Tried using a hot air rework station on an old motherboard and melted a capacitor next to the chip

I was trying to remove a BIOS chip from a Dell OptiPlex 790 board to flash it for a repair. Set the temp to 350c and aimed the nozzle at the chip, but the cap right next to it just bubbled and popped off. Learned the hard way that Kapton tape is not optional for tight spaces. Anyone else have a close call with hot air damaging nearby parts?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantw416d ago

The EXACT same thing happened to me on a Lenovo ThinkCentre board. I was trying to get a RAM voltage regulator chip off and the hot air just toasted a resistor right next to it. I didn't even see it go until I flipped the board over and found it stuck to my work mat like a piece of burnt popcorn. Now I tape over every little component with three layers of Kapton and I still keep a dental pick handy to flick away anything that looks like it's about to melt. That aluminum foil trick is clever though I might have to steal that for bigger boards.

smith.elliot6d ago

Oh man, I feel your pain. I did almost the exact same thing last year on an old ASUS board. I melted a tiny ceramic cap and didn't even know it until the board wouldn't boot. I swear those little parts are just magnets for the hot air. Now I just put a big slab of aluminum foil over everything within an inch of the chip. It looks janky but it works.

jessem596d ago

Taped off a whole row of caps once with just one layer of Kapton, thought I was good. Heated up a chip on an old HP board and the tape curled right off, melted a cap next to it. Had to scrap the whole board because that cap was part of the voltage path, no idea how to jump it. @smith.elliot is right about aluminum foil being ugly but it works way better than tape sometimes. I still do the tape and foil sandwich now, looks ridiculous but keeps everything from bubbling off.