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Are these solder pads busted?

greystash

Well-known member
I'm recapping all of my machines at the moment and have noticed the following on a PM6100, Centris and a Macintosh Portable. Part of the pads appear to be eaten away, will I need to expose the traces and repair the connection for these or should they be ok?
 

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3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
You won't know until you check the continuity to wherever they go. If they don't have any, a tiny wire bridge should do the trick. I've had a pad on an old PC laptop that was partially damaged like one of those, but it still ended up with continuity and worked out fine. Yours may or may not.
 

LaPorta

Well-known member
I’d say more often than not even looking like that they’d be fine, but continuity check as always. I’ve had luck frying the crud off with flux and a hot iron, and gentle scraping. Usually the metal underneath will then be amenable to tinning again.
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
I’d say more often than not even looking like that they’d be fine, but continuity check as always. I’ve had luck frying the crud off with flux and a hot iron, and gentle scraping. Usually the metal underneath will then be amenable to tinning again.
This too. I had some minor similar looking crud on my PB 145's display board.
 

Phipli

Well-known member
They look ok, mostly just tarnished. Just need a careful clean with some flux, solder and gentle rubbing. It is probably not "correct" but I put flux on the pad, then put a bit of solder wick on top, heat it until the solder melts, then *gently* rub the wick around the pad with the iron. Don't spend too long on one pad at once, and don't rub too hard or off the pads or you'll damage the solder resist and/ or pad.
 

greystash

Well-known member
Thank you all for the tips!! That's much better news than I was expecting. Would it be worth using some sort of acidic copper cleaning solution or is that asking for trouble? Otherwise I'll try cleaning with solder wick/gentle scraping.
Thanks again!
 

joshc

Well-known member
Those look fine, they just need a good clean using the right methods. There are lots of videos on YouTube that show how to clean solder pads.

My method is basically to first use isopropyl alcohol and a swab, and then flux and a wick with the soldering iron to remove as much gunk as possible. Then I will use a knife to gently scrape the pad to remove the stubborn dirt/cap goo/gunk and then re-do with flux and wick, with a final pass with isopropyl alcohol.

Practice on a board you don't care about first.
 

greystash

Well-known member
Thanks heaps for the advice everyone!! I successfully recapped my Macintosh Portable and it's working nicely
 
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