exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

W102-W104 can be modified from the top, however it is a poor solution, and in the instances I've seen where it's been done, it has usually resulted in trace damage.

This should be done properly from the underside and care needs to be taken to desolder properly in order to prevent trace damage, even on something simple like these jumpers.

If you've never soldered/desoldered before, as several people have said, this is not the thing to get started on. Buy thru hole kits to build and dead PCBs to practice on.

If it's not a direction you want to go, think long and hard about binning it, because somebody else could fix it and you could make some money back, plus the parts are very much needed these days.

If you want to see how bad things can go, have a look here: 25 Wire repair at the image marked 25 wire repair.

This is where inexperience with a soldering iron can get you and was the result of a failed ROM upgrade, and took me nearly 3 weeks to repair. The machines owner had the best of intentions, but lack of experience can hit you hard, even if your intentions are good.

Also, even the people with the best techniques and years of experience can make mistakes, I still do and I've been soldering for 25+ years, it's all about giving yourself the optimum chance of success.

I'd offer to take a look, but I'm in the UK sadly, and I'm guessing from the US TOS you have, you're not.

Rather than jumping ahead to soldering jumpers and replacing caps: the good news is that the system is outputting video, so it has a heartbeat.

I gather that the motherboard hasn't been removed from the case. Personally: I'd pull the board out and eyeball front and back for anything obviously bad. I'd power the system from another PSU (I have one of the Meanwell RD-50A PSUs on my hobby bench for this), and I'd try other floppy drives or no drive at all. Ideally also I'd try ST low/medium res output. I'd do some basic stuff that the youtubers always recommend, like re-seating some chips. I'd probably do all that before considering soldering anything.

I'd hate an STE to be thrown away. Even if it doesn't work fully again, there are useful parts here. I'd consider taking it/buying it, for sure.

sporniket wrote: 03 Jul 2023 22:27 IIRC @BlankVector made a video of doing such a thing without removing the motherboard, and after much struggle, he did succeed :

Indeed. Main issue was that my solering iron wasn't powerful enough. The solders were very hard.

BlankVector wrote: 04 Jul 2023 15:34

sporniket wrote: 03 Jul 2023 22:27 IIRC @BlankVector made a video of doing such a thing without removing the motherboard, and after much struggle, he did succeed :

Indeed. Main issue was that my solering iron wasn't powerful enough. The solders were very hard.

More likely oxydised. Rather than higher temperatures you probably needed more and better flux. Higher temperatures are more likely to damage the fibreglass PCB.

stephen_usher wrote: 04 Jul 2023 15:54

BlankVector wrote: 04 Jul 2023 15:34
Indeed. Main issue was that my solering iron wasn't powerful enough. The solders were very hard.

More likely oxydised. Rather than higher temperatures you probably needed more and better flux. Higher temperatures are more likely to damage the fibreglass PCB.

This is similar to my experience and I agree regarding the temperatures, it is very easy to damage these PCBs with too much heat. As for flux, the more the merrier!!

Hi all,

Here's the latest update:

I ordered a new soldering iron and was able to reset the pins for W104 from 2-3 to 1-2 using the frenchman's video. However the resistor for W102 broke off in position 2 while I was heating up position 3 to move it to position 1.

My question is: where can I order some replacement resistors that would work in the STE, preferably in the USA if possible?

Thanks,

You can just use a bit of wire. They’re 0 ohm resistors.

atrain01us wrote: 14 Jul 2023 01:58 Hi all,

Here's the latest update:

I ordered a new soldering iron and was able to reset the pins for W104 from 2-3 to 1-2 using the frenchman's video. However the resistor for W102 broke off in position 2 while I was heating up position 3 to move it to position 1.

My question is: where can I order some replacement resistors that would work in the STE, preferably in the USA if possible?

Thanks,

As @stephen_usher said, they are just zero ohm resistors as denoted by the single black band, so no more than a piece of wire at the end of the day. On mine I replaced with header pins and jumpers, worked just fine.

@atrain01us Just saw this post here. I'm in the US (Ohio) and have an STe mainboard (4mb) upgraded to TOS 2.06 and new meanwell PSU that I had sold a couple months ago and during shipping the case shattered (I know how to pack these and have successfully shipped a few dozen in the past). I had the buyer send it back and now have a fully functional STe mainboard. Happy to share photo's / videos.

If you'd like to trade your non-working board plus $50 USD, just PM me. Let me know if you want to trade your existing PSU for the meanwell, I'd be happy to do that too.

Cheers!

Latest update:

I found a wire thin enough to fit thru the holes in the mb and was able to solder it into w102 successfully. The computer booted up successfully but now the mouse is not responding. I have plugged it into both ports on the front of the computer under the keyboard and rebooted the computer each time with no success.

Is there any way to test that the mouse is defective before looking for a replacement mouse?

Just in case, I'm going to start searching for a replacement working mouse. If anyone has a replacement muse for sale, let me know. Also if there replacement alternative mouse available that can be recommended, do tell. Right now I'm thinking of trying an old Amiga tank mouse if the connector fits and is compatible.

Thanks,