Help! Soldering Accident!!!

I was attempting to do the "Hoot 5V Mosfet Mod" just now on my Epox 8KHA. It was not going well, as I just could not get the solder to get the wire to stick...

Anyway, a small little droplet of solder fell onto the mobo in the area of the mosfets. It fell on some little things like you see on the top of a AMD processor, not the bridges, but those other things that stick up just a little bit...

So I touched the piece of solder gently with the tip to try to get it off...The problem is that when I did so, the little appendage, whatever you call it seemed to pop off a little bit. ARRRRGH. I gave up on the mod attempt, I just cant do it.

I plugged everything back in and his the power button, and I get a momentary spark of life, then it dies. Just enough to turn the fans and get the hd light to come on...

What did I do? I am pretty sure I killed it, but I want to know what those things are called and what did I do to it?

thanks,
flounder43

attached is a pic of the mobo and a circle of where the incident happened (lower left)

BTW, the reason this is in Cases & Power Supplies is that this was an attempted hoot mode to raise my 5 volt line, and I have mentioned doing it here before, as well as soldering technique...

Uh... looks..

Sorry, don't see Waldo.

Where's Waldo anyways?

Oh, the solder piece? Waldo would be easier to see haha, it's kinda small... Can you enlarge it?

Here is a closer shot.

So does it look like it has ends you can solder back on?I know what pieces you are talking about,I think they are just resistors.Somebodys gotta know how to fix it here.I hate that first panic feeling of death by accident hardware

I can't make that out even with the close up but I'm assuming it's a resistor too. If it is you could replace it with one of the more conventional ones, the ones with the colored bands around them to tell their ratings. Just make sure their of the same resistance. That would give you something to hold onto while you solder the replacement on. Soldering one of those micro jobbies back on is next to impossible. Don't give up though. If it's boned you can't bone it worse by trying to fix it. Just take your time and you may get lucky. I really screwed my board while trying to do the core volt mod and it took me six hours to fix it but in the end I got my board working again and managed to complete the volt mod. Relax, think it through, take your time.

You have a "de-soldering" kit? All it is basically is a "pen" that creates a vacuum once you have heated the solder that you spilled/dropped/whatever (you ca pick one up at RS). You may end up taking off more that just what you messed up, and have to resolder original conections, but hopefully you can still save the MB. I think your problem resulted from using too much heat. Too much heat will make the solder "run", and not "wick" like it's intended to do.

It is possible, but I was using only a 15 Watt iron.

I think I need a soldering lesson, as I still was not able to get that wire to stick to the mosfet!

Welcome to my world.

Have you tried soldering two strands of copper wire to where the resistor contacted the motherboard, and then soldering the strands to the resistor? If you figure out a way to do that, both ends are the same, so it won't matter how they're connected.
Good luck saving the board.

For the removal of solder I like the iron that has a squeeze bulb on it, heat it up and squeeze the bulb and it will suck up the solder. Braid also works good to. Any time I do a volt mod I use tape and cover up everything in the area except for the pin that I am soldering. Even on the small chips with very fine legs I take the time and isolate all of them except the one I am working on. This may be a bit tedious to do but it will keep you from stuffing it up if you slip. Also get yourself a pair of helping hands from the shack. The adjustable arms will hold the wire you are going to solder in just the right place and the magnafing glass is a great aid in soldering those tiny connections.

To do the soldering itself first I heat up the wire that I want to attach to the mobo and put a small drop of solder on it. Next I cut that drop in half to create a flat spot. Apply a little flux and use the helping hands to hold the wire in place, touch the iron to the small solder ball and get out of there. This works great for those small pins and pads.

The large pins like you were trying to solder are a bit tricky because unless you get them hot enough the solder doesn't seem to stick to them. I use a heatsink on the pin up against the chip so I don't toast it when applying heat. i also use a 30watt or so iron for them (a 15 watt iron for the small pins and sloder pads) You can get small soldering sinks at the shack, they are kind of like thin aligator clips

My Turn....lol

Flounder,

Hoot was saying its "almost" impossible to kill a mosfet with heat.
(too a point) Which makes me feel for you.

What I am saying is: I had to use a 40W iron to "tin" my mosfets. Then I tined the wires, then, used my 30W iron to "install".

Hope your mobo can be revived.

I also had the same probs with the mod. I just kept going up in heat until I found an iron that worked. ( I only have single wattage irons. 20w, 30w, 40w. I'm not rich enough or $mart enuff to own a variable 1)


Good Luck.