Desoldering Line-in jack on soundcard

[Doc]

The line-in jack on my Soundblaster Audigy got a bit traumatized when some
unnamed party's clumsy $^#!@! boat-sized foot snagged a cable and ripped
the stereo adapter out. It bent the adapter pin and apparently it bent the
contacts inside. I fiddled with the contacts inside (after taking the card
out of course) with a bent paper clip which improved the situation somewhat,
but it's still not tight and only works when the adapter is at a certain
angle.

So, being someone who likes to attempt to fix something before getting
another one, I wanted to see if I can break open the jack box and put things
right. The box is held in place by 5 soldered tabs. I tried hitting them
with a soldering iron and a desoldering gizmo that's an aluminum tube with a
spring-loaded plunger and a plastic nozzle. I got 2 of the tabs clear this
way but not having much luck with the other 3.

I'm guessing there might be a more effective way/tool to do this. Any
suggestions? The card is used, so there's no warranty issues, I just want to
try to fix it.

Thanks for all shared wisdom.

 

[JeffM]

The box is held in place by 5 soldered tabs.

I tried...a desoldering gizmo that's an aluminum tube
with a spring-loaded plunger and a plastic nozzle.
I got 2 of the tabs clear this way
I'm guessing there might be a more effective way/tool to do this.
Doc

http://www.google.com/images?q=solder-wick

 

[Lynn Coffelt]

The line-in jack on my Soundblaster Audigy got a bit traumatized when some
unnamed party's clumsy $^#!@! boat-sized foot snagged a cable and ripped
the stereo adapter out. It bent the adapter pin and apparently it bent the
contacts inside. I fiddled with the contacts inside (after taking the card
out of course) with a bent paper clip which improved the situation somewhat,
but it's still not tight and only works when the adapter is at a certain
angle.

So, being someone who likes to attempt to fix something before getting
another one, I wanted to see if I can break open the jack box and put things
right. The box is held in place by 5 soldered tabs. I tried hitting them
with a soldering iron and a desoldering gizmo that's an aluminum tube with a
spring-loaded plunger and a plastic nozzle. I got 2 of the tabs clear this
way but not having much luck with the other 3.

I'm guessing there might be a more effective way/tool to do this. Any
suggestions? The card is used, so there's no warranty issues, I just want to
try to fix it.

Thanks for all shared wisdom.

Jeff's right, solder wick (soderwik?) will do it just fine. Wick on the
solder, iron on the wick, very slight wiggle just as the solder melts, and
Presto! Either the solder is all wicked up, or the PCB land is lifted and
twisted and things get just a little bit more difficult.
Been there, done that, 97 3/4 % success rate.
Old Chief Lynn

 

[Deefoo]

The line-in jack on my Soundblaster Audigy got a bit traumatized when some
unnamed party's clumsy $^#!@! boat-sized foot snagged a cable and ripped
the stereo adapter out. It bent the adapter pin and apparently it bent the
contacts inside. I fiddled with the contacts inside (after taking the card
out of course) with a bent paper clip which improved the situation somewhat,
but it's still not tight and only works when the adapter is at a certain
angle.

So, being someone who likes to attempt to fix something before getting
another one, I wanted to see if I can break open the jack box and put things
right. The box is held in place by 5 soldered tabs. I tried hitting them
with a soldering iron and a desoldering gizmo that's an aluminum tube with a
spring-loaded plunger and a plastic nozzle. I got 2 of the tabs clear this
way but not having much luck with the other 3.

I'm guessing there might be a more effective way/tool to do this. Any
suggestions? The card is used, so there's no warranty issues, I just want to
try to fix it.

Thanks for all shared wisdom.

Try an electrical paint stripper (those that look like hair dryers). Heat
all the tabs at once and then use pliers to get it off the board.

--DF

 

[[email protected]]

In addition to solder wick, try replacing the solder that's on there
with some 63/37. (Then remove that, of course.) The stuff that's on
there is often a higher-temperature alloy, and it's been defluxed; both
make it harder to remove.

 

[neilish]

Try lubricating the plunger of the desolder tool with grease or oil -
it increases its efficiency 100% most times

 

[Doc]

Jeff's right, solder wick (soderwik?) will do it just fine. Wick on the
solder, iron on the wick, very slight wiggle just as the solder melts, and
Presto! Either the solder is all wicked up, or the PCB land is lifted and
twisted and things get just a little bit more difficult.
Been there, done that, 97 3/4 % success rate.
Old Chief Lynn

Will give it a try, many thanks to you and others replies.

 

[Ol' Duffer]

Suckerpoppers and solderwick work up to a point, but most pros
have a dedicated desoldering tool that combines a vacuum pump
with a hollow heated tip. These are expensive, on the order of
a few hundred $$$, but if you ever use one you will wonder how
you ever got by without it. These days many TV shops are hard
up for work and may be willing to remove it for you for the
price of a half hour labor. In extreme cases, it sometimes is
advantageous to buy a replacement part and destructively
disassemble the old one with diagonal cutters, dremel tool, etc.
so you can get at the individual pins on both sides of the board.

 

[jakdedert]

Will give it a try, many thanks to you and others replies.

Suggestion: old, defunct soundcards are a dime a dozen from various sources.

Practice on one of those until you get it right; or you risk trashing
your card beyond repair. Once you've successfully removed a jack,
reinstall it on the dead card for practice (successful desoldering is
only half the battle).

Now that you've got all that down, remove the jack from your 'good' card
and *throw it away*! It's not worth trying to fix.

Replace it with one from your 'practice' card....

jak

 

[Rich Grise]

Jeff's right, solder wick (soderwik?) will do it just fine. Wick on
the
solder, iron on the wick, very slight wiggle just as the solder melts, and
Presto! Either the solder is all wicked up, or the PCB land is lifted and
twisted and things get just a little bit more difficult.
Been there, done that, 97 3/4 % success rate.

I can vouch for that. I was in a situation where we regularly replaced
DIPs in plated-thru holes. I got so good with solder wick that the chip
would literally fall out of the board.

But, if you learn to use the solder sucker properly first, it cuts down
on your wick consumption, but it is a PITA keeping it clean.

Good Luck!
Rich

 

[[email protected]]

Keep in mind that you might have a low-powered iron whose heat is being
sucked up by a ground plane on the card. Therefore your solder will not
melt well, if at all. That might explain why it worked on the signal
pins (?), but not so well on the ground and mechanical pins (?).

 

[Carl Smith]

Try an electrical paint stripper (those that look like hair dryers). Heat
all the tabs at once and then use pliers to get it off the board.

--DF

If you try this I recommend using something like small pieces of
sheet metal to make a shield around the part you want to remove.
It's hard to direct the heat from those guns, and you could end
up with a lot of nearby parts overheated and SMT parts might
just start dropping off the board.

 

[Carl Smith]

Try lubricating the plunger of the desolder tool with grease or oil -
it increases its efficiency 100% most times

Just make sure that whatever you lube the plunger with is
compatible with rubber. I got something into a solder sucker
once and the o-ring plunger seal absorbed it and grew and jammed
up the solder sucker. When I finally got it pulled apart, I
found that the o-ring looked perfectly normal, but was now about
1/8 inch larger in diameter than it used to be.