Spent Saturday swapping hot air for an infrared preheater on a stubborn laptop board

I had a Dell motherboard with a corroded power jack that just wouldn't take solder no matter how much flux I used. My hot air station was heating up the whole area and I was worried about melting the nearby plastic connector. So I pulled out my cheap infrared preheater board I got off Amazon for $45 last year. Set it to 150 degrees and let the board sit for about 8 minutes. The difference was night and day - the solder flowed right into the pads without scorching anything nearby. I used to think IR preheaters were overkill for basic laptop repairs but now I'm a believer. Has anyone else made the switch from hot air to IR for motherboard work?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_blair6d ago

The difference was night and day" - that's how I feel about most things in life once you find the right tool. It's funny how we resist upgrades until we actually try them, then wonder why we didn't do it sooner.

the_lucas6d ago

And that's exactly it, once you make that jump you can't imagine going back. I held onto my old phone for two years past when it started acting up, just because I didn't want to deal with learning a new setup. Then I finally switched and it took maybe 20 minutes to get everything sorted.