Fixing Your Motherboard for $15

[MaximRecoil]

You're still skipping the "steps in the middle", such as making a law and getting it passed. They produce boards to meet ROHS standards because they couldn't import them otherwise. The motherboard companies pretend their making a conscientious effort, but in reality they're just trying to survive. For them, it's "in the name of survival"

You have to go up the chain of social order to find the feel good crusade responsible for this disaster.

Yes I agree. I wasn't blaming the manufacturers who are merely complying with standards that have been forced on them.

 

[bobbknight]

This is all cool if you have access to a solder/desolder station like they had when I was in the navy, that was used for level 2 and three 3 board repair.
The average soldering iron from Radio shack will be very hard to use in this repair, unless you are very skilled.

So for the average guy this just does not make sense. But it would be fun for the hobbyist.

 

[NightLight]

well, a good solder sucker and iron will get you far if you have the skill... think of burned-in atx sockets, transistors,... A word of caution to all: most mainboards are double or triple layered, but then we are talking smd...

 

[PeteTy]

"15$ for capacitors. All tools : 300$ ?
New mainboard : 150 $, i'll go with the new mainboard.
Thank you. Not to mention the time, knowledge, etc. necessary to identify a problem capacitor and successfully correct it.

Reminds me of the machinist who spent an hour making a part he could buy at the local harware store for $0.14 plus tax."

I would say anyone who reads this site has all the tools and most of the parts.

For this same conversation I guess you can google IEEE488 or GPIB

If you are at the point where you must replace capicitors that have failed I would say the computer is at least 3 years old.

This is fine except perhaps for the latest games, but chances of replacing just the motherboard are slim.

you will need to replace the case and the powersupply and chances are
a new mother board wont accomidate the memory/ ISA /EISA cards
you may still be using.

I work with things like environmental monitoring / plant automation / testing.

something like windows XP That makes it dam hard to send a byte to an output port would make it impossible to use a new computer, (win 95/98 is almost as good as dos) Also that $3000 Daq card with the eISA AT computer that doesnt subscribe to plug and pray will have to be replaced, and the software modified to subscribe to the new card and machine. A lot of the machines I work with still have core memory.

Perhaps its the time to mention that buying a $40 80G HD is worthwhile
even if you can only use the first 400Megs

by the way new jet engines are made on 1907 vintage cincinnati king vertical turret lathes, perhaps fitted with new glass scales and cnc perhaps not.

it is worth 4 or 5 hours to fix your 1939 silver ghost
or even make that $0.25 part.
rather than plunking down the $550,000
for a new bently (with epa standards and onstar and 55 MPH speed limit and computer controlled ignition timing brakes and steering).

 

[StephenC]

I would like to share with the readers some of my experiences in this type of repair.
1st off I am by no means an expert. I just have a few tricks I learned that may be of use.

This idea of having an expensive de-Soldering station is a bit hard for some of us who have no access to one. I also suggest you stay away from Radio Shack's de soldering irons (Catalog #: 64-2060) because I have used them and they work for the first few hours then the tips go bad or get clogged. I do however like to use those Desoldering Bulbs (Catalog #: 64-2086) with the teflon tips. They work great for a long time and they are cheap. I also have two of those vacuum desoldering tools (Catalog #: 64-2098) that come in handy when you need more vacuum force and can easily get to the spot you need to. The soldering iron I have is a HAKko 936. Its an adjustable one. I payed a little over a hundred for it but I do a lot of soldering jobs so I felt the cost would not out weigh the need. Weller makes cheaper ones too. Just make sure its got the ESD feature as you do not want to damage components using a non ESD iron!

Ok enough about equipment and on with some other useful tips. I notice there was no mention of ESD. ESD for those of us non technical is an acronym for Electrostatic Sensitive Devices. What it refers to is components that can be damaged by a tiny electric discharge that occurs when one object comes in close proximity of another and they both have different levels of charge. To illustrate if you walk across the floor with socks and then touch a grounded object you get a large spark. You can see it clearly. Electronic components can be damaged by that as well as smaller charges which you cannot see or feel. It is important you use caution when working on electronic circuits to bear in mind the environment your working in. If your willing to risk working on your motherboard without looking into safe practices your chances of success go down. Now some components are forgiving enough that many seem to get away with it. The truth is that the component is degraded and although it may not fail right away it will later on. Now you can get ESD stuff either free or dirt cheap if you look around for it. There are companies that give it away at times. Just have to keep your eyes open for it. If you cannot afford it then use that bag that comes with an new motherboard to store it in. (NOTE: do not use it when your soldering or it will melt!) When you handle the motherboard you need to make sure your not going to fry it with a tiny discharge. There is a super cheap alternative for this. You can find those wrist straps to wear to keep the charge down so while you work you do not have a charge built up. For about $30 you can get one from radio shack. (Catalog #: 276-2370) This kit will include all that you need to keep ESD from ruining your parts. Radio Shack isnt' the cheapiest but I know they are all over the place and quoting you something to look at will help you in looking for the best deal. I have even seen disposable wrist straps sold with computers and they are available from online sources.

Ok now for the techniques I have used in the past when working on circuit boards.
1st rule is the 3 second rule! This is the time you want to use when running a standard iron at 600 degrees F. 600 F is high for most solder however the high temperature ensures the solder melts quickly and if you place any iron on another metal the temperature will drop greatly. This is what I have used for standard 60/40 rosin core solder. So before you go and use any iron, determine the proper temperature! Just so you have an idea about the manufacturer's solder used here is what they use at the place where I work. They use an equivalent SOLDER PASTE RMA 63/37 type of solder paste. This isn't like your regular solder as its in a liquid form. They put it on using a silkscreen type method then run it through a oven like machine, wave soldering machine, that melts the solder. They also use a pick and parts place machine to put all those tiny parts on. So do your homework and find out what rework temperature you need for that type of solder.

2nd rule is to use gentle pressure and avoid rubbing! If you rub back and forth you will move pads and damage the surface. Rubbing does not help and I did do it at one time and learned the hard way. Soldering jumper wires really sucks after rubbing off traces! How much pressure? The amount I use is about the same as me relaxing my arm on a surface. Thats all it really takes. if you press hard you will not only damage the surface but the tip could bend and you stand a chance of ruining a good tip on the iron.

3rd rule is to let a failed attempt to cool down before retrying. This rule is only when dealing with temperature sensitive areas. If your removing a heat sink from a ground plane you can sometimes ignore this one. Wait till the board returns to room temperature before making another attempt. The main reason why is heat. If you allow too much heat to flow beyond what your working on you can damage surrounding components. You could also accidentally overheat a areas where there is a plastic connector. Not a good thing since those are harder to remove and replace than most caps.

Now for stubborn components you can always apply some fresh solder and then rewick it off. However lets explore why these components are so hard to get off. Capacitors have a metal alloy in the leads that bond to solder very well. If the lead isn't sufficiently heated then the bond will not break and you will find it tough to get the capacitor to remove. Now There are 2 factors in capacitors that will make removal difficult. One of them is bonding material. It really sucks to fight a cap that is bonded to the board. You can tell most times as it will not rock back and forth when small amount of pressure applied to a side. The other is lead spacing. Sometimes an engineer will goof on a parts list and you will get a cap that has the holes for it spaced too far in or out. This means that the leads will be forced against the sides of the holes and angled. (The holes are referred to as vias in the industry). for these difficult parts you can use a couple of methods. For the bonding material there are bond removers and usually they are not too cheap and are toxic. I would suggest careful rocking motion while applying some heat to the leads. I get lucky most of the time. (Lately I haven't seen the use of bonding on capacitors on motherboards). the angled capacitor leads are hard as they put pressure on the via hole and the heat needed is greater to get it to come out. One of the methods I use is a careful heat application with the iron on the soldered side and a gentle pressure on the component side and move the capacitor towards the direction away from the hole. Sometimes those capacitors have a little bit of rough scrap on the lead that will catch the edge of the pad. If this happens you can rock the cap back in the direction of the hole. This will push the lead back further in so not too far. Then after that you can apply upward force then tilt to get the lead to come free of the sides of the via or hole. Use as much caution as possible. Its difficult to determine how something is resting when its soldered in. The way I tell is by using a desoldering bulb or wick to remove as much as possible. When you look at the lead it will either be strait or be resting against the side angled. If its strait then most likely your changes will be easy removal.

Now for the bit about telling if a capacitor is bad or not. This is debatable and removing it and hooking it up to a meter is by far the only full proof way. However there are physical signs which were already covered and measurement tools. The best method is using a scope. They are not cheap and most of us don't even own one. The only alternative is to use a meter that can detect voltage levels. Most caps will charge up to approximately 68% of full source voltage applied. They discharge at a rate that is related to the value. You can calculate this and then use time to determine its functionality. This isn't easy if you have no background in electronics. Just for those who know what I am talking about and I will put another tip for those who do not know basic electronics. You can use a resistor hooked up to a meter to determine discharge of the capacitor during power up and power down. Generally you can see the level it charges to then discharges to through the resistor to get a good idea on the proper operation. This is the best method I know of and you have to be very careful while performing this test. You will need to use a timer or some way of determining how long the cap took. Most good techs build their own tools. A 555 timer circuit would prove useful in this. Ok enogh of the tech talk and let me address those who have not took electronics.

There is a nifty device out that will measure your power supply voltages. This will tell you if your power supply is working or not. It usually has leds that light up. Now if you use the feature for measuring the power on the hard drive power connector then you can power up your board then hook the connector up to each one. If any of them fail you know there is a problem with either the board or supply. next step is to check the supply with the part that connect to the large power supply connector. If it passes then you know there is an issue with the motherboard.
NOTE: This test is done with nothing buy your motherboard and the power supply only. nothing else need be connected.

Well if anyone has any questions or needs me to clarify what I wrote then feel free to post and I will check back when I see notices.

I have been in electronics for some time and I have even done work in the radio field during my military service. I have seen all sorts of strange stuff. I used to go on salvage operation to where I could remove over a dozzen components at once from circuit boards without the use of a solder iron. I managed to get good parts that way. However I will avoid from discussing this due to the toxic nature of the method and I really do not want novices getting ill or hurt.

 

[StephenC]

I just wanted to throw in a link I think worthy that I didn't mention.
For those wanting to know more about solder here is the direct link to it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solder

Just read it if you care to understand the terms and types of solder that is used.

 

[shindvs]

How you feel about D865GBF MOBO. with two years i replaced 5 numbers MOBO from Intel.
All are failing crash doe thermal shutdown.
Then i purchased ASROCK MOBO MICROATX P4i64G. it working ok last six month.