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Bought a $12 soldering iron on a whim, and it somehow fixed my 2004 Dell's power jack
The power jack on my old Dell laptop was loose for 3 weeks, so I figured it was dead and started looking at $40 replacement boards. Before giving up, I grabbed a $12 pencil iron from the hardware store in Reno and tried reflowing the 3 cracked solder joints on the jack myself. Two of the joints were so dry they basically crumbled, but I got new solder on all of them and the thing charged fine on the first try. I did nick the plastic shell a little, and my joints look like tiny blobs, but it works. Anyone know if a cheap iron like this is enough for bigger jobs, or do I really need to step up to a temp controlled one?
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mason.paige22d ago
My soldering skills are so bad that the last time I tried a repair like this I melted a hole clean through the plastic and the joint still looked like a frozen pea. What you pulled off is legit impressive, because a $12 pencil iron has no temp control, so it just keeps getting hotter the longer you hold it, and that is exactly how people lift pads right off the board. Your blobs are fine, by the way, since shiny and connected beats pretty every single time. For bigger jobs the real problem is not power, it is heat recovery, meaning a cheap iron cools down the second it touches a ground plane and you end up cooking the board waiting for it to catch up. A temp controlled station is worth it if you plan to keep doing this, but for one jack on an old Dell you already won. Just get some flux and wick for next time, that is the actual game changer, not the iron.
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