help with laptop soldering

[wls3]

I have a laptop I tried to replace the DC jack on. The solder I am using is primarily lead and I have silver solder that I think will work, but, I suspect silver has a much higher melting point and don't want to burn the motherboard with an over-powered iron. I have been able to get the jack on 3 times but after applying the power cord to the new jack the force breaks the lead joints and I loose connection again. Basically, I need advice on type of solder and motherboard related specifics for laptops.

What type of solder do you normally use to replace DC jacks? What sort of temperatures/power is acceptable for the iron? Is silver the best bet here? Any other suggestions I should consider?

Thanks

[Justmanuals]

Silver solder is definitely the wrong solder to use. SS is primarily used on jewelry. I don't know what all this hubbub is about with lead solder, I was a plumber for 27 years in a previous life and I never had any problems working with lead or solder. But I digress. As long as you're not breathing in the fumes from lead solder, you'll be ok. You should use rosin core solder available in most hardware stores.

HtH
[email protected]
_________________
Want To Fix Something?
http://www.manuals4you.com

Need a manual now? Instant Download
http://www.justmanuals.com

[torbjorn]

Yes indeed, lead-tin solder should normally be used. The exception is if the laptop is so recent that it i produced with lead-free technology (EU's RoHS directive etc) , in this case you could either make sure that as much old solder as possible is removed and then use ordinary leaded solder or you should use the same kind of solder that was used at production. Probably either a almost pure tin solder or some kind of low-melting alloy containing tin, antimon etc.

Mixing of pure tin solder and tin-lead solder may cause very brittle solder joints. You should preferrably not use the same soldering iron tips for both kinds of solder, or at least clean the tip very carefully when changing type of solder.

Note that the pure tin solder has a higher melting point than tin-lead solder, so the soldering iron tip must be kept at a higher temperature than usual. This also increases the risk of damaging the PCB (delamination etc), so it is best to begin with practising lead-free soldering on some scrapped electronics.

In the past, there were a few tin-lead solders that also contained a few % of silver. Those were used for wave soldering at mass production of PCBs, as they permitted to run the soldering production line faster than ordinary tin-lead solder. But such solders should never be used for manual soldering of electronics with soldering iron.
Similar silver alloy solders have also been used for plumbing work in some countries, as it once was believed to have better fatigue characteristics at high temperatures (hot water pipes). However, more recent research shows that ordinary solders outperform the silver alloy ones in other aspects (wetting, risk of corrosion etc).

[Justmanuals]

Silver solder is used in Brazing, mainly for air conditioning lines. I've used it also for high pressure water lines.

[email protected]
_________________
Want To Fix Something?
http://www.manuals4you.com

Need a manual now? Instant Download
http://www.justmanuals.com

[minnie]

Hey Paul, I got a leak. Can you fix it?