| Electronics > Repair |
| Replace USB-C port on Thinkpad |
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| Peabody:
I have a Thinkpad P53S, which is the same as the T590, and the primary USB-C charging port has become flaky. Unfortunately, it appears the socket has two rows of 12 pins each, one row being under the middle of the socket. My first conclusion was that this is essentially unrepairable by a normal human being because there's no way to get to that underneath row of pins. But I've seen videos which appear to do this with a heat gun. In this video (starting at 1:02), that seems to be the case, although it's not clear that he ever puts any solder on that row: And here's the replacement socket: https://www.ebay.com/itm/154367367049 I don't have a heat gun, but it might make sense to buy one if this actually works. I guess the method is just to heat the entire socket until all the pins get hot enough to melt solder. It's still not clear where the solder gets applied. Paste maybe? I'm usually pretty good at repairs, but have no real experience with a hot air station. Has anyone here tried something like this? Is it reasonable to expect it will work? Can someone explain the solder mystery? Thanks for any guidance. |
| mcz:
He applies flux followed by solder after about 1:20 into the video. The technique is that the soldering iron tip holds solder and it puts enough on every pad to make a reasonable connection later on. You don't solder these pins fresh, the solder will already be on the pad once you put the connector in place but the flux will make it work. This seems much easier in the video than it will be in real life for somebody who never did this. But you could try it. Probably a good idea to preheat the board or general area of that connector a little bit as well. |
| amyk:
That part, and indeed for any SMD work, will definitely be easier using hot air. |
| wraper:
--- Quote from: mcz on December 08, 2024, 07:04:44 pm ---He applies flux followed by solder after about 1:20 into the video. The technique is that the soldering iron tip holds solder and it puts enough on every pad to make a reasonable connection later on. You don't solder these pins fresh, the solder will already be on the pad once you put the connector in place but the flux will make it work. This seems much easier in the video than it will be in real life for somebody who never did this. But you could try it. Probably a good idea to preheat the board or general area of that connector a little bit as well. --- End quote --- If you do it this way, you should apply solder to the connector pins too before soldering with hot air, otherwise there may be too little of it. |
| wraper:
--- Quote from: Peabody on December 08, 2024, 06:42:42 pm ---I don't have a heat gun, but it might make sense to buy one if this actually works. I guess the method is just to heat the entire socket until all the pins get hot enough to melt solder. It's still not clear where the solder gets applied. Paste maybe? --- End quote --- If you mean by soldering iron, it's impossible. |
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