Removing and Changing Capacitors

If you don't know already then I wouldn't do it. But... if you must solder your own motherboard, you need to desolder the stubs out of there. With a fine soldering tip heat the solder while holding the stub with a pair of needle-nosed pliers. gently pull on the stub while heating so it's removed as quickly as possible. You don't want to use more heat than necessary. Next, and quickly, remove the liquid solder using a "Solderpult" which can be bought for around $15 at Radio Shack or similar stores. A proper "suck" will remove all the solder around where the stub was and leave the hole empty of solder as well. Repeat for the other stub and check both sides of the board to ensure the majority of the solder is gone. Be careful not to let the solder smear or run across other leads.

Replacing the capacitor should be straight forward at this point if you know how to solder. If you aren't entirely comfortable with this procedure, and the motherboard is going to be expensive to replace, then I'd have an expert do it. Such a simple operation should be inexpensive.

-- Ah sh*t! sys64738 --

I replace capacitors all the time. The hardest part is when you get a dry hole-some connections might be internal, so you have to have the solder fill the hole. You need to remove the stubs like the last guy said, then heat the solder in the hole and push the new one in.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

How and why did you rip NINE capacitors off of a board? I cant imagine it being an accident  

That's what I was wondering. No way in hell it was an accident. Not if the motherboard is otherwise fine!

-- Ah sh*t! sys64738 --

Some capacitors are polarized, ensure they are replaced the same as original.

DCB_AU

Thanks everyone, it sounds like a pretty big job that I'm not looking forward to. Maybe I'll just upgrade to a P4 motherboard though I feel like I really don't need so much power. My highest priority would be more bandwidth than a 56K connection.

I removed the capacitors because I was told by a Dell tech support person that my modem line noise problem was most likely due to bad capacitors. There is a high pitch electrical humming sound in the background when I dial up on that computer and it slows my surfing on the net to a crawl and it often just freezes. I tried switching cords, moving my computer around, used different wires, different hard drive and even put in another modem which works perfectly on the computer I'm using. There's nothing left it could be but the motherboard or the capacitors.

Nothing like that happens with my other computer that I'm using that I have plugged into the same outlets.

The capacitors are not leaking and there is no outward sign but I have also been told that there doesn't have to be an outward sign to have a bad capacitor.

I've noticed that other computers sometimes have 30 capacitors on the motherboard and I have been told that not having enough capacitors on the board could cause line noise as well.

I wonder if there is such a thing as a capacitor inside the power supply box. Maybe that's what's bad. Who knows, it's a real mystery. I may be making an assumption and the problem may not even be a bad capacitor but I have tried so many other things and nothing helped.

What about getting low ESR capacitors to improve the quality of the filtering? Should they be used for motherboards or other things as well?