Soldering pt.2

Here's a little update...

I've successfully replaced all five 3300uF caps on that nForce 4 motherboard and I'm happy to report it now boots fine. I've yet to stress-test it with Prime95 but I'm confident it will do fine.

I also recieved the Blue Cube PS/2 to USB keyboard adapter. It's one of the rare adapters that work properly. The only trouble is that it's so bulky, it blocks the 2nd USB port on my laptop. You're going to have to use a short USB extension cable, if you need the other USB port. My original intention was to hack one of my Model M's so that the adapter was built-in (something like this). I'm not so sure now :)

Soldering!

I'm in the process of learning to solder and de-solder stuff. My first job was a Gigabyte nForce4 motherboard with some bad caps. I replaced a total of five 3300uF 6.3V capacitors and I must say it wasn't easy. However, I'm confident that with practice it's going to become much much easier. Most of all I had trouble with removing solder from holes and soldering new caps back in. Later on I found a very nice guide on-line which actually recommends using higher temps (350C) and a wider tip. They also recommend using a stainless steel pin to remove solder from holes. I'll give it a try one of these days as there's plenty of work left.