Finally, I screwed up one T30 (2366-PU3)...

[cn487311]

in trying to fix the second memory slot. I must admit that I am not good at soldering. I had success with one T30 so I thought, hmmm, easy job. Then I ran out of luck with this T30. I did not realize that one small piece of solder can be that big on those tiny connectors...

So... motherboard is dead. Now I ended up having quite some T30 parts for sale (see my other post in the Marketplace forum if interested).

Want to know how bad a job I did? See a picture here:

http://sites.google.com/site/t30parts/t30-parts

Farewell, my work horse for the past five years...

[poshgeordie]

Mmmm maybe all is not lost.

What is that brown area towards the right hand end of the slot - have you lifted the PCB tracks around there? If yes then it will be difficult to resurrect the board.

If the tracks aren't damaged then what you need to do is buy some solder wick (or do Amercians say Soder wick?!) and liquid flux. (You can probably find somewhere which sells small bottles of the stuff - that's an example!

Use a syringe to apply the flux over a few of the pins as a time.
Put the solder braid over the first pin and soldering iron on that and press down.
The flux will greatly help in transmitting the heat to the solder and will be 'sucked' up by the braid.
Apply the soldering iron for only a few seconds at a time.
You'll find that the excess solder will be removed, even underneath the slot using this method.

Alternatively, why not get a replacement second hand motherboard? I feel that just because you've damaged the board, you're throwing the baby out with the bath water and getting rid of the whole TP.
Our company sells good replacement boards for a lot of the TP range and I'm sure we could sort you out with one (not sure of T30 stocks at the mo, but we're getting more in next week)

Another alternative is to ask someone here if they can have a look at the board for you.
I'm based in the UK and do these repairs all the time and will be happy to see what I can do for you - I've resurrected some terrible looking boards in my time! If I sort it, buy me a beer

PM me if interested etc.

[cn487311]

Thanks much for the information, Nick. But I am not sure whether I still want to do that. Anyway, it is an old machine. It gives me a good reason to update to a new machine, Then I thought maybe someone wants to have some parts for their old but still reliable toy...

[NorrisCell]

Ah, flux paste. It's a life saver. Radio Shack sells it in small amounts if you wish to try.