I am going to attempt to replace my motherboard capacitors.. I will keep you updated here in this thread.

Okay first off assessment of the caps.


As you can see here there is a brownish oose leaking out of the top of the caps, that brownish substance is liquid electrolyte leaking and erroding the top of the capacitors (not a good sign).

Next... Replacing the caps.. Stay tuned!


_________________
Mike kd7lax-Your Admin/Mod.
Have a question about how to use the board ? you might find it here FAQ
Make sure you read the Rules
www.kd7lax.com
www.joelschimneysweep.com
Hosted by HHZ
Email Me Here

Okay so now I have the caps removed! But I am having trouble clearing the holes for the new caps to go in .... some one online said to use a Stainless steel dentist pick of some kind ( because solder won't stick to stainless).. so I might try that.



(Caps removed noted with red arrows)


_________________
Mike kd7lax-Your Admin/Mod.
Have a question about how to use the board ? you might find it here FAQ
Make sure you read the Rules
www.kd7lax.com
www.joelschimneysweep.com
Hosted by HHZ
Email Me Here

So I finally decided to attempt to clear out the holes and put in the new caps...

After several failed attempts to use my solder sucker and other devices, I found a website that recommended a stainless steel dental pick and a soldering iron So I tried it.



It worked well.... After clearing all the holes I installed the caps.. Then I proceeded to solder them one by one.

All was well until I ran into one that I had damaged the sleeve* it was totally gone... so the solder would not stick all that work for nothing... I did the best I could with that damaged sleeve and hooked the mobo up to a power supply.. it turned on and seemed to work okay... but knowing one of the caps did not have a connection to the board I didn't put my processor in ... I didn't want to risk wrecking it.

* whats a sleeve you ask? When you have a PCB that has 8 layers or so (like this motherboard) there is a small metal sleeve that runs the length of the board so that each layer is connected properly.

So what went wrong?... well had I known about the dental pick to begin with I would have been okay... I think the problem occurred when I used my solder sucker a few times to many I must have overheated the hole and sucked out the sleeve.

Oh well it was a good experience... and I only lost about $8 in caps and 6 hours of my time


_________________
Mike kd7lax-Your Admin/Mod.
Have a question about how to use the board ? you might find it here FAQ
Make sure you read the Rules
www.kd7lax.com
www.joelschimneysweep.com
Hosted by HHZ
Email Me Here