[vixro]

Well, I was trying to solder on the new surface mounted opamp with my friend and replace the power cap. The powercap change was actually quite simple, not as difficult as everyone made it out to be, and the opamp change was downright impossible.

Desoldering each leg of the chip was hard and eventually had to just clip off the legs. After 30 minutes of trying to line up and tape the new opamp into place and another 30-45 mintues of careful soldering, it all looked great and ready to go. I popped the card into the computer and windows was showing sound transfer and music playing, but I had no sound coming out of my headphones. I tried the microphone slot and I could transfer into the computer but not hear anything.

Anyway... when I tried to repair the opamp, thinking this was the problem, I pulled off 3-4 of the pads that are part of the surface mount. I am pretty sure that I have destroyed my xtrememusic beyond repair now.

I have a preorder in for an Auzen X-Fi Prelude, but I wanted to try this upgrade and see how well it would turn out.

I destroyed the pads and one of my opamps and I have nothing to solder the legs to anymore, but is it possible to fix? I am very amatuer at soldering something so miniature, but I think my friend and I did pretty well the first time.

Any information on where to go from here is useful.

Is it possible to use the pads from one of the other opamps (I don't use speakers or surround sound or a subwoofer) and superglue them into place, or is the card beyond help other than parting it out?

Would somebody buy a card after this type of abuse for parts?


That's all I can think of right now.

 

[XGJFilmsX]

hmmmmmm. can you take a picture?, you could try making soldering a makeshift pad directly to the board, use the solder and lay it on the board to connect the lead, it may burn the board if you don't do it right but it seems its already pretty much destroyed

 

[beerguy0]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vixro /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well, I was trying to solder on the new surface mounted opamp with my friend and replace the power cap. The powercap change was actually quite simple, not as difficult as everyone made it out to be, and the opamp change was downright impossible. Desoldering each leg of the chip was hard and eventually had to just clip off the legs. After 30 minutes of trying to line up and tape the new opamp into place and another 30-45 mintues of careful soldering, it all looked great and ready to go. I popped the card into the computer and windows was showing sound transfer and music playing, but I had no sound coming out of my headphones. I tried the microphone slot and I could transfer into the computer but not hear anything. Anyway... when I tried to repair the opamp, thinking this was the problem, I pulled off 3-4 of the pads that are part of the surface mount. I am pretty sure that I have destroyed my xtrememusic beyond repair now. I have a preorder in for an Auzen X-Fi Prelude, but I wanted to try this upgrade and see how well it would turn out. I destroyed the pads and one of my opamps and I have nothing to solder the legs to anymore, but is it possible to fix? I am very amatuer at soldering something so miniature, but I think my friend and I did pretty well the first time. Any information on where to go from here is useful. Is it possible to use the pads from one of the other opamps (I don't use speakers or surround sound or a subwoofer) and superglue them into place, or is the card beyond help other than parting it out? Would somebody buy a card after this type of abuse for parts? That's all I can think of right now.

I give engineers all kinds of grief for doing what you did, since I wind up having to fix the damage.

Damaged pads are repairable, but not easily. You probably damaged the pads by cutting the pins off the IC. When the pin is still soldered to the pad, cutting it tends to lift the pad. The best way to remove an SMD IC is a hot air pencil, but most DIYers don't have these. Instead, use an X-Acto knife to lift the pin off the pad while heating the pin with a soldering iron. Excess heat kills pads - 45 minutes soldering an IC is a surefire recipe for disaster.

Repair is another story. When I have to fix stuff like this, I use 30 AWG solid wire to connect the pin to the trace, but this requires a good soldering iron and good soldering skills. The first thing to check is whether the missing pads are connected to traces. The easiest pads to lift are pads with no traces. (The traces act as heatsinks). Any trace with no pad is not necessary to repair. As long as you have some pads to hold the part down, you can wire the rest.

For future reference, when soldering an SMD IC, put a small amount of solder on one pad. Line up the IC, and tack down that pin. The IC will now stay put while you solder the remaining pins.

 

[vixro]

Ok. I will get a close up picture of the damage.

I was so frustrated (and had a beer or two) that I actually cut off the wrong IC the first time, which is why I'm missing 2 ICs now instad of just one.

The board looks pretty burnt up, not to mention the missing pads or other issues.



Bah!

 

[colonelkernel8]

hmmm, too much flux in the way to do a good damage report, try taking some 91% (preferably higher) isopropyl alcohol and an old toothbrush and give it a bit of a scrub.

 

[bhjazz]

...and not to mention that the extra flux there could have shorted out something else in the process. As the good colonel says, give it a good cleaning and try another photo.

 

[XGJFilmsX]

yea way to much flux, but it looks like it could be repaired.

 

[Pars]

The upper one looks like it could be fun to fix... you only appear to have 4 of 8 pads remaining. 30ga wire to the pins, perhaps use some silicone rtv to hold the chip down...

The lower one doesn't look too bad. It appears to have a solder bridge between pins 7-8 also, but at least most of the pads are still there. I'd get a crap board with some SMD on it and do some practicing before attempting it though. Usually I use the flood technique and get one side up with an xacto knife or similar, and then do the other side. As has been noted, heat and duration are your enemies here. I don't do this for a living though, as one poster seems to... I'd listen to whatever he has to say on this.

 

[beerguy0]

Hard to tell through all the flux, but it looks repairable. 30 AWG wire, a fine tip soldering iron, good lighting, some magnification, and plenty of patience should do the trick.