DC Connector Replacement

Yep, I would say that was probably a gun to burn a hole in the circuit board. I have an old Craftman 300W/550W soldering gun that is great for soldering wires on cars. Would never think of using it on electronics though.

I have never used a hot-air gun for soldering. I have 1800W Bosch hot-air gun (1300 degrees F) but it is for stripping paint and such. I think it will roast a chicken in about 3 minutes.:D
 
I use the cheapest desoldering iron from Radioshack and it works pretty good. It costs about $9 and is well worth it if you do not replace these jacks on a daily basis. Just go to the radio shack site and search for de-soldering iron. It has many good reviews so you can't miss it.
 
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For soldering the new jack on, I use a Weller WES51 - it has variable temp control and replaceable tips - You can get tips the diameter of a nail tip so you can accurately solder the tiny connectors onto the board. Amazon sells this soldering station for under $90 with free shipping. By far the best soldering iron for the price.
 
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Most of the time the damage that I see done by jack repair attempts are due to people's desoldering efforts. A good weller station ie one that costs more than 100 bucks and experience and you will have every jack off in less than 5 minutes, and most of the smaller ones in under a minute.
 
I use the cheapest desoldering iron from Radioshack and it works pretty good. It costs about $9 and is well worth it if you do not replace these jacks on a daily basis. Just go to the radio shack site and search for de-soldering iron. It has many good reviews so you can't miss it.

It also depends on the jack. Some of the nine pin jobs with lead-free solder can be a real pain in the ass. A cheap iron will cool down too quickly and not reheat fast enough as you work around the chip. I actually have a Radioshack soldering iron (cheapo black plastic handle) and it doesnt work for through hole stuff. My AOYUE 2702+a or the Weller 51 digital work very well each time.
 
A temperature controlled station is critical. A 15watt pencil iron is not going to cut it.

It also depends on the jack. Some of the nine pin jobs with lead-free solder can be a real pain in the ass. A cheap iron will cool down too quickly and not reheat fast enough as you work around the chip. I actually have a Radioshack soldering iron (cheapo black plastic handle) and it doesnt work for through hole stuff. My AOYUE 2702+a or the Weller 51 digital work very well each time.
 
If it seems to be anything too difficult I just send it to Pell Technology (you can Google it). I hate dismantling and re-assembline laptops, and don't like the liability of self-repaired laptops. Pell Guarantees the work, or yiou only pay shipping. $150 flat rate for any motherboard repairs. If it requires extra parts (never have yet), they quote it to you first.

I'm sure there's also other places that do similar, but I haven't found them yet. They are expensive for individual parts though.

USACVIR, the link in your sig, do the same and accept from nationwide as well?
 
Yes we are a nationwide mail order service center. I just use my local shop ad banner in my graphic. Most shops that charge to 'repair' the board are actually just replacing it as we usually do. No techdata available and it's generally not worth the time to troubleshoot modern smt soldered boards. We charge 74.95 total for jack repairs online. In the walk in shop they are 99.95

If it seems to be anything too difficult I just send it to Pell Technology (you can Google it). I hate dismantling and re-assembline laptops, and don't like the liability of self-repaired laptops. Pell Guarantees the work, or yiou only pay shipping. $150 flat rate for any motherboard repairs. If it requires extra parts (never have yet), they quote it to you first.

I'm sure there's also other places that do similar, but I haven't found them yet. They are expensive for individual parts though.

USACVIR, the link in your sig, do the same and accept from nationwide as well?
 
Here's a jack I removed from a flaky DIY job. The customer didn't do this one himself though, he (unknowingly) bought it this way from craigslist. I think it's originally from some audio equipment?

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I just hate seeing bubbafied crap like that. No offense to oklahomans but here in california we call doing a repair like that 'Okee-ing' it. The next worst repair is when people try to saw off the back of the laptop to get at the jack or the ones where they dangle wires out the back to a jack from radio shack. God I hate that. Total garbage.
 
I'm using a "Kada 852D+" rework station I purchased off ebay for about $90 with 10 tips for the iron and 3 tips for the air gun and replacement heating element. The temp goes up to 480C. This is my first rework station so I can't give an accurate review on how well it works...seems to do the job.

I'm fast at disassembling the laptop...15mins or so. But it takes me at least 15mins to desolder the jack, guess I'm missing the super secret solder sucker that usacvlr is using:D

Heres my steps for desoldering
1. clean the area.
2. use the iron and add new solder to each point and mix it in with the older solder.
3. use the heat gun with the airflow dial set to 2 and concentrate it on one point until the solder melts.
4. I use a spring loaded solder sucker to well suck out the solder, takes about 3 sucks to get most of it out.
5. repeat sets 1 - 4 for the rest.
 
Heres my steps for desoldering
1. clean the area.
2. use the iron and add new solder to each point and mix it in with the older solder.
3. use the heat gun with the airflow dial set to 2 and concentrate it on one point until the solder melts.
4. I use a spring loaded solder sucker to well suck out the solder, takes about 3 sucks to get most of it out.
5. repeat sets 1 - 4 for the rest.

Cleaning the area is absolutely essential. Gunk or other stuff on the solder joints will often vaporize during desoldering and cause a barrier making it difficult to use a solder braid or to get flux to flow properly.

In desoldering the jacks I personally prefer to add a bit of flux past to the solder points then go at it with a solder braid and solder iron, when i see the solder melt into the braid I work the braid and the tip on or around the solder point and then pull back to see whats left. I hate solder suckers, I find they were good a while back with non-ROHS solder and big solder joints but todays very small, lead free solder joints are too close to the board for solder suckers in most cases.

A good very hot tip on an iron that recovers quickly, flux paste, a quality solder braid and good technique are whats needed to do these through hole jack jobs. But I am sure everyone has their own technique.

I recently did a older three point jack with just a desoldering gun, it was almost funny to watch as I would put the gun tip on the soldered pin for 10 seconds, hit the suck button, lift and it was clean, repeat two more times and I was done. I wish they were all like that. Try working on a 9 pin jack with "devil solder" that just wont melt for some reason, ugghh ! :D
 
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