Great video, thank you!! Every time I watch a no power failure video I get mad at the technicians from a brand-approved repair shop who couldn't repair something that possibly was a shorted capacitor in my work laptop. They held the laptop for like two months and I ended up claiming the warranty to replace the whole laptop. By watching your videos I feel confident to attempt a repair like that.
If I heard you correctly, you were asking for a tip on curing the solder mask more thoroughly. After using the UV light, turn your hot air device down to about 200 degrees, and the hot air will usually harden the mask straightaway. I really appreciate all of the descriptive tutorial information, as well as the sourcing info. Thank you!
For me, the.best way to apply solder mask is to put just a little bit on the tip of a scalpel and then use fine tweezers to apply a very small amount of mask on the solder. When UV cured a few seconds of hot air harden it more, the shiny coat dissapears.
I agree. You'd do more damage saving the trace than removing it. And waste a heck of a lot of time doing it. Cut the component out and make the best of whats left.
Hindsight is a glorious thing. You assessed the damage, considered your options and chose your approach. So, do not reproach yourself and overthink it. The important thing is that you got it working again, so you must have made a lot of good choices. You cannot go back and do it again, so don't do so in your head - that is the surest way of meeting yourself coming backwards!
7:55 that trace was disconnected on the right before you touched it. Might have been able to save some on the left where it connected to the via though. With the UV solder mask you can use a toothpick to paint on just enough. The less you use the better/faster it will cure all the way through. Otherwise the top layer blocks the UV from reaching the deeper part.
Toothpick is one option, or if you don't want to keep toothpicks around your desk, just push some mask out the syringe with the nozzle pointing up, scoop a decent amount with your tweezers, put it on a somewhat empty spot of the board (just so you don't have to refill from the syringe over and over). Scoop bit by bit from the puddle on the board using your tweezers and paint a thin layer over the wire. Once your done, just use a qtip to wipe the excess from the puddle (might want to go over it with alcohol for a second clean if you want a flawless looking board). Wipe your tweezers at the end, even toilet paper will do. Easy. Remember thinner is better, and multiple thin coats are better than a single thick one. Hot air also helps cure faster, as others have mentioned
Great job. It's a miracle that this thing still works. I don't know if you have them already but I have seen them on other repair channels and they call them "solder pads" to repair broken or lifted pads. They are just a sheet of copper cut like pads so you can bridge them to the broken pad to make life a bit easier.
I learned the hard way to take very detailed photos of the state of the board before cleaning it. And poke all the crusty ones first to see if they are firmly on the board. But Im with you on cleaning the board before applying heat and flux. Who knows what that crud is composed of and how it's gonna interact with the solder. That said, other people seem to do it and it works so perhaps my concern is unwarranted? I once threw a board in the wash and ended up with a board with a bunch of empty pads and a handful of mixed components at the bottom of the wash with no real indication of which ones went where lol. Never gonna repeat that mistake. Take photos and poke first lol.
Nice work Graham. I thought that was a goner. I agree that cleaning the board first is the best way. Take a picture if there are several area to be done. Flux and boiling just creates a soupy mess that still needs to be cleaned up, and it's harder to see the board in that state..
With a thin enough jumper wire you can actually go through the via and solder both ends which is actually better and far neater, that wire you used looks like it could go through the via, I have done this myself on a board as have others no doubt. Since the wire is enamelled it isn't an issue to do that. This method should be the preferred way when you think about it. It helps to keep the wire in place and you could use the thiniest conformal coat just as a precaution. As for conformal coating, undo the end but to NOT use the plunger like that, get enough in the end that you can use tweezers to get a tiny amount on and spread it that way and thin enough to see through it but not so thick you end up hiding tiny components.
Great service repair, I would have cleaned the board first then repairs the board. The repair you did was excellent and you get a gold star for that. I have been in Electronic service for 48 years and retired now.
By the look of the surface under where that trace came from, the heat from the welded cap had cooked it enough to detach it anyway. You did the best you could in that situation - well done mate.
My first reaction would be, that you had to clean it first with IPA alcohol and a brush. It would give a better idea of the damage and better measurements. Anyway, it works again. Well done!
I probably would have cut the trace right at the blown capacitor and then jumped the break with a wire. Solder mask it up and send it on its way. Oh and a trick, something I only just recently picked up from Northridge Fix. Instead of putting solder mask directly on the board, use some tweezers to remove a bit from the top of the case and spread it with those. My solder masking has never looked better.
As far as the glue, I dip a toothpick into the container and run the toothpick down the sides of the wire until there's enough built up on the sides to cover the top. It's sturdy and cures faster and you can still see other traces and markings.
This video helped me fix a water damaged Switch Lite I bought yesterday. Amazingly, there were no shorts to be found, but the damage was on par with this laptop. (5 areas were affected). Cleaned everything first, reflowed it all, put it together and boom! Power! My first fix on a modern piece of hardware. (I've only been working on gameboys and other old stuff lol). Thank you very much for being super thorough and sharing your knowledge. It totally translates to other devices. Love your work
These kinds of Jerry rigging repairs are my favorite. Just replacing a component (be it on the board or a module) mostly requires you to find the faulty part. That is also interesting and important, don't get me wrong but when you have to find a creative solution to the problem it just adds a whole nother level of depth and satisfaction to the fix. Great job!
if you want to know if you were doomed from the start or not all you need to do is, trace your steps ;) :D had to be done! awesome job Greham. good video :)
I like how you keep rolling during a difficulty. It helps us to learn technique better than just a straight video cut to success. Some other repair videos make it look too easy without showing the hard parts. t is discouraging when we try and fail. all the while thinking it should be easy. It is a skill and by showing us the progressive development of your skill, we get an idea of how we will get better with time.
First time commenting on your channel. I just want to thank you Graham for been my inspiration and courage coach to tackle electronic repair. After religiously watching your magic for a year now, I'm able to amaze myself that I can even graph back a micro switch on my phone the size of half grain of a rice.
I generally go for Alcohol and toothbrush and a fine metal brush to clear the area before I work on it. I systematically do this from area to area until all is done.
I see the argument for not cleaning first but once you have done the inspection with photos/vid of the affected areas surely better to begin with things a clean as possible. Thanks for tackling this repair very informative and it would be easy to write it off on first glance! With the UV mask I see people use a tiny paint brush or the tip of the tweezers to apply it thinly build the layers so it dries easier.
hi adam i use the end of a small flat end scew driver to put the formal coating on i find i have more control on how much i put on or a small paint brush as well can give you more controll to hope this helps 😀
I would have connected the link wire through the via (assuming it is small enough to pass through) to give a much neater link and less likely to be knocked.
For the UV curing you need to do this first : 1- clean the surface first so the UV stick to the board. 2- after applying UV light, use the hot air for a few seconds to harden it (you will know when the surface gets matty). And thank you for your awesome videos.
its best to clean the crusty area first with alcohol and a brush. that way you'll see which components are still discoloured. if a component is welded on break it off or cut it off, heat will just rip the pad off.
Great work Graham For tips on micro soldering if you need any, including that green UV mask, check out Northridge Fix. You can even buy tools from there. I much prefer your methods of analyzing problems and figuring out solutions, but Alex at Northridge Fix has tons of experience.
Nice to see someone giving credit where credit is due. Lots of comments saying to use hot air after the uv light but no one giving credit to Alex. I remeber he was the first to do it and shared it with us.
@@stevee7774 Not in my opinion. Alex is after making money more than teaching. And he can be cocky at times. There are more qualified people in this field as teachers. And Graham is one of them, even though Alex's experience in board repair and micro soldering is better. Graham is humble, intricate and intends to teach how things work and how he goes on fixing them.
@@hea5843 - I wasn’t commenting on personality traits. You said it yourself - “Alex’s experience in board repair and micro soldering is better.” And as far as making money goes, Alex is definitely the Boss. As for Graham I agree, he is a good teacher.
For coating don't use that much, I use fine brush and put a little this cure rapid and strong. A big drop only cure the outside never the inside (and the heat don't work to much, helps but don't cure)
LOL, you had one job..... LOL... I know the feeling. I would go with some alcohol cleaning first then the flux... but I think that cap was welded and you had no chance.
You don't know how happy it makes me that you have a work mousepad. It absolutely drives me up a wall when people are working on laptops on a bare desk and you can hear the crumbs scratching it's way through the laptop. My reccomendation is leather mouse pads. They have a slight grip to them, but they're not as soft as cloth
Great fix! Don't think many other repair-shops would be able to offer this repair! 2 Comments, if I may: - On a board, that had at least one dead short and might have more somwhere, I would not connect the battery until I am certain, all shorts are gone. A battery can supply an insane amount of short-circuit current, whereas an external DC-Supply will always be limiting the current to a non-destructive level. - I am pretty certain, that via was just to connect the rail to the test-pad on the other side of the board. Sure, there could be other traces on other layers, that might be part of a feedback-circuit, but going by your measurements, I highly doubt that. As you measued at around 11:20, the via reads more than 40 MegOms to GND. I would guess, that every other point on the Board will measure below 10 Megs to GND. Even input pins on ICs will usually measure in the single MegOhms range at maximum. The 40+ MegOhms is most likely just coming from the burnt FR4 around that area. Both just my opinion and in the end, you are the one running a successful repair-shop, while I am (so far) just a keyboard warrior :)
Corrosion prehibits heat flow. In my experience solder melts much better if the solder joints are clean. So i always analyse, take photos and than clean in the ultrasonic before resolder or reflow. Also if you habe smd caps that are corroded you'll always can identify them because the contacts have turned black or eaten up by corrosion. Tip for solder mask. Put the mask on an sharpe and from there put it on the part you want to mask with a tweezer or somenthing else. So you can control the solder mask amount much better. After using uv-light to cure the solder mask i always use a little hot air at medium temp to dry the solder mask. Before using solder mask i always clean the board (again) in the ultra sonic. Every thing needs to be very clean before applying it.
32:35 I've seen Northridge Fix put the blob on a piece of paper or something, like a paint pallette, and use a toothpick as applicator. Now that I saw what happened here, I know why he does it that way.
The first person I thought of was NorthridgeFix. You might need a little force to get the conformal coating flowing especially if you don't use it often so it's better to have it overflow onto a scrap of foil, etc. than all over the board. Just don't stare into the UV light over the interwebs...
@@bobapthorpe Yeah, Alex is exposing us to a lot of UV light lately, and making the scientists mad. My guess is he wants to blind us so we dont see the way he fixes stuff 😂
I think the trace was doomed from the get-go, but I would have used some alcohol and brushed it clean first. The main thing is, that you succeeded (as usual) and got it working. As far as the UV coating. You know better than to squeeze it from the bottle onto the surface. Squeeze it onto a brush or applicator, then onto whatever your coating.
I recommend transferring a small amount of the conformal coating with a small pick by picking a small drop from the tip of the syringe and then touching the pick to the spot where you want coating to be. it is slow but works well on tiny areas like smt components. A good UV light will take about 10 seconds to harden a thin coating and a blast of the hot air will dull the wet look of the coating.
Watching others use the covering mask they place a small amount onto something like a blade first then transfer what they need by using tweezers to get a better control of the mask rather than straight from the container. This other American youtuber NorthridgeFix shows good technique using this plus lots of other great tips. Thanks for sharing, very entertaining.Great vlogs👍
That cap was welded on to that trace and nothing was going to save it. Damage was done by the liquid damage. Re the conformal coating perhaps place the mask on the tip of the scapel and then use something like a tweezer or dental pick to tranfer the coating. Heat from hot air will also help finish the curing.
Solder mask you can put on the some blade and with tweezers just apply on to area/wire you want to apply it to and UV it. I think you need to UV it all the way and apply half of the solder mask you did 😀
Northridge Fix who does the UV solder mask all the time just squeezes half a drop up to the spout of his bottle and scrapes it off with an exact-O knife, then applies it from the knife with tweezers to the board. That way you don't flood it.
Great job. I was surprised when you appeared to be connecting the via with what appeared to be a bare copper wire, but ta little later you said that it was coated. With regards to the trace, could you have re-drawn it with a silver pencil?
I've not seen them used, but I can't imagine it would be able to carry any useful current. I used the larger wire to the caps because they actually need to bypass a power rail, where as the via was just a signal wire.
TheCod3r (TH-cam name) does console repairs and uses solder mask, he uses a UV light and then applies a bit of warm air to fully cure it, perhaps dispense a little on some plastic and dab it on to the area required. I enjoy these types of videos, I'm not really all that good at trace repair but it's good to watch and learn.
instead of pushing the plunger of the UV mask tube onto the board, I've learned to just push it enough to be able to stick a toothpick in and grab some of the mask and then apply it on the board by tapping it on. This also allows you to use just the right amount of mask.
Don't use magnet wire for trace replacement. Use 28AWG solid TFE insulated hook-up wire, e.g. Alpha 2842/1. The wire can be glued down with super glue. Then use Loctite Tak Pak #10 accelerator pump spray to instantly cure the super glue.
Hmmm, not the way I would have done it (but it is easier to criticize them do it 🙂) However, I would definitely have removed the crud first and then I would have checked if the via is still connected to the trace below. I think it was and if so I would have run a piece of wire or copper foil more likely from the via to the trace where it was connected then solder on the caps and use UV solder mask to help set the wire or foil in place.
To apply solder mask you can use one side of your tweezers and first take a little bit and place it on your cutting knife edge. Now you can apply little amounts over the desired area. After using the uv light, you can finish up with a little hot air, probably 200....regards
I have to ask, but why do most technicians go for removing components before cleaning off the corrosion. It seems counter productive, if you clean the corrosion off first you avoid pulling off any traces. I'm certainly no expert but I always think if you remove the corrosion it may just work, and if it does not then start removing components. Maybe the corrosion is why the traces are coming off when you try to remove the component. Despite all this I love the videos and the channel ❤️ you have a very calming, quiet voice. Keep up the good work, you also have a very neat and tidy work area. Also we tend to forget how small the components your working with are do not be sorry for squashing two capacitors together we know its small and so, difficult. We understand so don't berate yourself, all is well.
Great work as always. you where definately going to lift that trace as the high heat must have destroyed the adgeasive keeping the copper on the substraight. Just a quick question, did that Via go through the board? if you where to get a small hand drill for PCB's you could have cleared the via allowing the enamaled wire to go through the board and save the wire going all the way round
Holy !!! Adam What you should do is use a soft brush to remove the excess debris not a sharp too like you are doing there other wise you might remove the traces which will make the repair far harder.
Always clean it first. It’s a good idea to take pics for reference though. I don’t think you can boil away the corrosion with flux & hot air.. Where would it go other then other parts of the board…? I would have tried to replace the pad with solder wick. It looked like it may have been able to connect on both ends but that’s just from my perspective. In person it may have been a big nope haha! Anyways, It was a success! Great job brother!🍻
Graham - a small Donation package is on its way to the shop in the next couple of days (Royal Mail strikes permitting). A 16Gb kit of DDR4 for an older PC. I upgraded my main PC, passed its DDR4 down to my NAS and can now forward that RAM to you. It is back in its original box so should be safe in transit. It is 2x8Gb, XMP at 2400MHz with 14-16-16-32. Enjoy!
Very appreciated, thanks! I actually know someone stuck on a slow 8GB kit that could greatly use an upgrade, they don't need a good kit as they have an i5 7400, just more capacity is what they need! 👌
Weird point, but it looks like the only point of that via is to present the test point. Maybe I just missed it, but you may have been able to ignore it.
The via had resistance to ground when I was looking for shorts, so it definitely goes somewhere. I think it's a feedback wire to a power management chip.
Great job you got it working. That via had enough copper showing to take solder and would have saved running a jumper wire around to the back. Also use a bit of hot air with the uv torch it cures quicker and harder. you cracked me though trying to solder the 2 caps at the same time lol.
Can I ask which flux you use? I've always soldered without flux, but would love to get some for board work. I had a look online but there are soooo many flux options, different sizes and types. It's a little confusing!
Amtech to victory, but make sure you find a proper supplier - eBay / china will be fake stuff. The real stuff is much better. UK supplier I use: www.cnlselectronics.co.uk/product-category/amtech/
@@Adamant_IT Actually this is fake. According to Northridgefix, there is no V3 Amtech flux. Inventec has terminated its commercial relationship with Amtechdirect on September 2021. Any flux sold by amtechdirect is not a genuine Amtech flux. That does not mean it's not a good flux, just not Amtech.
Interesting... I was linked this supplier on very good authority, and this stuff works much much better than the eBay Amtech I was previously using. I'll check in with them and see what their thoughts are. The Amtech brand itself is such a mess that it might not even matter if it's genuine, only if it's actually good or not. Edit: I checked into it, this comes down to a legal battle between Inventec and AmtechDirect. No one actually owns a trademark on Amtech, so between the two of them, there isn't a "genuine" option. However, both make excellent Fluxes with very similar compositions. The V3 flux is from AmtechDirect, and is easier to get hold of in Europe because it's REACH compliant.
Hi for formular coatin best to use a needle and spread it out on nife and put it with tweezers on a place very small amount is enough. Great repair btw the trace was doomed and couldn't probably not saved maybe a small piece from the track could maybe saved. I probably lost the trace too i do not have an ultrasonic cleaner.
To me it looks like that the via was only there for the testpoint. Didn't go anywhere else internally, and its only there for troubleshooting and automated testing. So in my opinion that cable that runs around the board looks like not needed. Also under a microscope you would be able to solder to the via itself. True, it takes some practice, but doable.
You'd need to drill out the via, and it's 0.1 maybe 0.2mm wide. If you miss, you drill a hole through an internal trace in the PCB. So theoretically yes, but in practical terms, it's not worth it. The via could also be connected to internal traces, and drilling it out will break those links. Board views will show circuit networks, but not where traces go, so this kind of information is very difficult to be sure of.
The Via thru-hole might have been able to pass a small gauge wire through the circuit board and then no wire going around the board, otherwise, why did you not just use a piece of insulated wire instead of bare wire ? Old days when they needed to mod circuit boards, the via thru-holes were bigger and you could pass bell insulated wire through those holes to one protect the wire, and two shorten the connection, even if you did not need to connect anything to the via, it could be used as a tunnel to get a connection from one side to the other.
I most def take pictures and videos to map the mess and corrosion.Then clean with isoprop and a toothbrush so I can see what's going on on each component.Or use the ultrasonic.And then I start the work.I have seen Luis Rossman going straight away on removing or reflowing without cleaning first.But I prefer my method.
Great video, thank you!!
Every time I watch a no power failure video I get mad at the technicians from a brand-approved repair shop who couldn't repair something that possibly was a shorted capacitor in my work laptop. They held the laptop for like two months and I ended up claiming the warranty to replace the whole laptop.
By watching your videos I feel confident to attempt a repair like that.
If I heard you correctly, you were asking for a tip on curing the solder mask more thoroughly.
After using the UV light, turn your hot air device down to about 200 degrees, and the hot air will usually harden the mask straightaway.
I really appreciate all of the descriptive tutorial information, as well as the sourcing info.
Thank you!
For me, the.best way to apply solder mask is to put just a little bit on the tip of a scalpel and then use fine tweezers to apply a very small amount of mask on the solder. When UV cured a few seconds of hot air harden it more, the shiny coat dissapears.
Don't beat yourself up on that trace, it's safe to say it was doomed from the start. The welded cap sealed its fate.
I agree. You'd do more damage saving the trace than removing it. And waste a heck of a lot of time doing it. Cut the component out and make the best of whats left.
What is the reason capacitor was welded?
@@miso1995srb When it shorted, it got unreasonably hot.
Hindsight is a glorious thing. You assessed the damage, considered your options and chose your approach. So, do not reproach yourself and overthink it. The important thing is that you got it working again, so you must have made a lot of good choices. You cannot go back and do it again, so don't do so in your head - that is the surest way of meeting yourself coming backwards!
7:55 that trace was disconnected on the right before you touched it. Might have been able to save some on the left where it connected to the via though.
With the UV solder mask you can use a toothpick to paint on just enough. The less you use the better/faster it will cure all the way through. Otherwise the top layer blocks the UV from reaching the deeper part.
Exactly, and toothpicks are cheap and disposable, and you can use both ends.
Toothpick is one option, or if you don't want to keep toothpicks around your desk, just push some mask out the syringe with the nozzle pointing up, scoop a decent amount with your tweezers, put it on a somewhat empty spot of the board (just so you don't have to refill from the syringe over and over). Scoop bit by bit from the puddle on the board using your tweezers and paint a thin layer over the wire. Once your done, just use a qtip to wipe the excess from the puddle (might want to go over it with alcohol for a second clean if you want a flawless looking board). Wipe your tweezers at the end, even toilet paper will do. Easy. Remember thinner is better, and multiple thin coats are better than a single thick one. Hot air also helps cure faster, as others have mentioned
Great job. It's a miracle that this thing still works. I don't know if you have them already but I have seen them on other repair channels and they call them "solder pads" to repair broken or lifted pads. They are just a sheet of copper cut like pads so you can bridge them to the broken pad to make life a bit easier.
Northridge fix :)
I learned the hard way to take very detailed photos of the state of the board before cleaning it. And poke all the crusty ones first to see if they are firmly on the board. But Im with you on cleaning the board before applying heat and flux. Who knows what that crud is composed of and how it's gonna interact with the solder. That said, other people seem to do it and it works so perhaps my concern is unwarranted?
I once threw a board in the wash and ended up with a board with a bunch of empty pads and a handful of mixed components at the bottom of the wash with no real indication of which ones went where lol. Never gonna repeat that mistake. Take photos and poke first lol.
Nice work. You can put the wire straight through the via itself. And it's the perfect way to see where that via is on the other side.
Nice work Graham. I thought that was a goner. I agree that cleaning the board first is the best way. Take a picture if there are several area to be done. Flux and boiling just creates a soupy mess that still needs to be cleaned up, and it's harder to see the board in that state..
With a thin enough jumper wire you can actually go through the via and solder both ends which is actually better and far neater, that wire you used looks like it could go through the via, I have done this myself on a board as have others no doubt. Since the wire is enamelled it isn't an issue to do that. This method should be the preferred way when you think about it. It helps to keep the wire in place and you could use the thiniest conformal coat just as a precaution. As for conformal coating, undo the end but to NOT use the plunger like that, get enough in the end that you can use tweezers to get a tiny amount on and spread it that way and thin enough to see through it but not so thick you end up hiding tiny components.
Great service repair, I would have cleaned the board first then repairs the board. The repair you did was excellent and you get a gold star for that. I have been in Electronic service for 48 years and retired now.
By the look of the surface under where that trace came from, the heat from the welded cap had cooked it enough to detach it anyway. You did the best you could in that situation - well done mate.
My first reaction would be, that you had to clean it first with IPA alcohol and a brush. It would give a better idea of the damage and better measurements. Anyway, it works again. Well done!
I probably would have cut the trace right at the blown capacitor and then jumped the break with a wire. Solder mask it up and send it on its way.
Oh and a trick, something I only just recently picked up from Northridge Fix. Instead of putting solder mask directly on the board, use some tweezers to remove a bit from the top of the case and spread it with those. My solder masking has never looked better.
Good job Graham! Had my doubts at the start as it was such a mess, but you sorted it.
As far as the glue, I dip a toothpick into the container and run the toothpick down the sides of the wire until there's enough built up on the sides to cover the top. It's sturdy and cures faster and you can still see other traces and markings.
This video helped me fix a water damaged Switch Lite I bought yesterday. Amazingly, there were no shorts to be found, but the damage was on par with this laptop. (5 areas were affected). Cleaned everything first, reflowed it all, put it together and boom! Power! My first fix on a modern piece of hardware. (I've only been working on gameboys and other old stuff lol). Thank you very much for being super thorough and sharing your knowledge. It totally translates to other devices. Love your work
These kinds of Jerry rigging repairs are my favorite. Just replacing a component (be it on the board or a module) mostly requires you to find the faulty part. That is also interesting and important, don't get me wrong but when you have to find a creative solution to the problem it just adds a whole nother level of depth and satisfaction to the fix. Great job!
if you want to know if you were doomed from the start or not all you need to do is, trace your steps ;) :D had to be done! awesome job Greham. good video :)
I like how you keep rolling during a difficulty. It helps us to learn technique better than just a straight video cut to success. Some other repair videos make it look too easy without showing the hard parts. t is discouraging when we try and fail. all the while thinking it should be easy. It is a skill and by showing us the progressive development of your skill, we get an idea of how we will get better with time.
Exactly, like chef Emeril Lagasse would say whenever something went wrong while cooking - “Hey, we’re really cooking here folks!”
First time commenting on your channel. I just want to thank you Graham for been my inspiration and courage coach to tackle electronic repair. After religiously watching your magic for a year now, I'm able to amaze myself that I can even graph back a micro switch on my phone the size of half grain of a rice.
I generally go for Alcohol and toothbrush and a fine metal brush to clear the area before I work on it. I systematically do this from area to area until all is done.
Best way. 👍
I see the argument for not cleaning first but once you have done the inspection with photos/vid of the affected areas surely better to begin with things a clean as possible. Thanks for tackling this repair very informative and it would be easy to write it off on first glance! With the UV mask I see people use a tiny paint brush or the tip of the tweezers to apply it thinly build the layers so it dries easier.
Cleaning the areas up first probably is the best course.
hi adam i use the end of a small flat end scew driver to put the formal coating on i find i have more control on how much i put on or a small paint brush as well can give you more controll to hope this helps 😀
I would have connected the link wire through the via (assuming it is small enough to pass through) to give a much neater link and less likely to be knocked.
Great job! Thanks for sharing once again!
For the UV curing you need to do this first :
1- clean the surface first so the UV stick to the board.
2- after applying UV light, use the hot air for a few seconds to harden it (you will know when the surface gets matty).
And thank you for your awesome videos.
its best to clean the crusty area first with alcohol and a brush. that way you'll see which components are still discoloured. if a component is welded on break it off or cut it off, heat will just rip the pad off.
Great work Graham
For tips on micro soldering if you need any, including that green UV mask, check out Northridge Fix. You can even buy tools from there.
I much prefer your methods of analyzing problems and figuring out solutions, but Alex at Northridge Fix has tons of experience.
Nice to see someone giving credit where credit is due. Lots of comments saying to use hot air after the uv light but no one giving credit to Alex. I remeber he was the first to do it and shared it with us.
Alex is the Boss.
@@stevee7774 Not in my opinion. Alex is after making money more than teaching. And he can be cocky at times. There are more qualified people in this field as teachers. And Graham is one of them, even though Alex's experience in board repair and micro soldering is better. Graham is humble, intricate and intends to teach how things work and how he goes on fixing them.
@@hea5843 - I wasn’t commenting on personality traits. You said it yourself - “Alex’s experience in board repair and micro soldering is better.” And as far as making money goes, Alex is definitely the Boss. As for Graham I agree, he is a good teacher.
For coating don't use that much, I use fine brush and put a little this cure rapid and strong. A big drop only cure the outside never the inside (and the heat don't work to much, helps but don't cure)
LOL, you had one job..... LOL...
I know the feeling.
I would go with some alcohol cleaning first then the flux...
but I think that cap was welded and you had no chance.
You don't know how happy it makes me that you have a work mousepad. It absolutely drives me up a wall when people are working on laptops on a bare desk and you can hear the crumbs scratching it's way through the laptop.
My reccomendation is leather mouse pads. They have a slight grip to them, but they're not as soft as cloth
What type of crumbs?
@@miso1995srb any type of crumbs, metal crumbs, plastic ones,
whatever
if you watch nothbridge he always dispenses onto a Stanley hobby blade and then uses a tweezers to bring a small amount at a time onto the PCB
Thanks Graham for making me feel better about my soldering skills. Haha. Good video. Alcohol and TB first.
Use the hot air besides the uv light , it helps curing the mask hard
Jeeez, I had my doubts with this one.. Nice work Graham!
Great fix! Don't think many other repair-shops would be able to offer this repair!
2 Comments, if I may:
- On a board, that had at least one dead short and might have more somwhere, I would not connect the battery until I am certain, all shorts are gone. A battery can supply an insane amount of short-circuit current, whereas an external DC-Supply will always be limiting the current to a non-destructive level.
- I am pretty certain, that via was just to connect the rail to the test-pad on the other side of the board. Sure, there could be other traces on other layers, that might be part of a feedback-circuit, but going by your measurements, I highly doubt that. As you measued at around 11:20, the via reads more than 40 MegOms to GND. I would guess, that every other point on the Board will measure below 10 Megs to GND. Even input pins on ICs will usually measure in the single MegOhms range at maximum. The 40+ MegOhms is most likely just coming from the burnt FR4 around that area.
Both just my opinion and in the end, you are the one running a successful repair-shop, while I am (so far) just a keyboard warrior :)
I was about to comment about the test pad, but you said it better than I'd have.
Corrosion prehibits heat flow. In my experience solder melts much better if the solder joints are clean. So i always analyse, take photos and than clean in the ultrasonic before resolder or reflow. Also if you habe smd caps that are corroded you'll always can identify them because the contacts have turned black or eaten up by corrosion. Tip for solder mask. Put the mask on an sharpe and from there put it on the part you want to mask with a tweezer or somenthing else. So you can control the solder mask amount much better. After using uv-light to cure the solder mask i always use a little hot air at medium temp to dry the solder mask. Before using solder mask i always clean the board (again) in the ultra sonic. Every thing needs to be very clean before applying it.
Are you the singer for Van Halen?
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Keep up the good work.
You are a magician! Nice job.
32:35 I've seen Northridge Fix put the blob on a piece of paper or something, like a paint pallette, and use a toothpick as applicator. Now that I saw what happened here, I know why he does it that way.
The first person I thought of was NorthridgeFix. You might need a little force to get the conformal coating flowing especially if you don't use it often so it's better to have it overflow onto a scrap of foil, etc. than all over the board. Just don't stare into the UV light over the interwebs...
@@bobapthorpe Yeah, Alex is exposing us to a lot of UV light lately, and making the scientists mad. My guess is he wants to blind us so we dont see the way he fixes stuff 😂
Love your channel. Love the video and love your commentary.
lovely job
A fantadtic job graham,well done sir
For wires I use a brush, something like a nail polish brush. Few coats and then harden.
Use an old tweezers and dip a prong into the opening and spread it around the jumper wire
Amazing video Graham. I thought that would be a wasted effort when I seen the trace come up with it.
I think the trace was doomed from the get-go, but I would have used some alcohol and brushed it clean first. The main thing is, that you succeeded (as usual) and got it working. As far as the UV coating. You know better than to squeeze it from the bottle onto the surface. Squeeze it onto a brush or applicator, then onto whatever your coating.
I would have tried low melt solder as the first step in attempt to remove the shorted capacitor.
Low melt solder is our friend..
I recommend transferring a small amount of the conformal coating with a small pick by picking a small drop from the tip of the syringe and then touching the pick to the spot where you want coating to be. it is slow but works well on tiny areas like smt components. A good UV light will take about 10 seconds to harden a thin coating and a blast of the hot air will dull the wet look of the coating.
Watching others use the covering mask they place a small amount onto something like a blade first then transfer what they need by using tweezers to get a better control of the mask rather than straight from the container. This other American youtuber NorthridgeFix shows good technique using this plus lots of other great tips. Thanks for sharing, very entertaining.Great vlogs👍
That cap was welded on to that trace and nothing was going to save it. Damage was done by the liquid damage. Re the conformal coating perhaps place the mask on the tip of the scapel and then use something like a tweezer or dental pick to tranfer the coating. Heat from hot air will also help finish the curing.
Solder mask you can put on the some blade and with tweezers just apply on to area/wire you want to apply it to and UV it. I think you need to UV it all the way and apply half of the solder mask you did 😀
Northridge Fix who does the UV solder mask all the time just squeezes half a drop up to the spout of his bottle and scrapes it off with an exact-O knife, then applies it from the knife with tweezers to the board. That way you don't flood it.
That's way too much. Perfect!
I use bronze brushes to clean the crap and a toothbrush with isopropyl alcohol. and a k .03 tip for the soldering iron... regards
The fungus amongus... Great fix! Cheers!
Great job. I was surprised when you appeared to be connecting the via with what appeared to be a bare copper wire, but ta little later you said that it was coated. With regards to the trace, could you have re-drawn it with a silver pencil?
I've not seen them used, but I can't imagine it would be able to carry any useful current. I used the larger wire to the caps because they actually need to bypass a power rail, where as the via was just a signal wire.
TheCod3r (TH-cam name) does console repairs and uses solder mask, he uses a UV light and then applies a bit of warm air to fully cure it, perhaps dispense a little on some plastic and dab it on to the area required. I enjoy these types of videos, I'm not really all that good at trace repair but it's good to watch and learn.
instead of pushing the plunger of the UV mask tube onto the board, I've learned to just push it enough to be able to stick a toothpick in and grab some of the mask and then apply it on the board by tapping it on. This also allows you to use just the right amount of mask.
This was the whole menu. Soup, main meal and icecream for desert lol.
Don't use magnet wire for trace replacement. Use 28AWG solid TFE insulated hook-up wire, e.g. Alpha 2842/1. The wire can be glued down with super glue. Then use Loctite Tak Pak #10 accelerator pump spray to instantly cure the super glue.
😊 Good Job Thank you for shared your experience
Hmmm, not the way I would have done it (but it is easier to criticize them do it 🙂) However, I would definitely have removed the crud first and then I would have checked if the via is still connected to the trace below. I think it was and if so I would have run a piece of wire or copper foil more likely from the via to the trace where it was connected then solder on the caps and use UV solder mask to help set the wire or foil in place.
That trace was toast from the moment that cap went bang. I doubt a sonic shower would have saved it prior to removal.
To apply solder mask you can use one side of your tweezers and first take a little bit and place it on your cutting knife edge. Now you can apply little amounts over the desired area. After using the uv light, you can finish up with a little hot air, probably 200....regards
I have to ask, but why do most technicians go for removing components before cleaning off the corrosion. It seems counter productive, if you clean the corrosion off first you avoid pulling off any traces. I'm certainly no expert but I always think if you remove the corrosion it may just work, and if it does not then start removing components. Maybe the corrosion is why the traces are coming off when you try to remove the component. Despite all this I love the videos and the channel ❤️ you have a very calming, quiet voice. Keep up the good work, you also have a very neat and tidy work area. Also we tend to forget how small the components your working with are do not be sorry for squashing two capacitors together we know its small and so, difficult. We understand so don't berate yourself, all is well.
Great job myself I would if cleaned it myself with brush first to allow me to see what's going on but to each there own .
Great work as always. you where definately going to lift that trace as the high heat must have destroyed the adgeasive keeping the copper on the substraight. Just a quick question, did that Via go through the board? if you where to get a small hand drill for PCB's you could have cleared the via allowing the enamaled wire to go through the board and save the wire going all the way round
Holy !!!
Adam What you should do is use a soft brush to remove the excess debris not a sharp too like you are doing there other wise you might remove the traces which will make the repair far harder.
Always clean it first.
It’s a good idea to take pics for reference though.
I don’t think you can boil away the corrosion with flux & hot air..
Where would it go other then other parts of the board…?
I would have tried to replace the pad with solder wick.
It looked like it may have been able to connect on both ends but that’s just from my perspective.
In person it may have been a big nope haha!
Anyways,
It was a success!
Great job brother!🍻
Apply the uv paste with edge of xacto knife, from tube slice off amount you want & if need more repeat, don't forget to clean blade afterwards.
Can you use a fine drill bit and run a wire through the board at the vear?
I usually put a little solder mask on the end of a toothpick and kind of paint it on.
when my tech buddy laugh so hard after you start testing things without even cleaning ..😂😂😂
15:00 that's stupid. You can read the "Type C" label when flipped like this, but the screen is turned 180 degrees. Couldn't they just flip the logo?
Graham - a small Donation package is on its way to the shop in the next couple of days (Royal Mail strikes permitting). A 16Gb kit of DDR4 for an older PC.
I upgraded my main PC, passed its DDR4 down to my NAS and can now forward that RAM to you. It is back in its original box so should be safe in transit. It is 2x8Gb, XMP at 2400MHz with 14-16-16-32. Enjoy!
Very appreciated, thanks! I actually know someone stuck on a slow 8GB kit that could greatly use an upgrade, they don't need a good kit as they have an i5 7400, just more capacity is what they need! 👌
@@Adamant_IT On its way today. It is a Corsair LPX kit so is very low profile. Slower memory doesn't need the big "cooling fins"!
Success that what matters. Well done. Tips everywhere on youtube about applying solder mask.
Weird point, but it looks like the only point of that via is to present the test point. Maybe I just missed it, but you may have been able to ignore it.
The via had resistance to ground when I was looking for shorts, so it definitely goes somewhere. I think it's a feedback wire to a power management chip.
@@Adamant_IT Ah, I see. That Chromebook should be thankful it was in front of you instead of me. I would have missed it.
Good work
Great job you got it working. That via had enough copper showing to take solder and would have saved running a jumper wire around to the back. Also use a bit of hot air with the uv torch it cures quicker and harder. you cracked me though trying to solder the 2 caps at the same time lol.
I'm just a hobbyist, but I would clean first. I would assume you don't want to heat it and reflow the garbage into your solder joint. I may be wrong.
You have done a great job . 👍
I have a old HP dv2000 laptop no power light charging on it and I have replaced the charger and battery but still not working
Would a low melt solder be a good solution to that sticky caps?
Can I ask which flux you use? I've always soldered without flux, but would love to get some for board work. I had a look online but there are soooo many flux options, different sizes and types. It's a little confusing!
Amtech to victory, but make sure you find a proper supplier - eBay / china will be fake stuff. The real stuff is much better. UK supplier I use: www.cnlselectronics.co.uk/product-category/amtech/
@@Adamant_IT Awesome. Thanks so much!
@@Adamant_IT Actually this is fake. According to Northridgefix, there is no V3 Amtech flux. Inventec has terminated its commercial relationship with Amtechdirect on September 2021. Any flux sold by amtechdirect is not a genuine Amtech flux. That does not mean it's not a good flux, just not Amtech.
Interesting... I was linked this supplier on very good authority, and this stuff works much much better than the eBay Amtech I was previously using. I'll check in with them and see what their thoughts are. The Amtech brand itself is such a mess that it might not even matter if it's genuine, only if it's actually good or not.
Edit: I checked into it, this comes down to a legal battle between Inventec and AmtechDirect. No one actually owns a trademark on Amtech, so between the two of them, there isn't a "genuine" option.
However, both make excellent Fluxes with very similar compositions. The V3 flux is from AmtechDirect, and is easier to get hold of in Europe because it's REACH compliant.
Hi for formular coatin best to use a needle and spread it out on nife and put it with tweezers on a place very small amount is enough. Great repair btw the trace was doomed and couldn't probably not saved maybe a small piece from the track could maybe saved. I probably lost the trace too i do not have an ultrasonic cleaner.
My ideapad flex 5 acts like a chromebook(no chrome os, its windows 11) where when you open the lid it wakes up the computer and turns on
Use a uv bulb not led it will cure better and faster
> "A very angry looking section there."
lol! 🤣
To me it looks like that the via was only there for the testpoint. Didn't go anywhere else internally, and its only there for troubleshooting and automated testing. So in my opinion that cable that runs around the board looks like not needed. Also under a microscope you would be able to solder to the via itself. True, it takes some practice, but doable.
can you put a new capacitor over the top of the shorted one i.e. solder it to the top ?
I have the same problem, but mine one not charging and not coming on… on tester stays 5v 120mah 😢 any suggestions please 🙏
I clean up small areas at a time, rework and move to next. Once done check then ultra clean.
What microscope / microscope setup you're rocking?
Can you run the wire through the via? instead of around the side of the board?
You'd need to drill out the via, and it's 0.1 maybe 0.2mm wide. If you miss, you drill a hole through an internal trace in the PCB. So theoretically yes, but in practical terms, it's not worth it. The via could also be connected to internal traces, and drilling it out will break those links.
Board views will show circuit networks, but not where traces go, so this kind of information is very difficult to be sure of.
Your getting gud at this :)
The Via thru-hole might have been able to pass a small gauge wire through the circuit board and then no wire going around the board, otherwise, why did you not just use a piece of insulated wire instead of bare wire ? Old days when they needed to mod circuit boards, the via thru-holes were bigger and you could pass bell insulated wire through those holes to one protect the wire, and two shorten the connection, even if you did not need to connect anything to the via, it could be used as a tunnel to get a connection from one side to the other.
These through holes are incredibly small. You have no chance of getting a wire through them.
How much does a repair like this cost? I feel like on most Chromebooks you may perhaps be better off replacing it
I most def take pictures and videos to map the mess and corrosion.Then clean with isoprop and a toothbrush so I can see what's going on on each component.Or use the ultrasonic.And then I start the work.I have seen Luis Rossman going straight away on removing or reflowing without cleaning first.But I prefer my method.