits of carefulness from years of auto repair. Wanna talk about flare wrenches and stripping hex nuts?
So yes at this point if you want to offer repair advice, there's something you can do in the absence of a picture. You can either conclude that I've pretty well assessed what's possible, or else you can say there are in fact a lot of techniques I could apply to printed, substrated tracks.
And so you ask me to suggest a method based on me surmising that there is a problem for which there is no evidence.
Have you not read what I have written?
I have said that if you can't show us the state of the board then you may as well just fit the replacement connector.
At this point you can see the state of the board (which is what is needed to determine the next step) so you are the expert.
Have you not read what I have written?
I have said that if you can't show us the state of the board then you may as well just fit the replacement connector.
At this point you can see the state of the board (which is what is needed to determine the next step) so you are the expert.
Is this what the power board you are trying to repair looks like:
Here a you tube on it:
The power board satrts at 7:18; that snip is from 8:12.
What you are calling substrate tracts may just be a heavy conformal type of coating. It does not appear you need to remove it to remove the jack.
John
Here a you tube on it:
What you are calling substrate tracts may just be a heavy conformal type of coating. It does not appear you need to remove it to remove the jack.
John
Heh, yeah, that's it! Thanks. BTW the jack is already out, if that detail has become lost in the discussion. I will be putting a new one in, I just haven't bought it from anywhere yet.
Examining his technique, I couldn't see his full soldering iron or station anywhere. He kept the camera on closeup when he was soldering and put his tool away before he zoomed out. I don't know if he's got what I've got, or something better that's temperature controlled. He is using what I'll call a "fork" tip instead of the cone tip I've got. That could have made a big difference for heat transfer. Basically his gear worked and mine didn't.
I never used soldering braid either. I didn't think that would be important to actually melting the solder, which just didn't budge. But I've since learned that braid does have flux in it, so maybe it would have helped.
Examining his technique, I couldn't see his full soldering iron or station anywhere. He kept the camera on closeup when he was soldering and put his tool away before he zoomed out. I don't know if he's got what I've got, or something better that's temperature controlled. He is using what I'll call a "fork" tip instead of the cone tip I've got. That could have made a big difference for heat transfer. Basically his gear worked and mine didn't.
I never used soldering braid either. I didn't think that would be important to actually melting the solder, which just didn't budge. But I've since learned that braid does have flux in it, so maybe it would have helped.
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Soldering braid is quite useful. It may seem counter intuitive, but sometimes adding a little solder helps remove it.
First, I think the additional solder acts as a wetting agent and heat conductor to help get everything up to its melting point so the braid can remove it.
Second, if you use lead-containing solder, it helps lower the melting point of lead-free solder. I don't remember whether it was in this thread or somewhere else today, but ChipQuik contains bismuth, which has the same effect of lowering the melting point. Other low-melting metals might also be used, but bismuth is cheap and relatively safe. You wouldn't want to use mercury for obvious reasons.
John
First, I think the additional solder acts as a wetting agent and heat conductor to help get everything up to its melting point so the braid can remove it.
Second, if you use lead-containing solder, it helps lower the melting point of lead-free solder. I don't remember whether it was in this thread or somewhere else today, but ChipQuik contains bismuth, which has the same effect of lowering the melting point. Other low-melting metals might also be used, but bismuth is cheap and relatively safe. You wouldn't want to use mercury for obvious reasons.
John
A new DC jack is ordered. I did use someone on ebay, thanks for the suggestion lashortee. I looked at a lot of competing vendors elsewhere on the internet, but none of them made life any easier. I never did learn how to find an exact part number match for the jack. What I ordered is a so-called PJ016. It has an extra pin, but at least one website that seemed on the ball said you just bend the 6th pin off, it's not needed. I did find one supplier that did show an exact match 5-pin part, but it was going to come from Hong Kong and I didn't want the slow delivery. So I went with a US supplier that was providing the 6-pin part. Hope it works. If not I've lost $4.70.
That ebay vendor sent me a broken one, first off. They shipped it in a lightly padded mailing envelope. The metal pins ripped through it and it had been crushed. They sent me a replacement and didn't pack it any differently, just luckier the 2nd time around I guess. I will use someone else next time.
The repair is done but I don't know if it works, because my neighbor lost the power brick for the laptop awhile ago. They are supposed to be conjuring a replacement or temporary to see if the laptop actually works now.
The repair is done but I don't know if it works, because my neighbor lost the power brick for the laptop awhile ago. They are supposed to be conjuring a replacement or temporary to see if the laptop actually works now.
Best of luck.
And yeah, postage can be a bit of a lottery. I've found that many sellers will use insufficient packing because it normally works. They're aware of the problems and will ship out a replacement (or a refund) if yours gets bent.
Great idea... if you're prepared to wait for twice the shipping delay.
And yeah, postage can be a bit of a lottery. I've found that many sellers will use insufficient packing because it normally works. They're aware of the problems and will ship out a replacement (or a refund) if yours gets bent.
Great idea... if you're prepared to wait for twice the shipping delay.
Neighbor reports that the laptop works! I'll take a 50% congratulation now. The other 50% if it stays working for a substantial amount of time and doesn't burn out for some reason, like I fried one of those little printed circuits when butchering the thing with my clumsy soldering iron. Next time around I'll get a set of tips more appropriate to the job.
KrisBlueNZ
Sadly passed away in 2015
Congratulations! Another usable bit of equipment rescued from going to a landfill somewhere.
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