Due to a continual poor connection on one of the ATX pins I am considering
hard wiring, soldering, the 19 wires direct to the MoBo.
Why is it poor, this is important to determine.
Was the current too high or was one or both connector
contacts malformed?
There is no need to hard-wire 19 wires. Replace the one pin
in the motherboard socket... heating it up enough to come
out, it'll pull all the way out. It might be hard to do the
first time, if you have an old junk board it would help to
practice on it.
As for the motherboard connector, slip the wire out and put
a new connector on it as well. If you can't find the
connectors or it would be cost-prohibitive to buy just a few
instead of hundreds or thousands of them, take the connector
out of another old/dead/whatever PSU, leaving it on the wire
and grafting the connector w/lead onto the original PSU
wire, keeping in mind that if the problem was high current,
you need make sure the mechanical plus solder connection of
the two wires is sound.
Which PSU connection is this?
any recommendation/practices that must be considered.
other than make sure the comp is off
Use a very hot (high wattage) iron. Don't bother trying to
desolder the whole connector, just use the destroy-the-part
method of removing it. IE- Grasp each pin in needle-nose
pliers (personally I find locking forceps good for this type
of thing), heat the back of the pin and be pulling on it
lightly. You will need a support to keep the board upright
to do it easier.
When the solder melts, the pin is already hot enough to have
began melting the plastic connector as well so as soon as
you feel it pulling out a little with the forceps, pull
harder with the solder melted and it just comes right out,
easily. If it's not coming out easily, you probably dont'
have a high enough wattage iron or poor iron-pin contact to
transfer heat. Another poster suggested a 40W iron- it
would work with a good tip, using proper procedures, but
might be easier with a pistol grip 100W iron. Because there
is so much copper near the pins, the lower the iron wattage,
the more heat is lost along the copper before the solder
melts. Mainly, if you use the hotter wattage iron you
should be sure not to overheat either, pulling the pin out
immediately after the solder has melted... you have about a
0.5-1 second window of opportunity which seems short but
once you get the hang of it, is like clockwork.
Anyway, you might pull the bad pin out first and see if you
can replace it. The solder, since it wasn't sucked up or
wicked away with braid, may close in around the hole a
little but a ~ 1/32 drill bit should open it back up if used
carefully. Even if you want to use a pump or wick to remove
the excess solder (on all the pins), it may be much easier
to pull the pins out first than to try and wick away enough
solder to cold-pull out a (then) loose connector from the
typical plated hole motherboard.
