OP
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
4.7uF 25V. I would buy more than one!
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
- Thread starter Black Hole
- Start date
4.7uF 25V. I would buy more than one!
Hi, it seems I'm the latest to have this fault and thank you to Black Hole for advising me in another post. I have gone through this significant thread with all the information, thank you to newcoppiceman for his original diagnosis work. I am planning to replace the 4u7 capacitor but have not soldered for many years. I do have soldering iron with a small thin bit and I need to buy some solder. I see that care is needed in removing the old capacitor either by desoldering or cutting, is there a preferred method? Also, can the fix be applied with the board in place, or do I need to remove it to apply the fix?
Newcoppiceman
Active Member
There's a risk of damage to the board with cutting, in particular you may lift tracks - which is really bad news. Provided the soldering iron is intended for electronics work and is 25W min (say 50W max) you would be better desoldering. Some skill is required, but you say you've had some previous soldering experience, so you should be ok. Applying fresh solder will help get the heat into the joints and increases the thermal mass, so aim to work quickly on either side in turn until the cap can be shifted with some light pressure. If you haven't done it within two minutes, stop and try again when things have cooled down (you don't want to overheat the board). You don't need to remove the board, but be careful to keep the iron away from nearby cables connecting to the HDD (maybe shield them with some cardboard). For a really neat job, after removing the cap use desoldering braid (about 3 mm wide) to clean the excess solder from the pads, then a cotton bud dipped in white spirit to remove flux. Good luck.
PS - Don't use a solder-sucker as this can cause tiny fragments of solder to be thrown around with attendant risks of shorts, intermittent faults, etc.
PPS - Get plenty of light on the board while you work on it.
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OP
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
I think that would be tough. Possible, but access is limited.
If you can find any, I advise traditional "multicore" tin-lead solder with flux. Much easier to work with than the modern lead-free stuff, and still legal for rework on old equipment. It's almost impossible to use lead-free solder where tools or the workpiece are contaminated with lead, but not the other way around.
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Wildebeest
Member
That's interesting, thank you. It's been many decades since I did any soldering and although I still have my soldering iron somewhere from what you say I might need to throw it away and buy a new one? I suspect I need to do some on my HDR-T2 (the fan no longer works but the fan itself is fine, so I'm guessing a capacitor in the power rail for it has gone).