soldering job on compaq mobo

Hey all,

I’ve got a problem with my brother’s laptop. I’m taking a look at it for him.

Will upload all the neccessary pictures later.

Basically, he has a Compaq Presario CQ50-105NR Notebook. On the main board, in opening it himself, he damaged one of the ribbon cable clips that latch the ribbon cable onto the motherboard. This cable links to his power and wireless buttons.

My way of fixing it, was to solder a permanent connection onto it, with a link in the middle to disconnect at anytime needed.
Another way of fixing it was if I could find this missing latch elsewhere and just fit it in. Or even a used mainboard with all the clips intact would do.

Scrolling down on here, just realized there is no option to upload pictures or attachments, so I’ve uploaded the pictures onto photobucket, and will place the links below. Although just seen thers the option above to insert a photo oops… anyway please check them out.
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This is the switch itself: http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa286/Lilmarius/090627_153828.jpg



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Cable to be soldered onto the switch and main board: http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa286/Lilmarius/090627_153818.jpg



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place on mainboard where the clip broke, and where the cable needs to be soldered onto.: http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa286/Lilmarius/090627_153749.jpg


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Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

By the looks of that connector it would be better to remove it and solder the wire directly to the mobo. You will need a soldering station with a heat gun. Using the heat gun and a pair of tweezers remove the connector, then put the wires in place and solder them either with the same heat gun or an iron with a very fine tip.

You could get away without a heat gun if you have a desoldering pump (which is way cheaper ), but make sure the iron you are using has as fine of a tip as possible, as a thick one will heat up a larger area besides the pin you are desoldering, and will damage the motherboard. Do not pull on the connector if it doesn't fall by itself, you will lift the traces off the PCB, i've had that happen more than once. I do not have a heat gun thus i generally don't do any work on mobos besides recapping, but every cell phone service i've seen uses a soldering station with a heat gun to remove SMD components.

Cheapest station i've seen around here is 100 bucks.

 

Yea, thanks for the reply, thats similar to what i had in mind. But earlier today, an idea came to mind.

Was thinking whether it would work if I press on hard with the ribbon cable onto the connectors, and hot glue it, keep pressing while the glue dries...
The only disadvantage of this one is that, the glue might melt or get soft when the laptop is hot!, as well as the connections can disconnect within the glue

Advantage is, I can always just pull off the glue if there is a problem, rather than desoldering etc.

What you think?

 

You would still have to pull that connector out, and by my own experience i know (any kind of) glue tends to be a really poor solder substitute...

However you could try to do what i did to my touchpad, it's a matter of whether you can still secure the cable into the connector (a piece of thin plastic inserted above the cable should do).

But by the looks of that connector it's the kind that uses a tab to secure the cable, and the tab is missing. I don't know whether a piece of plastic would get enough surface area to hold the ribbon in place, but you could always try. And yeah that would work with hot glue better than if you tried to glue the ribbon itself.

 

everything went successful witht the soldering... but guess what?

the screen wont turn on

might end up giving up on this and selling it as spares on ebay

 

Well since you have it apart anyway, you can bake the mobo.

 

will seriously give it one more go.. unglue and unsolder it again and do the job agian. (should be a task..again!)