Tuesday, February 26, 2013

How To Put The Mother Back Into Your Motherboard


Contrary to popular belief, you can fix the motherboard of your laptop. However, it's a very complex and complicated process that requires extreme patience and dexterity or else you may end up damaging the laptop. What we will be doing in this tutorial is identifying  and repairing broken connectors and soldering small surface-mount components. Here is how to put the mother back into your motherboard:

First things needed for the tutorial.

Anti-static wrist strap
Small screwdriver set
Plastic butter knife or expired credit card
91% Isopropyl alcohol
Small stiff cleaning brush
Lint-free cloth
Cotton swabs
Electronic soldering iron
Solder-braid copper solder remover
Lead-free sold


Now onward to the tutorial:

Turn The Laptop Power Off 

Turn the laptop power off and close the laptop lid. Then Remove the power Cable and the laptop battery along with any other cables and accessories that are attached. Next remove the compartment covers for the RAM and hard drive,  and then spread the retention clips on the RAM modules . Once you are through with the clips, spread lift them up at a 45 degree angle. Next,  remove the hard drive by slightly sliding it away from the connector and lifting out of the system. And don forget to remove all screws holding the hard drive. 

Remove All Screws

You now  move to remove all screws holding the bottom of the laptop. Next flip the laptop over and open the lid,  and remove any trim ring along the keyboard with a plastic knife and remove all screws holding the keyboard. Now gently lift one end of the keyboard up and slide the other edge out. You will now  lift the entire keyboard about an inch out of the system. And then  release the clamp on the motherboard holding the keyboard and touchpad cables, and then remove the keyboard assembly from the laptop.  

Next,  remove the VGA cable standoffs from the rear laptop section along with any other screws holding the motherboard.

Remove Accesible Screws From The Motherboard 

Remove any accesible screws from the motherboard and  slide the optical drive out of the system.  Make sure you disconnect an cables or connectors attached to the motherboard and loosen any cables or clamps that hold the cables along the surface of the motherboard.Now slide the edge of the plastic knife along the seam between the upper and lower halves of the chassis to open the case. After that, remove the top or bottom of the case. Next,  r emove all screws attached to the motherboard and then lift the motherboard out of the system.

Dip Clean Brush into Isoprophyl Alcohol

Now dip the stiff cleaning brush into 91% Isoprophyl alcohol and scrub any spill stains from the surface of the motherboard. Then Wipe down and touch up with a piece of lint-free cloth and cotton swabs. Before using the soldering iron heat it. Then touch the copper solder remover against the soldered contact of any damaged component.  Then press the tip of the soldering against the solder braid copper remover for roughly three seconds until part of of the solder is absorbed into the braid. Next  lift the iron and the braid away from the component and wait a few seconds for the heat to cool down. You then repeat the same process for other connections for the same component until the component lifts off the motherboard.

Finally, line up the replacement part and press the tip of the soldering iron to one contact and quickly touch the tip of the lead-free solder to the  connection until a small amount of solder melts into th connection Next remove the solder and  soldering iron and assess the connection.  Continue attachig the component until each connection is complete.
That's a wrap on "How To Put The Mother Back Into Your Motherboard." Hopefully with the help of this tutorial this will be the most memorable two hours  of your life..Cheers!

Till then take care

If you are here and you want to learn how to fix laptops as a career or past time, Download Laptop Repair Made Easy



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