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Meantime just fixed a pair of S7's that came in the door. Both had pretty burned plugs:
And after repairs we have nice new nickel plugs...
The trick to doing a proper plug replacement is as follows:
1) preheat: You have to get the board hot enough to allow the solder to be molten for a bit, both to get the old plug off and to remove the old solder.
2) rosin solder: Has a slightly lower melting point than ROHS crap: Use it to alloy the solder on the pins, reduces the temp a lot
3) Air heat: Use to heat all the pins at once allowing you to easily remove the plugs.
Then clean up the pads, flux the new plug, put in, warm up, and solder. A good preheater can make the difference. Trying to do it without one will result in damaged pads and Vias, which will not be able to conduct the proper amount of current.
And after repairs we have nice new nickel plugs...
The trick to doing a proper plug replacement is as follows:
1) preheat: You have to get the board hot enough to allow the solder to be molten for a bit, both to get the old plug off and to remove the old solder.
2) rosin solder: Has a slightly lower melting point than ROHS crap: Use it to alloy the solder on the pins, reduces the temp a lot
3) Air heat: Use to heat all the pins at once allowing you to easily remove the plugs.
Then clean up the pads, flux the new plug, put in, warm up, and solder. A good preheater can make the difference. Trying to do it without one will result in damaged pads and Vias, which will not be able to conduct the proper amount of current.
First, thank you for this thread it's invaluable! I recently powered down my S7 for routine maintenance and cleaning and noticed that my power connectors were fused to the white PCB headers (very similar to your photo) on 2 out of 3 boards. It was hashing fine when I shut it down and probably would have kept running if I wasn't so paranoid. I was using an old X11 board (I think v4 or v6) and there seems to be varying opinions on whether it was a surge or a if the opposite wires became exposed and "arced" (I am very new to comprehending electricity)?
I found a local guy who does soldering and he's agreed to replace the 3 headers on each board for $70 USD total ($35/board) if I provided the components. I have found and ordered a bunch from this site but I am uncertain if they will definitely work. https://www.moddiy.com/products/6%252dPin-Graphics-Card-PCIe-Male-Header-Connector-%252d-90%25-Angled-%252d-Black.html Could you please verify that this part is an acceptable replacement. Also about those nickel ones, would you mind sharing where you ordered from? And do you think the price quote I received is a fair one? (I will likely refer him to this post for your step by step instructions) If I continue down this path I may perhaps need his services again in the future. And tbh after reading this post I'm starting to think it may be time to try my hand at soldering.
