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hpr2314 :: Bad Caps

NYbill talking about repairing a computer motherboard.

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Hosted by NYbill on Thursday, 2017-06-15 is flagged as Explicit and is released under a CC-BY-SA license.
repair, motherboard, capacitor, polymer electrolytic capacitor, ceramic capacitor. 10.
The show is available on the Internet Archive at: https://archive.org/details/hpr2314

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Duration: 00:26:24

Hobby Electronics.

Building electronic devices and kits, repairing electronics and learning about components and their uses.

NYbill talks about repairing a motherboard.

Errata:

Even though I go into a bit about different types of capacitors I didn't plan on this being an episode about capacitors themselves. Even though I mention some different types. Bonus, there are also Trimmer Caps.

And yes, I know LCD's don't have a trace. The old school CRT user popped out there. You all knew what I meant.

Also, I know I mentioned getting a 90 piece cap set from Banggood. I decided to order proper Nichicon replacements from Digikey. Had this been a repair for myself, I would use the no name caps I ordered from China. But, being this repair is for a friend, I figured I better get the real deal. ...BTW they were 220 uf caps.

(Thanks Jezra for the musical interlude. We were joking calling it, "Time Passing".)

Pics for the episode:

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Comment #1 posted on 2017-06-18 10:36:12 by Dave Morriss

Thanks for this

Very interesting show (as always)!

The issue of the type of solder used on motherboards like this is something I have never heard about before. That means my recently bought Chinese Hakko clone soldering station will not handle it I guess. Time for a cheap hot air gun perhaps.

Also, my knowledge of capacitors is at 1960's school Physics level, so hearing more about what's out there now was fascinating.

More shows like this would be most welcome!

Comment #2 posted on 2017-06-18 19:29:15 by NYbill

Hey Dave, I grew up in the 70's! I'm not sure you can tell me to get off your lawn. ;)

Ok, maybe you can. But, I'll defiantly stand at the edge shaking a fist!

Joking aside, a lot of solder these days is going lead free. The stuff being used these days has a higher melting point. This can be an issue on something like a motherboard. Its densely packed and has multiple layers. All of those layers are trying to dissipate the heat you're trying to apply to one component. Sit there too long and you can start damaging things next to the component you're trying to replace.

You need to get in, heat something up quick, and get out. The hot air station did the trick.

However, this was an edge case for me. I get by with just my soldering pen 99% of the time.

Comment #3 posted on 2017-06-19 10:19:16 by Jonathan Kulp

The suspense is killing me

Come ON, man! Don't leave us hanging. Did it WORK?!

Comment #4 posted on 2017-06-19 17:55:36 by Ken Fallon

Do not reply in the comments

Hey NYBill,

The reply to that needs to be a show in itself !

Comment #5 posted on 2017-06-19 22:19:24 by Jonathan Kulp

I'll do a show next time

In that case maybe next time I should do a 30-second episode where I ask Bill whether it worked or not. How does that sound, Ken?

Comment #6 posted on 2017-06-19 22:39:31 by NYbill

Heh Jon, I had the motherboard in my back pack (fixed) for two months! (This episode's recording started quite a while ago.)

I planned to give the thing back to Marcus when I saw him. Turns out, he has quit his job here in NY and gone back to Florida! Oo

I talked with him in IRC, he told be to use it or give it to someone else in the LUG. I would have to pull apart one of my two desktops to test it. We'll see...

Comment #7 posted on 2017-06-19 22:43:14 by NYbill

"Do not reply in the comments"

WHAT! Task master...

Ken cracks the HPR whip. :P

Comment #8 posted on 2017-06-20 12:09:23 by Ken Fallon

Great more shows

Great Idea - That would be two shows. :)

Comment #9 posted on 2017-12-12 20:40:59 by NYbill

Its alive!

Well, its been a long time. But, I thought I'd just pop in here to give a little closure. The motherboard sat on a shelf here for months. I realized I probably would never use it.

So, I brought the motherboard/CPU to our LUG and gave it to a buddy, Rusty1.

Today I get this message:

https://imgur.com/PXHmClW

So there you go, the cap repair worked! Jon can stop staying up nights wondering. ;)

Comment #10 posted on 2017-12-15 22:58:43 by Jon KUlp

Insomnia

Whew, thanks, Bill! I still have trouble sleeping but at least it's not b/c of that motherboard. ;)

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