Guide at Attempting First Recap

[jeffburg]

Hey folks. I am in no rush, but I have 2 iMac G4 logic boards that won't boot. I won't go into the details, but I can't see anything wrong with them physically. However, on one of them one of the capacitors just fell off and I noticed the telltale signs of some capacitor residue on the board at the mounting point. I have watched a lot of YouTube where people recap things and sometimes that is all that is needed to bring the board back. I am not expecting magic, but figure it might be a first step in getting these boards going again. I have some soldering experience but would not call myself proficient in any way. And since they both don't work, I feel like they are good practice boards in case I mess up.

I assume the basics needed:

• soldering iron / solder / flux / wick
• kapton tape
• matching set of new capacitors (varies by board)
• A multimeter?
• anything else?

I think I can find the soldering guides, but I guess my question is do people have advice on how to source the Capacitors. I know for older Macs there are sites that sell "sets" or "kits" for re-caps, but I imagine I won't find that for an iMac G4. But is AliExpress for example a good source?

Thanks for any insights and tips / links you can provide.

 

[Garrett]

If you've never done SMD work, the first step I'd recommend is practicing on a junk board. You don't want to risk ruining something you actually care about. Tearing pads off, while fixable, isn't a beginner repair job.

Good quality solder, flux, and braid is a must. Going cheap here will likely bite you later!

I use DigiKey to purchase 95% of my repair supplies. Shipping is fast and service is great.

Do you have any photos of the board you'd like to fix?

 

[jeffburg]

@Garrett thanks for the reply. Here are some photos of 1 of the boards. I am kind of wondering how to find the correct capacitors to order. And yeah, since these boards don't work, I don't mind if they continue to be broken.