Little tip for those corroded pads: Remove components, apply lots of flux and then use solder braid/wick to give these pads a little scrub. Then re-tin. It works pretty well in my opinion.

Ur videos are so helpful. I've started ordering broken computers and motherboards from eBay, repairing them and then selling them on. Almost 100 percent success rate. Thanks!

Really good video. I am so glad you don't edit out when things go bad, because these are the most helpful videos. Because it so frustrating to watch other people's video when everything goes perfect but when doing it yourself it is impossible. These videos are more real life situations

One of the things that Paul uses a lot is hot air assist. I have had to do it as well on some of these boards if I have a problem similar to what you were having. Also solder could have been a bit smaller. Great video showing how things don't always go as smooth as some make it look.

"Le' Flouf!" 🤣Reminded me of inspector Cluso!

I totally share your pain on working on small stuff like that. Thanks for educating all of us! Also, I've learned that too much heat too fast can kill the protective layer on your tip and cause it to oxidize not allowing solder to stick where you want it to. When you unpack a fresh tip, start slow and gradually bring the heat up from ~130 in 10 degree intervals until you have melting solder. What I do now is always leave a blob of solder on top of the tip and let it cool that way. This protects the coating and you can easily clean it off when using it next time.

Awesome video! Thanks for making these videos. Your videos are some of the "most real" videos I've seen on board repair. I've been fixing computers for about 20 years now, but just recently getting into board repair. Before, I'd just try to find a replacement motherboard or declare it a no fix. But I'm taking that next step and learning to actually fix the boards now. My soldering skills are decent, but I've got a long way to go. I appreciate seeing your struggles with the smaller components. I struggle with those as well. I even struggle with some of the larger ones at times. I think one of the keys to success on some of that stuff is if you get stuck in a frustrating part of the board with one of those tiny little components giving you fits, just step away for a few minutes, let the board, your equipment, and yourself cool off a little, then tackle it again. It seems to work for me at least. I usually don't like to take too long of a break though, as I like to put things back together while I still remember where the screws go. :) I really enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work!

Adam, even through this repair didn't go a well as you expected, the means by which you recovered the process is in itself very usefull to those coming up in the trade. Things don't always go as planned but what you do when the solder gods turn against you is very informative. Tks for the great video!!

Im waiting for the day you get a microscope, beeing able to see clearly what you are doing makes a HUGE difference in microsoldering.

I like to actually scrape oxidation off. Works well usually.

Yeah small resistors are a pain. a trick I used in the past was a very sharp toothpick and a small bottle of sugar water, I would put a tiny drop of the solution on the bottom of the component and 'glue' it to the PCB then solder. that really worked for me when I was prototyping.

A smaller conical tip. Good repair in the end. Made it work.

I would suggest using an X-acto knife to scrape the pad a bit. the solder mask probably encroached into the area around the pad and is making it difficult to get down to that recessed pad. secondly when the iron is cool, take a scotchbrite bad and scuff/polish up your soldering tip. that will help.

This is a excellent video. The power rail info at examination is massively helpful. leaving in all the struggles of trying to solder with micro components is very…. Very relatable 😎

Excellent job. Amazing work with tiny soldering

To join together the two ends of the resistors you could use just a small amount of solder paste and hot air (small nozzle) or a solder ball used to reballing BGA chips. Your solder tip is too big for those 0201 resistors, you could consider buying a solder iron Weller WM120, designed for soldering miniature components, cheap iron with very fine tip. Thanks for the video, as always very interesting stuff. :-)

0201 resistors, always fun. Get yourself a nice JBC iron with the finest tip they sell. Makes life a lot easier. If you're feeling flushed get yourself a JBC micro-pencil station. Think you also need some fine tipped tweezers, the ones in the video were way too big. Oh and 0.2 mm solder.

Graham,really well done sir,a most valliant effort indeed an exellent job as always,

Good fix even with the stubborn solder!! 🤓

This is exactly what I like to see to learn from. Well done! Complements from California.

Good job as always mate.

Congratulations on a hard fought win!!!! You can see the relief on your face, lol!!!! I sooo know the feeling!!!!

Good repair. Thanks

First you have to use wire brush. Second always use IPA (isopropyl) You needed to scrape the pad a bit to reveal the contact... Nice job

love your stuff good job.

Adam, I had a repair likes this a couple weeks ago, I almost gave up as two tiny caps would not play nice. Sadly they weren't the reason the laptop was in, but during the repair they decided to go for a bit of a walk. Took my longer getting them back in place than the repair LOL.

Yep... it is always like you show. Props for not editing the complexities on microsoldering (in particular when the tools do not help). Very nice video!|

The struggle was real in this one LOL. If I was you. I would be thinking about a HDMI Microscope, Finer Tweezers and a better iron. Maybe a Hakko FX951-66 with the Hakko FM2032-51 Micro and some nice tips to go with it and the normal hand piece.

I think you did very well since the resistors were tiny and you didn't have a microscope and other fine tuned equipment etc. But you knew exactly what was wrong and you fixed it back to perfect functionality with affordable tools.

very informative, appreciate that you left the issues in, warts and all I have a macbook air that refuses to switch on ( if you let the battery discharge, then attach the charger it will come on, and work perfectly ( reboots etc )until you shut it down. I'll take a look at the power rails and same resistors you mentioned. ( Mac really isn't my thing, I'm more Windows ) Glad I stumbled across your channel CTSNW

I've used window glass cleaner for a long time for this kind of job, and I thought I were the only one! Yay, I'm not alone 😊 A plus of glass cleaner is the good smell of cleanliness it leaves behind.

That's how SMT soldering always goes for me, a frustrating nightmare. Thru hole, I can do with my eyes closed - soldered a 68000 based computer with a non-temperature controlled iron with 100% success back in the day. I agree there is something wrong with that tip, though - probably lost its plating. Also wonder if there was some remaining contamination of the board that transferred to your iron.

I watch several repair YT cannells, like Northbridge fix and there are several things going to good work. Anyway thank you for the video 😁👍

Wow, that was a lot of work. If you find that solder doesn't stick, there is no metal for it to stick to. Scraping may have helped. In the end, the creative method you used was a workable solution.

Wow what a nightmare.... thanks for sharing!

Important point here. Like you, I struggled with teeny-tiny components when I lived in the UK. I emigrated to the USA a long while ago and for some reason, a load of other tools became available to me. Working as I did in a University I.T. shop, we did repairs on all sorts of gear from through hole to just these kinds of components. So what are the better tools? Higher power magnifiers/microscopes, even smaller soldering iron tips, heated tweezers and so on. Long story short, after all this time, your soldering skills are probably not too bad, but by 'soldiering on' and making do with massive tips on irons, wrong solder and so on you are using the wrong tools. Also - yes the tip of the iron was dead. They will do that after a lot of use. Spending the money to buy quality micro soldering tools that are much smaller than you are using will pay dividends. Not that its always going to work 100%, but things will be better for you and better for the customer with less fuss and fiddling while repairing.

Instructive as always. IIRC the active ingredient in many window cleaning fluids is vinegar so perhaps you might try a drop of that from a syringe instead of spraying all over the place. And I do wonder if you needed a soldering iron with an even finer tip?

Very good job I must say. And yes some components are so small they can not even be seen without a microscope.

Your solder is too big and the tip appears to be "dirty". I also think a conical tip might work better in these situations. Use a solder wick to remove the excess solder from the board and then use some fine steel wool or something similar to expose clean copper on the pad. I have occasionally encountered pads that simply refused to allow solder to adhere and have had to resort to scrubbing the pad(s).

I thought it was only me that noticed Apple putting critical stuff in bad places, eg, 60V back-light connector under a keyboard drain hole - lol -.

you have to love small SMD components , glad you got a result if not the perfect one you really wanted🙂

Almost a video nasty But your perseverance prevailed. Good job Greame. Really enjoy your content.

Yeah thinner solder, new tip. I prefer a J tip for stuff like this but can be done with other tips if they in fact except solder. Even with a J tip there is an initial little fight to remove oxidation on the tip with wire wool but It will except solder and you can load it up with a tiny tiny little bead of solder which is easy done with thinner gauge solder, I get away with 0.4mm but smaller is even better.

I use to file the end of my iron when flux didnt flow . I was soldering telecom jumpers but wonder if that still helps

Firstly I'll start by saying I'm no expert by any means. Just do this on occasion. I don't do this kinda micro work myself. But I've read that solder follows the heat. Your tip is much hotter than the smaller trace, so it doesn't want to stick to it. The tiny traces thermal mass is not allowing the heat to linger long enough imo. A conical tip might help transfer the heat better to that specific area. Also allowing the solder to transfer away from the tip more easily. I think your larger flatter tips surface tension didn't help much either. And scraping away all the corrosion beforehand is a must, nothing is going to stick to a corroded trace.

Amazing !

Really admire your honesty, you can definitely do with a microscope and screen for tiny things

hey Adam pls stop beaning hard on yourself this was a test of your skills as a tech doing micro soldering so well done

thanks could you pass a link for multimeter probe plz

You should get at least a desk-clamped magnifier with LEDs for this sort of work. I can't imagine how you can see anything on there :)) I'm nearsighted and wear glasses too all the time, even when I'm looking at stuff up close the way you do, so I can see things just fine up to a certain point, but that's just TOO small and I'd bring the magnifier over. One disadvantage is not being able to fit some tools underneath it, like the soldering iron or the hot air station, though I got some angled nozzles for mine which makes it just about possible. Also, the soldering: I too have face the issue of solder blobbing up wherever the hell it feels like it, except for where you WANT it to go. What seems to work for me is to bump the temperature up some more when using small tips because they tend loose a lot of heat very fast and the solder doesn't want to flow to cold areas, so it's normal the part closest to the base is going to be the hottest and attract the most solder...

Good resolution to solder problem. It seemed to me that the pad in question ( the one where the component was apparently loose and easily knocked off) was oxidized, which happens on loose/bad solder or electrical connections, and the oxidation needed to be scraped off/removed in order for the solder to adhere ...

hi can you tell me where to get schematics from for dell laptop many thanks

Any particular reason you don't use a well lit magnifying glass?

The resistor from heck... :-)

Wow. I'm impress. 👌 cool

Dam those pads were soo coroded 😢 because of the water damage 💧. This is why the solder does not stick to them

As in Good Will Hunting, "It's not your fault. It's not your fault." There was a recent Louis Rossmann video where he (or Paul) had the same trouble. He recommended scratching or scoring the pad and sometimes that helps. Maybe a metal expert out there could explain why this happens. Apparently, it's very rare.

what Solder are you using??

Hi Graham yes it not easey so little resistors. But if you want to upgrade your equipmment i recommend aixun t3b with jbc 115 handle for so little resistors or the t210 also it is very powerfull iron is abouth 170 euro. But nice video . Keep up the good movies

I could absolutely not do this without a microscope. Good Jab anyways. Get yourself a nice tiny bent tip some good solder and maybe microscope...? (got a black trinocular from kaisi, it is relatively cheap and does the job). Greezs from Austria!

try using low melt solder next time for small pads, it's sticky and takes less heat to liquify which makes things that small get soldered fast

Don't fret I said all the swear words you didn't - respect for that.

Has Arctic MX-5 ever failed you? I've had a tube of MX-4 and with CPUs I put it on, it dried out within a year or two. I was extremely disappointed because it was supposed to be a reliable, unassuming paste.

The fact you couldn't get the solder to stick is probly due to there being a via there to a interlan layer. i make alot of pcbs myself and i do this quite often putting the via in the pad.

Sorry, sir which schematic diagram software do you have?

What are those sharp probes you're using in this video?

Problems: 1. tweezers too big 2. no scope 3. no iron for smd jobs

hi. how do you know about the power rails in Macbook Air? are schematic of boards available any where? how can I find schematic of laptop bards?

Yet again it seems we have to congratulate you on another successful repair. You're definitely now, as you say, at the limit of your equipment; will you look at investing another $2k or so on some new gear?

use fine sandpaper to gently wipe the iron tip.

Try to use a little solder paste on the board.

In my case I use lighter fluid in cleaning boards like cellphone boards and laptop boards as well

Use leaded tinning stuff to condition your tip, not lead free! Tin your tip every time you start to use it, so once a day or so at least. Mine took a couple of weeks to arrive from supplier. Try different flux to prep corroded pads

where is Ant Man when you need him

Please more no post videos for desktops the troubleshooting is so enjoyable Awesome channel

Fan spin :)

Wait until your eyes are 65 years old like mine and you're trying to do it. When I was young electronics were big, now that my eyes stink they're micro.

just use soldering paste with flux in it and hot air with these small components

Maybe try some Tip Tinner for your iron, I use it just before I turn my iron off.

For my point of view.. you need a real microscope and a 27" tv on hdmi output.

welcome to the magical world of smd welding😜

Is there anybody like this guy in the AZ area? If so please reply.

Your Videos are great. But your Iron is not hot enough. Use better solder my Favorit is kester or mechanic. Great repair and hope for more Videos.

Have you tried using leaded solder it flows better at a lower temperature, I think you should file that tip back to bare metal and re tin it, it looks like the solder isn`t hot enough to flow properly, I would even measure the tip of the iron with the thermocouple of you multimeter to see if it matches what the iron is saying. Gotta say though micro soldering looks a total nightmare.

Watch northridge fix you can learn from him at solder the small stuff

Those resisters are absolutely too small, I would just have called it beyond my ability and sent it to someone like you. I struggled more than enough trying to solder 0402 mlcc caps. Edit: mention of the tip, is this enough to make you buy that expensive hako tip that was even smaller than this one that you've mentioned you were looking at getting?

You need to invest in a electronics microscope for small soldering

Not ‘derided’- it’s ‘derived’ 👍

When ur working with components smaller than a grain of rice, it’s hard without a microscope or decent camera that can give you a great close up view. If it works it works sometimes you need to take a different but similar avenue to get the repair done, so the item works again.

1. the tip was too big, 2. the pad was still pretty corroded, so the solder didn't stick. Should've scraped it more..

Soldering is not for Energy drink and Coffee addicts. You need to hold your breath and duck your arms against your rib cage to get a steady hand

How would Northridgefix attack this?

I would venture to say that you tip is n/g

Who invented the skip?

👍👍😎✌️

or u can use PPT

Don't listen to the hoard, preheat the board. Ground plane sucks all the heat making it a pain. When you rip off the pads, there will be no one else to blame. It's all a game and again preheating prevents shame.

may be u just have to scratch that pad a little bit..

you need more small,small equipment for those pain in the ass things

looked like the pads were contaminated ? maybe thats why they wouldnt tin ? maybe a little scratch ?............. dont beat yourself up....... those thimgs are way too small !!! lol :)