IC Replacement  •  Soldered to Socketed

To remove an Integrated Circuit, use a tiny wire cutters as shown here, cutting the plastic IC package from the solder pins.

Put the flat side of the cutters against the chip's edge and snip the pins as close to the plastic package as possible.

Here, the IC has been cut off from all its pins.  Notice that the location of pin 1 is marked on the board.  If it isn't, make a mark yourself before cutting out the IC.

Next, pull the IC pins out of the circuit board one at a time.

Use a small needle-nose pliers to grab the pin on the component side of the board.  Melt the solder on the foil side of the board and pull out the pin.

After removing the pins use a solder-sucker to remove all the old solder from the printed circuit pads and holes.

Then wash the printed circuit pads with MEK (methyl ethyl keytone).  Use a solvent dispenser and an acid brush as shown here.

This is a standard acid brush but cut the bristles down to about 1/4" inch in length.   The brush should be stiff enough to scrub dried solder resin and residue from the printed pads.

Repeated heating of printed circuit pads causes them to lift off the circuit board and break.

That's why you should install an IC socket into the cleaned out holes.  Should the IC fail again, no more soldering is required.

Mount the socket flush against the circuit board.  Align pin 1 of the socket to the pin 1 hole.

On the board's underside, bend over two corner pins so the socket doesn't fall out before you solder it.

Then solder the pins to the freshly cleaned circuit pads.  Hold the socket to the PC board for the first couple of solders so they remain flush.

Finally, install the new IC into the new socket.  Again, be sure pin 1 of the IC goes into pin 1 of the socket.

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