Soldering or an easier solution for broken video card? (PICS)

Padriac

Golden Member
Oct 11, 2000
1,088
0
0
I accidentally damaged this card (4meg PCI ALL-IN-WONDER) while moving it from one system to another. Obivously this card isn't a terriblly expensive card, however, it is perfect for my DVD/EMU/SERVER box so I would like to fix it. Aside from soldering, if that is possible? Is there a quick fix for this?

Picture 1 (25k)
Picture 2 (32k)

If anyone has a tutorial for soldering this particular type of item and can link me to that, that would be nice as well.

Come on experts help me out :)

Thanks
 

nardvark

Member
Jul 3, 2002
131
0
0
have you ever soldered before? if not, I'd scrounge up a test board and practice on making a few joints (ahem, solder joints, I don't advise you do electronics repair stoned) before you do the real thing.
or, find a friend to do it for you (it looks like it should take about 10 seconds).
if it is just a broken connection, soldering is a really painless process. it's desoldering that will kill you if you screw up...
 

Padriac

Golden Member
Oct 11, 2000
1,088
0
0
Thanks for the response nardvark

That little piece is hanging on by a thread, is it a connection or something else (capacitor)? meaning could I use a piece of wire as a replacement (I know I would be best trying to keep what is there)?

No I've nevered soldered before, but I figured since it was already broken then the worst I could do was make it uh... more broken?

I do have a couple of fried NICS I can practice on. I'd love to have a good tutorial for this? Anyone?

 

Padriac

Golden Member
Oct 11, 2000
1,088
0
0
Be nice Viper96720 not all of us have camera's capable of fantastic macro shots. ;)

I borrowed that camera from my bro in order to take the pictures, I'll see if he's home and if so I'll try and get a better picture up for you.

Basically that black piece near the center of Picture 2 is hanging off in Picture 1

It was originally like this Picture 3 (32k) [bad photoshop job]
 

nardvark

Member
Jul 3, 2002
131
0
0
yea, it's kind of hard to see what's going on in that picture.
seriously though, the best way to learn how to solder is to have someone else teach you or at least tell you if you're doing it right on a practice board.
if you HAVE to do it yourself, generally you want to just re-attach what came on the board/component, with a little bit of solder as thermal glue. you want to fully heat up both surfaces that will be attached together then touch the solder to the hot surface (not the iron itself). if the surface doesn't melt the solder, it means you haven't made the surface hot enough, which means that you won't get a nice bond. the biggest mistake in soldering is to assume that if you put a giant glop of solder connecting the pieces, it will be a nice bond. It won't. that's "cold" solder joint, meaning that you haven't made a nice thermal bond, and it will most likely break with a small amount of wiggling. A solid solder joint should be able to withstand a little bit of torture from needlenoise pliers (just see if it's a loose connection, don't actually try to break it).
so basically you lay the solering iron tip against the pieces in a way that maximizes the area touching them, then let the components melt the soldier, and only use just enough solder to hold it. it's OK to have a little bit too much while you're new at it, but you really don't want large balls of solder on your board (it's more likely that you'll connect to something you don't want to, amongst other problems...)
hope that helps!
 

Viper96720

Diamond Member
Jul 15, 2002
4,390
0
0
Soldering isn't too hard. Just heat up what your going to be soldering and apply solder to the part. If it's heated up the solder will flow. Otherwise you may get a cold joint. Those aren't good higher resistance and chance of breaking off again. Use 60/40 rosin core for soldering electronics. I've used the type with some silver inside but those have a higher melting point. Have to heat up the part longer and that's not always good.