Any soldering experts here? Need help.

D

Deadjasper

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 28, 2001
Messages
2,584
I have a Supermicro X12STL-IF mini ITX motherboard with a mangled, destroyed CMOS battery holder. I'm trying to replace the holder but I can't get 2 of the 3 broken off pegs to let go of the holes. One came out fairly easily but the other 2 won't let go. Soldering iron gets plenty hot and I'm using a good quality flux but still no joy. Any advice much appreciated.

IMG_2952.jpg
IMG_2953.jpg
 
More heat, add flux. Use a solder wick to pull the old stuff out. Get some leaded solder to put it back in, otherwise you're never going to get it hot enough to go all the way through that via.
 
Yes you need desoldering braid. It will wick that up fast and leave both holes open. You don't want to keep trying and risk damaging the paths or pads which will make an easy repair into somewhat of a PIA! ;-)
 
Put solder on the soldering iron tip before contacting it, this will help transfer heat. That is a large thermal plane so it will pull a lot of heat out, something that big myself i would pre-heat the board with either hot air gun on low just to bring it up a bit above room temp or a temp controlled hot plate.

I can see some of those pads are starting to show damage, make sure you apply almost no force to the pins when it gets hot, the bond of the copper to the pcb weakens at high temps and can rip off very easily.

I would then add solder to the pin until its all melty and easily comes out then as suggested use wick to remove the excess solder, but again dont use force, sometimes the wick can cool the solder down and stick to the pads so make sure you dont pull on it.

Also be careful and walk away if you need to, i see the soldering iron looks to have hit your memory slots a couple of times.
 
Azzkiker said:
You need a solder wick/braid, or even better, a solder sucker. Once you get the solder to be removed nice a liquid, place that sucker adjacent and press the button... it will vacuum it out.

https://a.co/d/cJTVyC4
Click to expand...

I have both and neither have had any effect.

Thanks guys. I'll keep at it. And yea, the location doesn't help at all.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
I would heat up the board before attempting again, it's likely the board itself is just absorbing all of the heat. Especially since it's an ITX they'll have a lot of metal layers.
 
D-EJ915 said:
I would heat up the board before attempting again, it's likely the board itself is just absorbing all of the heat. Especially since it's an ITX they'll have a lot of metal layers.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm going to break out my hot air station.
 
Just a little background on this board.

It's a Supermicro X12STL-IF. I found it while patrolling eBay looking for deals. An X12 series MB for $29 grabbed my attention.
The pics showed what appeared to be a brand new MB. All the accessories were shown in their original out the box state. Even the i/o shield was still in it's plastic bag.
The description said the board was dead, would not post.
Looking at the seller's other listings it appeared that he specialized in defective MB's as he had tons of them listed.
For $29 I decided to roll the dice and bet the problem was user error. When it arrived I immediately noticed the wonky battery hold with a missing battery. Further inspection showed 2 of the legs were broken off completely. And so began the repair chronicled above. I ordered 2 different kinds of battery holders, the second being a universal holder. I figured it would work no matter what and it did.
I also ordered a CPU and 16GB of RAM. both being on the cheap side since I didn't know if the board would work or not. Well, it did. Everything is completely normal.

This is a low power system that will serve me well. It's going in a Supermicro Cube Mini ITX case with 2 hot swap drive bays. Gonna make it a backup server.

Thanks to all for helping me get the battery holder situation cleared up.
 
hi I a new member but have solderd many times.not an expert ok. You have to heat up iron and hten clean the tip with moist piece of sponge or towel. Then add some solder to the tip they call that tinning.
Now put some solder on the tip and put the end of the tip against the wire stub and solder. Now just push on the stub it should come out...then do the same to the other pins.
Manny
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top