Fixing a damaged AGP connector?

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funkymatt

Diamond Member
Jun 2, 2005
3,919
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It looks like the 2nd to last lead on the back of the card chipped off, the card is not recognized by the computer at all now. would a dab of solder fix something like this? It's a really fine area to be working on, im not sure if im skilled nough to do this myself. any tips?

PICTAR
 
B

Bob Anderson

Member
Aug 28, 2006
188
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Originally posted by: funkymatt
It looks like the 2nd to last lead on the back of the card chipped off, the card is not recognized by the computer at all now. would a dab of solder fix something like this? It's a really fine area to be working on, im not sure if im skilled nough to do this myself. any tips?

PICTAR
Click to expand...


I'm just thinking out loud: how about you find another old agp card and snip off a lead and have it soldered on to the broken card? The problem of course would be to find a person with the skills to do a strong solder.

Hint : a jeweller

-Bob
 
F

funkymatt

Diamond Member
Jun 2, 2005
3,919
1
81
I think one of the guys i work with, his father in law or something is a jeweler. How would you get the lead to stick to the PCB tho?
 
B

Bob Anderson

Member
Aug 28, 2006
188
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Ah! So the lead has pulled away from the PCB. I thought you meant it had chipped but a part of it was still connected to the PCB.

Sorry, I'm out of ideas.

-Bob
 
Googer

Googer

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
12,576
7
81
Originally posted by: funkymatt
It looks like the 2nd to last lead on the back of the card chipped off, the card is not recognized by the computer at all now. would a dab of solder fix something like this? It's a really fine area to be working on, im not sure if im skilled nough to do this myself. any tips?

PICTAR
Click to expand...

  1. Learn to spell
  2. Metal based paint like lead is what you need to repair this. Try searching for an Athlon XP overclocking kit, they used paint to draw traces on their processors packages.
  3. There is on really good kit out there specificly made for drawing your own traces, I will post it when I find it.
  4. Alternativly, if you know your schmatics; you could solder a jumper from the trace on the AGP card directly to the motherboard. Just be sure to put an electrical connector in the middle of the wire so that you can remove the card in the future. A 2 or 3 pin fan connector would be ideal
 
Jeff7

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
19
81
Well, going on the soldering idea - solder a whole AGP lead directly over the existing one. The wide area of the existing partial pad would provide an adhesion surface for the solder, while the thin strip would hang down to make contact in the AGP slot.
You might want to use a tiny tiny dab of superglue in behind the thin part of the strip, because it might be prone to deform when pressed into the slot. The superglue might work to hold it in place.

This is all very fine work though. You'd need a steady hand. And if you use superglue, use care not to get any on the surrounding contacts.


Originally posted by: Googer
Alternativly, if you know your schmatics; you could solder a jumper from the trace on the AGP card directly to the motherboard. Just be sure to put an electrical connector in the middle of the wire so that you can remove the card in the future. A 2 or 3 pin fan connector would be ideal
Click to expand...
Learn to spell. ;)

One thing to watch here might be timings - while this may work, it's possible that the longer wire could slightly alter the signal timing and cause glitches with the card.

That, or the trace-drawing method. How strong and solid are those traces? They'd have to be made very thin on both dimensions so that the trace won't get squished flat by the pressure of the AGP slot's pins, and of course thin enough so that it won't short out to the other connectors. But it also must be strong enough so that it can simply survive being pressed into the slot.
 
Googer

Googer

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
12,576
7
81
Originally posted by: SickBeast
I agree with the conductive paint idea. Just make sure to mask the other leads.
Click to expand...

Solder tends to glob up and take on a third dimension and that's not an ideal thing to have happen on a slot connector.
 
Googer

Googer

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
12,576
7
81
Originally posted by: Jeff7
Well, going on the soldering idea - solder a whole AGP lead directly over the existing one. The wide area of the existing partial pad would provide an adhesion surface for the solder, while the thin strip would hang down to make contact in the AGP slot.
You might want to use a tiny tiny dab of superglue in behind the thin part of the strip, because it might be prone to deform when pressed into the slot. The superglue might work to hold it in place.

This is all very fine work though. You'd need a steady hand. And if you use superglue, use care not to get any on the surrounding contacts.


Originally posted by: Googer
Alternativly, if you know your schmatics; you could solder a jumper from the trace on the AGP card directly to the motherboard. Just be sure to put an electrical connector in the middle of the wire so that you can remove the card in the future. A 2 or 3 pin fan connector would be ideal
Click to expand...
Learn to spell. ;)

One thing to watch here might be timings - while this may work, it's possible that the longer wire could slightly alter the signal timing and cause glitches with the card.

That, or the trace-drawing method. How strong and solid are those traces? They'd have to be made very thin on both dimensions so that the trace won't get squished flat by the pressure of the AGP slot's pins, and of course thin enough so that it won't short out to the other connectors. But it also must be strong enough so that it can simply survive being pressed into the slot.
Click to expand...

True, but that all depends on the funtion of the damaged pin. If that pin was used for IRQ, DMA, or power, then it should not be much of a problem.
 
Googer

Googer

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
12,576
7
81
Before you operate, get an old PCI/ISA (Modem, sound card, AGP Video, etc) with a junk motherboard and practice.
 
bruceb

bruceb

Diamond Member
Aug 20, 2004
8,874
111
106
You need something like this:

http://www.chemtronics.com/products/product.asp?id=7

Or get an old pcb with the same size edge connector and peel it off.
Then place it on the broken board with a Very Thin layer of Epoxy
and solder it to where it broke off .. It can be done if you know what
you are doing, use a magnifier, tweezers, xacto knife, static safe
work mat / station and static safe soldering iron
 
S

Steve

Lifer
May 2, 2004
15,945
11
81
If it doesn't work out, I have a FireGL X1 256 that's AGP Pro; I don't use it anymore. LMK.
 
Googer

Googer

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
12,576
7
81
Originally posted by: bruceb
You need something like this:

http://www.chemtronics.com/products/product.asp?id=7

Or get an old pcb with the same size edge connector and peel it off.
Then place it on the broken board with a Very Thin layer of Epoxy
and solder it to where it broke off .. It can be done if you know what
you are doing, use a magnifier, tweezers, xacto knife, static safe
work mat / station and static safe soldering iron
Click to expand...

Bad link! Instead tell us the name of the product.

Thanks!
 
Googer

Googer

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
12,576
7
81
Originally posted by: Googer
Originally posted by: bruceb
You need something like this:

http://www.chemtronics.com/products/product.asp?id=7

Or get an old pcb with the same size edge connector and peel it off.
Then place it on the broken board with a Very Thin layer of Epoxy
and solder it to where it broke off .. It can be done if you know what
you are doing, use a magnifier, tweezers, xacto knife, static safe
work mat / station and static safe soldering iron
Click to expand...

Bad link! Instead tell us the name of the product.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Never mind, I got it. You have to tell it your regeion first. Then click on the link again. I think that is a real winner!
 
soydios

soydios

Platinum Member
Mar 12, 2006
2,708
0
0
I'd try conductive paint. But, correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't the inside of the AGP slot consist of two rows (one upper, one lower) of contacts?
 
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