Broken Pin on Hard Drive - Soldering advice!

Hi there,

whilst fiddling about inside my PC the other day I had to pull the
power from my primary C drive, an old IBM DeskStar GXP. When I did
this, three of the pins (yes, three) came loose from the PCB, and one
of them broke in two just to compound the problem.

I need to pull some data off this drive before I junk it.
Unfortunately, it contains all my digital photos plus important
contact information.

So, I'm planning to solder power straight onto the PCB. I've cut the
plug off a power connector and I have stripped the wires ready to do
this. I'm off to Maplin tonight to buy myself a soldering iron.

As you might guess from the above statement, I've not really done any
soldering before. I'm concerned that the area I'm soldering on to on
the PCB is only 3 or 4 mm wide. Does anyone have any advice on how to
make sure I don't splurge solder all over the PCB? Is there any way of
applying really small amounts of solder in this situation?

Cheers.

So, I'm planning to solder power straight onto the PCB. I've cut the
plug off a power connector and I have stripped the wires ready to do
this. I'm off to Maplin tonight to buy myself a soldering iron.

As you might guess from the above statement, I've not really done any
soldering before. I'm concerned that the area I'm soldering on to on
the PCB is only 3 or 4 mm wide. Does anyone have any advice on how to
make sure I don't splurge solder all over the PCB? Is there any way of
applying really small amounts of solder in this situation?


Get a soldering iron with a thin tip, wipe it on a damp piece of sponge
every so often as you work so that excess solder does not build up on it
causing it to bridge the adjoining pins.

Make sure that the work is hot to avoid 'dry' joints.

You can get solder absorbing tape (Desoldering braid) to remove excess
solder if you do get too much on there.

Practice a few times with some old wire first, as you have not soldered
before.

Take your time.

Adam S

Adam S wrote:

Practice a few times with some old wire first, as you have not soldered
before.

Take your time.

Better yet, practice on an old hard drive.

drmengler wrote:
Hi there,

whilst fiddling about inside my PC the other day I had to pull the
power from my primary C drive, an old IBM DeskStar GXP. When I did
this, three of the pins (yes, three) came loose from the PCB, and one
of them broke in two just to compound the problem.

I need to pull some data off this drive before I junk it.
Unfortunately, it contains all my digital photos plus important
contact information.

So, I'm planning to solder power straight onto the PCB. I've cut the
plug off a power connector and I have stripped the wires ready to do
this. I'm off to Maplin tonight to buy myself a soldering iron.

As you might guess from the above statement, I've not really done any
soldering before. I'm concerned that the area I'm soldering on to on
the PCB is only 3 or 4 mm wide. Does anyone have any advice on how to
make sure I don't splurge solder all over the PCB? Is there any way of
applying really small amounts of solder in this situation?

Practice first is the key. One useful tip as well is to 'tin' the wires
you're going to solder first. To do this, strip the insulation so you
have the bare wire, then, heat the wire from one side with the iron and
apply the solder to the other side so that solder flows and coats the
bare wire. You will now find you can solder these wires to the hard
drive without needing to apply any extra solder and thus removing the
risk that you accidently get a lot of solder all over your hard drive.
The wires will also connect better and more easily to the PCB if you do
this.

There's also a good article with pictures he

http://www.explosivelabs.com/articles/soldering.shtml

drmengler wrote:
Hi there,

whilst fiddling about inside my PC the other day I had to pull the
power from my primary C drive, an old IBM DeskStar GXP. When I did
this, three of the pins (yes, three) came loose from the PCB, and one
of them broke in two just to compound the problem.

I need to pull some data off this drive before I junk it.
Unfortunately, it contains all my digital photos plus important
contact information.

So, I'm planning to solder power straight onto the PCB. I've cut the
plug off a power connector and I have stripped the wires ready to do
this. I'm off to Maplin tonight to buy myself a soldering iron.

As you might guess from the above statement, I've not really done any
soldering before. I'm concerned that the area I'm soldering on to on
the PCB is only 3 or 4 mm wide. Does anyone have any advice on how to
make sure I don't splurge solder all over the PCB? Is there any way of
applying really small amounts of solder in this situation?

Cheers.

All the advice given is good, but if the information on this HD is
critical, I would have someone with soldering skills do it for me. You
may have only one shot at patching the drive for retrieval of the data.
I would not chance the possibility of messing it up.

Ive got a dead Drive same prob 40 gigs of storage back id i can fix it





On Wed, 19 May 2004 11:31:13 GMT, lid wrote:



drmengler wrote:
Hi there,

whilst fiddling about inside my PC the other day I had to pull the
power from my primary C drive, an old IBM DeskStar GXP. When I did
this, three of the pins (yes, three) came loose from the PCB, and one
of them broke in two just to compound the problem.

I need to pull some data off this drive before I junk it.
Unfortunately, it contains all my digital photos plus important
contact information.

So, I'm planning to solder power straight onto the PCB. I've cut the
plug off a power connector and I have stripped the wires ready to do
this. I'm off to Maplin tonight to buy myself a soldering iron.

As you might guess from the above statement, I've not really done any
soldering before. I'm concerned that the area I'm soldering on to on
the PCB is only 3 or 4 mm wide. Does anyone have any advice on how to
make sure I don't splurge solder all over the PCB? Is there any way of
applying really small amounts of solder in this situation?

Cheers.

All the advice given is good, but if the information on this HD is
critical, I would have someone with soldering skills do it for me. You
may have only one shot at patching the drive for retrieval of the data.
I would not chance the possibility of messing it up.

Good advice so far, thanks.

If I didn't make it clear - it's the power pins that I'll be fixing
up, not the IDE pins (thank god, they are even smaller).

I went out and got myself a temperature controlled solder station, it
has a nice conical precise solder tip with it, and I can use it on a
lower heat.

If I can get an old hard drive off my IT department (no, they won't do
the soldering for me, they don't get their hands that dirty!), I can
practice on that. Very good idea.

I'm going to have to solder wire straight onto the pcb. I believe I
should 'tin' the wire, ie apply a small amount of solder to the wires
first. Sure I can manage that.

I'm not going to treat it as a permanent repair... presuming I'm
successful, I shall pull the data I want off the drive, and take it
into the back garden and attack it with a spade afterwards to vent my
frustration...

On Wed, 19 May 2004 02:01:49 -0700, drmengler wrote:

So, I'm planning to solder power straight onto the PCB. I've cut the
plug off a power connector and I have stripped the wires ready to do
this. I'm off to Maplin tonight to buy myself a soldering iron.

As you might guess from the above statement, I've not really done any
soldering before. I'm concerned that the area I'm soldering on to on
the PCB is only 3 or 4 mm wide. Does anyone have any advice on how to
make sure I don't splurge solder all over the PCB? Is there any way of
applying really small amounts of solder in this situation?

My advice would be to find someone that has a little experience in this
type thing. Hard to say without seeing it but I suspect it could be put in
new type condition with another power connector and about 10-30 minutes
time.

--
Abit KT7-Raid (KT133) Tbred B core CPU @2400MHz (24x100FSB)
http://mysite.verizon.net/res0exft/cpu.htm

"BarryNL" wrote in message
...
There's also a good article with pictures he

http://www.explosivelabs.com/articles/soldering.shtml


That one's good for a starter; and will probably solve the OP's
problem .

:
go buy a $2 "power splitter"; chop off one set at the male plug as
close as possible. You'll have one set of wires left; cut off the
female plug left; this will give you the lead wires to solder to
the HD's PCB .

Strip about 3/16 th of an inch on the ends; tin those, and tack
solder them down to their mating solder pads.

Seeing your HD is a IBM DeskStar GXP............. Ghost it over to a
new HD if this works !!!