Problems Desoldering Power Plug in Laptop Motherboard

[mustard010]

Hey guys.

I'm trying to fix a Dell Inspiron 600m laptop's power plug by desoldering the old broken plug and replacing it with a new power plug.

The problem is: I was successful in desoldering 10 out of 11 holes of the old plug, and removed the plug, but it appears that a piece of metal is lodged inside the last hole.

Here's a picture of the power plug: http://carlodm.com/eBay/J20_full.jpg

The "piece of metal" is one of the white protruding metals sticking in the picture I just shown you.

The hole is small (about 1 mm in diameter), but the metal is lodged in there that I can't seem to desolder it. I am fairly new in desoldering so any tips is useful.

I use a Weller Soldering Iron (Conical Tip), a RadioShack Desoldering Iron, and RadioShack desoldering Wick.

Is that white metal part of the power plug even necessary? I'm thinking the gold metal plugs are the ones that are important.

Thanks

 

[krose]

Do you mean one of the 4 tabs on the sides of the plug? If so it looks to me like that is just a tab to attach the plug to the PCB. My only concern would be how secure the plug would be during use if only 3 of the 4 tabs are soldered.

 

[pepsimax2k]

Cut the corresponding tab off, solder it to the board from the top. Problem sorted

 

[Zap]

Yeah, those look like they just physically secure the plug and don't transmit any power.

You might need to just use something sharp to poke it out of the motherboard after heating it up.

 

[mustard010]

Thanks guys. I'll look into it today and tell you how it goes. I think cutting the corresponding tab was my only choice, but let me try one more time to try to dislodge the tab with a sharp object.

 

[wwswimming]

if it's a loose object not attached to anything on the other side, there's an old-
fashioned solder tool that i've seen used on production lines as recently as 2003.

it's called a "solder sucker". it has a spring-loaded mechanism that creates a
vacuum when released. heat up the solder, let the thing go, half the time it'll
clear out the hole-in-the-PCB/PWB that you're working on.