Removing Parallel/Serial/VGA port from MB

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Flybye

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 29, 2006
Messages
374
Hi all

Do you guys think a professional electronics shop would tackle removing the above mentioned ports from a motherboard safely? How much do you guys think is a fair charging price for such a thing?

I successfully removed the ports myself from an old dead motherboard without breaking anything on the board. Can't say the same about the ports, though. :p I'm sure I can tackle doing it on the real motherboard, but I sure am paranoid about it. :eek:
 
He wants to make sure he's not tempted to do any embedded development or anything.
 
Yeah I knew that question would pop up in the first few replies.

I'm transplanting my Hackintosh to a G5 Power Mac case. Instead of going the typical hack job route on the back of the case, I'm going to do something a bit different.

You see, when you place a standard MB in a G5 case, the I/O ports are about 1 inch from the back of the case. This is why everyone ends up chopping up the back of the case. To bring the motherboard closer to the back of the case. Most people end up either JB welding a new rear plate or buying a motherboard tray and bolting that down to the back of the case.

I'm going to try something different. With the miracle invention of 90 degree RJ45 cables, 90 degree USB cables, 90 degree audio cables, etc etc etc, I am going to not hack up the back of my case, and I am going to simply put ports on the back, and attach it to the MB ports with 90 degree cables to give me space.

I've been debating getting USB Port A connectors and finding a creative way to bolt them down, or I could get USB Port A panel connectors which have these nifty wings that will allow me to epoxy the port to the case wall on the inside. Problem is, the USB panel connectors are somewhat bulky. If I were to attach them to the case, they would hit the parallel and serial ports on the MB, making it somewhat tricky to position.

So I realized well hey, I haven't used a parallel port and serial port in, what, 10 years? Might as well yank em out and give me space for my project.
 
You should be able to do it if you take your time and use a desolder or the braided wire to remove the solder.
 
Actually, I started experimenting some more with another motherboard.

I have a small Radio Shack propane soldering iron, but even that wasn't enough to fully warm up the solder.

Using wire snippers, I was able to cut off the frame and wires to the parallel port. The parallel port sits on an elevated stand, so it was pretty simple to snip away the flimsy frame and contacts. But for the live motherboard, I'm going to get precision snippers to ensure I don't get too close to any components on the motherboard.
 
I have a 25W Weller soldering iron that could never get as hot as the little propane one.

How many watts do you think is enough to get the solder lose off a motherboard then? Of course one problem is the entire port acting like a heat sink
 
Have you tried a small iron on the bottom of the board? Heat the solder till it melts good then tap the board on the table near the port. Not hard just enough to dislodge the solder from the hole. I just did this yesterday with a switch for a psu. Works good actually. When solder is melted the tapping makes it fall right off the board.
 
I'd be scared to do that, though. I want to use the motherboard and don't need the port. Doing that would loosen everything else up, no?
 
ThE_MaD_ShOt said:
Have you tried a small iron on the bottom of the board? Heat the solder till it melts good then tap the board on the table near the port. Not hard just enough to dislodge the solder from the hole. I just did this yesterday with a switch for a psu. Works good actually. When solder is melted the tapping makes it fall right off the board.
Click to expand...

Or just use a desolder pump or braid as was already suggested. That's what it's for, no "tapping" required. Tapping would seem not only dangerous but comically awkward, because unless you have a very hot iron, solder won't won't get hot enough to stay melted more than a second or two.

And I wouldn't recommend a torch nor an iron much hotter than 40w on something as crowded as a motherboard. High heat applied carelessly can kill components, burn/melt the PCB insulation, and run/splatter solder everywhere.

Flybye said:
I'd be scared to do that, though. I want to use the motherboard and don't need the port. Doing that would loosen everything else up, no?
Click to expand...
He's talking about desoldering the port pins. Not anything else.
 
A TV/audio repair shop should do it for no more than an hour of labor.

I'd recommend a soldering iron rated for at least 40W because it melts the solder quickly and lets you remove the component before heat damages the circuit board. Using an iron rated for too little power can acutally cause more heat damage because it takes too long to melt the solder. For a 4-6 layer motherboard, 40W is usually good for soldering, but desoldering requires 50W, and that's for leaded solder. Lead-free solder requires about 10W more, and I'd really want a temperature regulated iron for it.

If you want to be guaranteed of not doing any damage, get some low temperature solder made for desoldering, like Chip Quik (demo video), and apply it to every pin and every tab. It's not cheap, about $12 a foot, but that's still less than what a repair shop would charge. It might also help to have a heat gun that can operate at low temperatures, like the $35 one Ace Hardware sells that has 10 temperature settings. Chip Quik melts at 136F, but you'll probably have to apply 200F - 250F.
 
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