We not only specialize in computer repairs, but we also provide micro soldering services. Whether you’ve accidentally ripped off a connector from the motherboard or require assistance with replacing a soldered DC jack, you can count on us to handle it all.

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Soldered DC jacks are very common these days. A wide variety of laptop motherboards have the DC jacks built-in and it is not very convenient for repair.

In this post I explain the steps I go through during the process of removing and replacing a regular DC jack soldered to a regular laptop motherboard. A full description of the equipment and supplies shown in this guide available here.

Replacing a soldered DC jack could be a real pain if you are trying to use a cheap soldering iron. They are just not hot enough to effectively melt lead-free solder used in modern circuit boards. I’ve tried multiple 35-60Watt stations and they just don’t work well.

Here’s my current setup which works very well for my purposes. Hakko FX951 75 Watt soldering station and Hakko FR-810B hot air rework station. Not cheap but worth it. I wouldn’t recommend less than a 70 Watt iron for replacing soldered DC jacks.

Examine the new DC jack

When you receive a new replacement DC jack, compare it side by side with the original one. Make sure it’s the right size and looks identical.

Also, it’s a good idea to plug the AC adapter into the new DC jack to make sure it fits tightly. Some DC jacks look identical from outside but have different internal diameters.

Four ways to remove soldered DC jack

Removing the old DC jack from the motherboard is the hardest part in the entire process. A regular laptop DC jack has a few legs soldered to the motherboard. Your goal is removing the old solder completely in order to free up the failed/damaged DC jack.

There are four different ways to remove the old DC jack from the motherboard and all of them need some practice.

1. Desoldering wick

The first way is using desoldering wick – a braided copper wire that allows you to remove solder from the plated through mounting holes on the motherboard. Simply press the braid onto the soldered joint with the preheated soldering iron tip. As solder melts up, it flows into the braid. It might take a few attempts to empty the plated through mounting hole completely

I usually keep my soldering station at 840°F (450°C). Some people might say it’s way too hot, but that’s my personal preference.

Before using desoldering wick, I strongly advise you preheating the solder joints and adding some fresh leaded solder to make it flow better.

I’m using Kester 63/37 .015 DIA flux-cored wire and Goot Wick 2.5mm or 3.5mm desoldering braid.

2. Desoldering pump

A desoldering pump commonly used in combination with the desoldering wick. It helps to remove stubborn solder from the inside of a plated through hole.

Wait for the joint to completely melt before sucking out the solder. If you suck too soon, you may not be able to melt the joint properly any more.  If stubborn solder won’t leave the hole, add more fresh leaded solder to the joint and try sucking it out again. It might take a few attempts to clean up the hole completely.

3. Removing DC jack pins individually

Some laptop DC jacks have a plastic body. In this case you can cut all the plastic away with side cutters, leaving just the metal pins soldered to the motherboard. After that you can remove each pin individually with a soldering iron and a pair of needle-nose pliers. I don’t like this method because there is a high chance of damaging the motherboard.

4. Hot air station

The fastest, safest and most efficient way to remove the old DC jack is using a hot air rework station. The hot air can melt solder in all plated through mounting holes at the same time making the removal process a breeze.

Before using the hot air station I strongly advise covering all surrounding plastic components with high temperature resistant Kapton tape to prevent any accidental damage.

Position the motherboard on the edge of desk and grab the DC jack with tweezers. Heat up the area using hot air station and start pulling the DC jack downwards. As the solder melts, the DC jack simply falls through.

On my Hakko FR-810B I’m using a 6-7mm air nozzle. The temperature is set to 840°F (450°C) and the airflow to 4 out of 9. Using the hot air station allows me to remove any DC jack in less than a minute.

Remember the orientation of the original DC jack. It can fit both ways, the correct one and upside down.

Preparing the motherboard

After removing the old DC jack we have to prepare the motherboard for the new one. It’s very important to coat all plated through holes properly before installing the DC jack.

Apply generous amount of flux to all soldering terminals. I’m using AMTECH Solder Flux NC-559-V2-TF. More flux is better because it makes the solder flow. You can always cleanup the excessive flux residue later with a cotton swab and 99% isopropyl alcohol.

Apply fresh solder to all terminals. Make sure when solder melts and flows through the plated holes to the other side of the motherboard.

Remove the solder using desoldering wick or desoldering pump, whatever you prefer.

All plated through holes must be properly coated with fresh solder.

Soldering a new DC jack back in place

Fit the new DC jack on the motherboard. Make sure the orientation of the jack is correct and it seats properly.

I usually put something underneath the jack to elevate it.

Apply generous amount of flux to all soldering terminals.

Solder the pins one by one. The flux allows the solder to flow through and solder each pin inside the plated through hole. Cleanup the excessive flux residue with alcohol.

Check the other side of the motherboard. Make sure the new DC jack is properly soldered on both sides of the motherboard.

Finally you can test the new DC jack with a multimeter to make sure there is no short between the “+” and ground terminals.

Today I show how you can replace only the keyboard without replacing the full laptop top case even though the keyboard is not removable. This is a DIY hack so proceed at your own risk but I guess you have nothing to lose anyway.

You will need a cheap disposable soldering iron as we are going to melt some plastic. A $3.99 iron from Harbor Freight will work just fine for that. Prepare to work in a well ventilated area because it’s going to stink.

Keyboard is permanently attached to the top case

In most modern laptops the keyboard is permanently attached to the top case. If the keyboard fails for any reason (liquid spill, bad key, accidental damage, etc…), it’s necessary to replace the whole top case (according to the manufacturers). Why is that?

On the following picture you can see the back side of a typical top case assembly removed from an HP laptop. As you see, there is a metal bracket attaching the keyboard to the top case.

If you look closer, you will see that the bracket is riveted to the top case and it’s not removable. That’s the problem!

Removing the old keyboard

In order to remove the old keyboard you basically have to break all the rivets and I’m going to use a soldering iron to start that process.

Insert a metal pry tool under the keyboard bracket and pry it up. While lifting up the bracket, melt the plastic rivet until it goes through the hole and the bracket separates from the top case assembly. After that move to the next rivet.

Try not to remove the rivets completely and leave some plastic intact because we are going to reuse them later when we install a new keyboard back in place.

Continue separating the keyboard bracket until there is enough space to grab it with your hands.

Now you can continue separating the bracket with your hands basically breaking the “heads” of the remaining rivets. Try not to bend the bracket.

I found that lifting it up in quick, jerky movements works very well. Those plastic rivets are not strong enough and easily losing their “heads”. It’s much harder to separate keyboard on MacBook Airs.

Remove the mounting bracket completely.

Now we can access the keyboard and start separating it from the top case.

There could be more rivets securing just the keyboards.

Separate the keyboard from the top case. Use the iron to melt more rivets if necessary. You need to be able to grab the keyboard with your hands and rip it off of the top case. That’s OK if you damage the keyboard, just be careful with the top case.

Remove the old keyboard completely.

Preparing the top case for the keyboard replacement

Here’s the top case with the keyboard removed. Now it’s a good time to clean up the frame if it’s dirty.

Let’s take a closer look at the rivets. When I ripped the old keyboard off of the top case, not all rivet “heads” were removed cleanly.

Clean them up using a needle nose pliers. You can squeeze the rivet to shape it and make narrow again. You have to be able to push the plastic stand through a hole on the new keyboard.

Some rivets are missing completely but that’s OK. You still should have enough left to secure the new keyboard firmly in place.

Installing a new keyboard

Position the new keyboard above the top case and push it firmly back in place.

All the remaining rivets has to seat properly so the new keyboard is not bulging. If the keyboard not seating properly, remove it and clean the rivets again.

Make sure it seated correctly before you finalize the repair.

While applying pressure on the keyboard, melt the rivet so a new “head” is created and it secures the keyboard.

NOTE: after securing the keyboard, we’ll have to install the bracket on to of it. Most rivets have to go through the keyboard and the bracket. Pay attention to that.

Install the keyboard bracket and secure all rivets the same way.

Today I show how I fix flash drives with damaged USB ports in order to recover the data. I show a few different damage scenarios and my way of fixing it.

If you have very important files on a damaged USB drive, you should use professional data recovery service instead of trying to fix it yourself. Just had to mention that.

Tools and supplies I used for this repair:

• Hakko FX-951 soldering station with T15-J02 tip
• Kester .40mm (.015″) rosin core solder
• Amtech NC-559-V2-TF flux
• AmScope 10X-20X microscope
• Needle nose tweezers
• Thin wire

Flash drive has a bent USB port

Someone bumped into this USB flash drive while it was plugged in. Right after the accident the flash drive stopped being detected by any computer. That is a cheap drive but the data on it is priceless.

If you look at the drive from the side you can clearly see the USB port not being straight and bent upwards.

With naked eyes you cannot see what is wrong but if you look under a microscope, you can see the problem right away.

One of the soldering pads got lifted off of the circuit board and the trace between the pad and the circuit board got cracked. One of the pins on the USB port doesn’t make contact with the circuit board anymore. Can you see a gap between the first USB pin and the circuit board? Thats’s the problem!

This is USB VCC pin which supplies +5 volts DC to the circuit board.

After I looked at the drive at a different angle, I noticed that the second pad (Data -) also got separated from the circuit board.

The third (Data +) and forth (Ground) pads looked normal but just in case I checked continuity with a multimeter. Both tested fine.

I was able to fix this USB flash drive in four steps. It was a temporary repair, just enough to make it work and recover the data off the USB drive.

STEP 1.
Using a soldering stating I unsoldered two damaged pads from the USB port pins.

STEP 2.
With the pads removed I got a clear view on the circuit board. I was able to trace where these pads should be connected on the board.

• The first pad (+5V VCC) was connected to the resistor marked 1R5 (lower arrow).
• The second pad (Data -) was connected to the round pad just above the pin (upper arrow).

STEP 3.
I scraped off the protective coating from the round pad using a sharp needle nose tweezers. After the copper surface got exposed, I applied some fresh solder on the pad and two USB port pins.

STEP 4.
Finally, using a very thin wire I ran jumpers from both USB pins to the circuit board.

You definitely need a microscope, a good micro soldering station and steady hands for this kind of repair.

After the repair I plugged the USB drive into my computer and… Bingo!!! The blue LED turned on and started flashing. The USB drive mounted as normal and I was able to recover all valuable data off the drive.

That was just a temporary repair but enough to get access to the files.

Flash drive USB port ripped off of the board

In this example I have a flash drive with the USB port ripped off completely. When a damage like that occurs, usually some traces on the circuit board are damaged too.

In this particular case only one soldering pad (+5V VCC) was missing and three other pads were intact.

In this similar example there are three soldering pads missing.

In order to fix a flash drive like that, I solder a new USB port (borrowed from another drive) and run jumpers to the damaged traces. For attaching a new USB port I use the same technique as for soldering a DC power jack.

Flash drive broken in half

Here’s a nightmare scenario for data recovery – a USB flash drive broken in half. Here’s one I just got on my bench. As you see the USB port ripped off completely, traces are damaged and… the logic board is broken in half.

It’s very difficult to recover data from a drive like that but in this particular case I got lucky.

Using a 10x microscope I was able to figure out where the damage occurred and solder jumpers from one piece of the board to another.

I did the same on the other side of the board.

Finally, I soldered a USB cable to the pads and successfully recovered all the data.

My customer complained that one of the keyboard keys stopped working correctly. Something got stuck under the key and it stopped moving freely. He had to push on the key very hard to make it type.

After a short diagnostic I confirmed that something got stuck under the right side of the key.

Here’s how you can take off the key cap and remove the stuck object.

STEP 1.

Make sure the laptop is turned off.

Very carefully lift up the key cap.

STEP 2.

Continue removing the key cap from hinges.

STEP 3.

Make sure the key hinges (lifting mechanism) stay connected to the keyboard.

STEP 4.

As you see on the next picture, there is something stuck under the right side of the hinge assembly.

STEP 5.

Carefully lift up the hinge assembly and clean it up.

STEP 6.

Position the removed key cap above the hinge.

STEP 7.

Push on the key cap until it clicks back in place.

What could be wrong? Is it bad power jack or the motherboard is dead?

By the way, the power jack (DC-IN jack) is the power socket on the side or back of your computer where you plug the AC/DC power adapter.

I’ll explain how to perform basic troubleshooting and find out what is wrong. This is only for experienced people, who know how to disassemble laptops.

First of all, test the AC/DC power adapter with a multimeter. It’s very likely that there is noting wrong with the laptop and your problem is related to the power adapter.

If the adapter tests fine and output correct voltage, disassemble the computer and remove the top cover.

As you see on the first picture, in my example the power adapter plugs into the DC-IN power jack which is connected to the motherboard via a harness.
In some models the DC-IN power jack is soldered directly to the motherboard.

Plug in the power adapter and measure voltage at the point where the DC-IN jack or DC harness (like in my case) connected to the motherboard.

If you are reading the same voltage as on the AC adapter, it means the power jack or harness works properly and the problem is related to the motherboard.

If there is no voltage, most likely there is a problem with the jack or hardness and it has to be replaced.

Most replacement DC jacks available here: https://ebay.to/2OLfQiq

By the way, in some case the problem could be related to the fuse which is usually located somewhere very close to the power jack/harness connector. You can test the fuse with a multimeter.

If the fuse is bad, the motherboard will appear to be dead even if there is nothing wrong with the power jack and AC/DC adapter. If that’s the case, replacing the bad fuse should fix the problem.

Thermal grease (thermal compound or paste) has to be applied on the top of the processor before you install the heat sink. Thermal grease helps to conduct heat more efficiently.

In some laptops you can remove the heat sink without removing the CPU fan. In my case, I had to remove the fan first.

In most cases, the heat sink is secured above the processor by four screws.

You’ll have to remove or loosen those screws.

Carefully lift up the heat sink.

In my example the heat sink covers two chips: CPU and ATI chip. It’s not very common. In many other laptops the heat sink covers only the processor.

The ATI chip thermal grease is different, it looks like a blue chewing gum. I’m not going to replace the ATI chip grease today because it appears to be soft and looks normal.

The CPU grease, on the other hand, looks dried out and feels very hard. The CPU thermal grease definitely has to be replaced.

Thermal grease was so dried out that I had to use a flathead screwdriver to remove it from the heatsink.

NOTE: I would suggest using something softer, maybe a piece of plastic because the screwdriver makes scratches.

Clean the heat sink and CPU with 99% alcohol and soft cloth.

Both, the heatsink and CPU are clean and ready for new thermal grease.

Apply a small drop of new thermal grease on the top of the processor. Apply just enough to cover the CPU chip (black square in the center).

Finally, install the heat sink and secure it by tightening screws in the order 1-2-3-4.

I have made this digital picture-photo frame from an old Toshiba Satellite laptop. This project took me half a day but the result was very rewarding. My new 14″ digital photo frame works just great and I have tons of space for all my pictures.

My laptop was in a good working condition but the LCD cover was cracked and the laptop wasn’t powerful enough to handle some applications. Instead of selling it for $80-90 I decided to convert this old lappy into something useful.

First of all, I had to find a frame witch is big enough for my project. I found a really good wooden frame in a local Fred Meyer store for $20.

The display panel had been disassembled. I removed front bezel, LCD cover and hinges.
For this project you’ll need a laptop with a long flexible video cable.

On this picture you see the back side of my frame. I removed both original wall mounting brackets and later I’ll replace them with more reliable brackets.
The LCD screen will be mounted under the black cover. In my case, I opened 8 locks and removed the cover.

The screen had been disconnected from the laptop. I positioned the screen inside the frame. In order to secure the LCD inside the frame, I had to cut off 4 pieces from the frame packing cardboard. These cardboard pieces will fit tightly between the LCD and the frame, so the screen stays in the same place all the time.

As you see, the inner paper frame is not big enough for my 14″ LCD.

I had to remove the inner paper frame and resize the internal part of the frame to fit better.

After that I installed the inner frame back in place, placed the LCD inside the frame, installed four cardboard pieces and secured them with duct tape.

This black cover will be placed above the screen and will separate it from the laptop. Before I placed the cover in the frame, I had to remove 8 locks.

The laptop had been placed on the top of the cover. I had to cut off two openings in the cover, so I can run the video cable.

I secured the cover to the frame with duct tape. Now the screen is sealed pretty good and duct tape will prevent dust from getting inside.

Finally, I secured the laptop base to the frame with a few wooden bars. Doesn’t look very sexy? Who cares! You’ll never see the back side of my frame when it’s placed on the wall. I also secured the power cable to the frame.

My digital picture-photo frame is almost done. Now I’ll have to attach the wall mounting brackets.

I made two brackets from a 2mm wire. Should be strong enough to keep my frame on the wall.

Before I placed my brand new photo frame on the wall, I uploaded all my pictures to the hard drive via wireless connection. I installed Google Picasa software (free) and set the screen saver to start playing all my pictures after 1 minute.
Now, when I press on the power button, the laptop loads Windows and after one minute the screen saver kicks in.

In this guide I explain how to remove a CD or DVD disc from a failed optical drive or not working laptop.

Let’s say the computer does not turn on but there is a disc stuck inside the optical drive and you want to get it out.

I think most people know this trick but some don’t.

All you need is a paper clip straightened out as it shown on the picture.

As an example I’ll take my IBM ThinkPad T42 laptop.

There is a small hole located on the front panel close to the eject button. Insert the paper clip inside the hole and slowly push it in.

The optical drive will open up. Now you can remove the disc and close the drive.

All laptop optical drives are similar and most of them have this “secret” hole.

I took this picture from a HP Pavilion zv5000. The hole is marked with a white circle.

This picture was taken from a Toshiba Satellite A105.

In you have a slot loading optical drive, on the other hand, you cannot use this method. You’ll have to disassemble the laptop and remove the optical drive completely. After that you’ll have to disassemble the drive and remove the disc.