Lately, I've been trying to repair PCs locally just to make some extra money, and I had to turn down a job because I didn't know what to do besides advise the guy to contact his laptop manufacturer. Supposedly, the connection between the MB and the female connector for the power chord came apart on the inside. Well, instead of shipping it off like I suggested, he merely, had another local repair shop just order a new female part, and just soldered it onto the board. They said that this was a common issue, and its easily solved. Then, they did it in 40 mins, and only charged him like $30 plus the part price. I was completely embarrassed when he told me later that week.

So my two questions are:

1. Are there any people out there that do repairs too that had a similar experience?
2. Have any good suggestions for any How-to articles that you've used before?

o and maybe one more question...

3. What specific brand or tools would you suggest for it?

Yea its super common with laptops. They go bad, break, or become loose. I was doing repairs for a company for a while. Normally its desolder 3 points and resolder on a new jack.

Tools well a good soldering iron really helps. You dont need some 200 dollar iron just a nice iron that isnt some cheap ratshack one. You will need some good thin solder. A desoldering iron helps and a desoldering bulb. Also a set of helping hands is a good idea. Flux as well as maybe some solder wick.

I've replaced well over 100+ DC jacks on laptop boards , its really easy once you get the hang of soldering . Best advice, grag an old motherboard and de-solder all the I/O ports and such , by the time your on the last one you should be fairly good at desoldering and leaving clean holes. Now solder them all back on , by the end you should be good at soldering on parts

Tools needed

Soldering Iron
Solder sucker ** I prefer the rubber bulb type**
Thin solder for small Elect. components
Tinning flux
De-soldering Iron ** optional , its a handy tool sometimes**

And if ya wanna get really fancy

A Soldering/Rework station


For DC jacks , check out Notebookworks on Ebay , They usually have the best price and they have 95% of all the jacks made

^^^What they all said

Also, when you're soldering there is a technique to it. Lead-free solder doesn't wet the same way, or form around the object it's attached to the same way. It also requires a higher temperature IIRC but I could be wrong.

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate the advice. How did you learn to solder and desolder though? A book? Guess and luck? Or someone taught you in person?

Some links:
Instructables on soldering:
Instructables - how to solder - DIY & How To

Lead Free Soldering (pretty much stuck with it now):
How-To: Go green with lead free solder - Hack a Day

Have Fun

Quote: Originally Posted by j-dogg ^^^What they all said Also, when you're soldering there is a technique to it. Lead-free solder doesn't wet the same way, or form around the object it's attached to the same way. It also requires a higher temperature IIRC but I could be wrong.

i use free lead solder & yes it's needs higher temp (45watt work good) bean using it for years without any problems

I do soldering work for the computer shop that Phil and I have DragonModz located at and I have been doing all their Laptop repairs as well as Blown/Leaky capacitor repairs. Its pretty easy if you know how to properly solder and have some experiance. The parts are pretty cheap themselves and the only thing we really charge on them is labor. I now keep a stock of the common power jacks for laptops (around 30 different styles) and usually have them in and out of the shop within an hour of them arriving. Same with Motherboard Capacitor repairs.

These are your friends:


HakkoUSA - Product Detail - Hakko 808 Desoldering Tool

It's $210 but, will pay for itself quickly and save you plenty of time and effort once you get skilled with it.

HakkoUSA - R/C Products

At $79, these are a great deal on a quality station.