SCL PC's and MSI 945gcm7 Motherboads

[ICT_GUY]

Just a quick heads up,

 

We bought a load of PC's from SCL Online (since been taken over), They have had various problems, the most serious is Capacitors blowing on the MSI 945gcm7 motherboards.

 

No warranty , so now I'm looking at having to solder new capacitors onto the motherboards. They are 1000uf 16V (replaced with 25v) and are £1.20 on ebay for 10.

 

If you have these boards, its wise to check them.

 

:-(

[DAZZD88]

Out of interest, how did you work out what rating of capacitor you needed for the replacement?

[ICT_GUY]

As a general rule you can go to the next voltage up without any problems as long as they fit. It gives the capacitor a little more headroom. This is the advice I was given when repairing my plasma TV.

[GAS]

HI,

we both in same boat we brought lot of pc from SCL and currently replacing capacitors, must think of buying bigger soldering iron as we have tried 4 of them.

will pm you list of thinks we have brought 4V 680UF A Grade Motherboard radial Capacitor 8x9 qty 50 for £12.

[DAZZD88]

As a general rule you can go to the next voltage up without any problems as long as they fit. It gives the capacitor a little more headroom. This is the advice I was given when repairing my plasma TV.

 

Pretty handy tidbit of info that.

[synaesthesia]

It is damned useful - I generally always go for the next voltage up (16v from 10, 25v from 16 etc) - usually in blowing power supplies, Dell Optiplex and countless Mac G5s/MBP's. Manufacturers will plump for the "path of least resistence" financially and 0.01 pence difference in cost to them soon adds up if there's 10 per mainboard and they pump out 1000 mainboards a day.

[ICT_GUY]

Im buying one of the Maplins soldering stations and a load of soldering tips. 60watt variable should do the trick :-D

 

 

So far ive repaired 2 motherboards, with great success. Though the solder seems to have a very high melting point or, the board is acting as a heat sink.

 

I have resorted to drilling them out with a 1mm drill bit rather than trying to desolder them. :-D

[difinity]

The newer motherboards use lead free solder that requires extra heat. A decent temperature controlled soldering iron is a big help.

[Edu-IT]

Just a quick heads up,

 

We bought a load of PC's from SCL Online (since been taken over), They have had various problems, the most serious is Capacitors blowing on the MSI 945gcm7 motherboards.

 

No warranty , so now I'm looking at having to solder new capacitors onto the motherboards. They are 1000uf 16V (replaced with 25v) and are £1.20 on ebay for 10.

 

If you have these boards, its wise to check them.

 

:-(

The warranty situation with SCL sucks.

[ICT_GUY]

Yes it does, as we were sold a 5 year grantee.

[Oaktech]

the thing with soldering...

 

make sure you always have a wet tip.

 

try and use the same solder (if the board is RoHS compliant it'll be lead free and therefore use pb free solder) and make sure that at all times there is solder flowing on the tip of your iron. you will find that initially to remove components you need to add more solder to allow good heat transfer. also, get a solder sucker from maplin.

[DAZZD88]

Im buying one of the Maplins soldering stations and a load of soldering tips. 60watt variable should do the trick :-D

 

Like one of these fellas?

 

EDIT: Here's the link I mean't CLICKY

[ICT_GUY]

Yes thats the one