Tom Gardner wrote:
My good friend asked me to repair his Dell laptop, an Inspiron 5150 that has a
well documented problem with mechanical stress cracking solder joints. The door
for the communication cards has little tabs that bump on a surface mount chip
causing the joints to crack and fail. I could see the cracks with a hand-held
microscope. I made a tip for my soldering station using a piece of 28 ga.
copper wire and fluxed the joints with a brush having a single strand of horse
hair and some melted "No-Corrode" paste. I didn't add any solder, just remelted
the existing. It took me over an hour to do the whole chip, it was like
circumcising gnats with an axe!

This job was beyond my limits but I got lucky and the laptop works. I want a
REAL boom microscope with a built in camera! I wonder how this job would be
done by real repair people?


Carefully. If you are referring to the brand "No Corrode" soldering
paste, it is corrosive. It was developed for the plumbing trade a
century ago. The definition of no corrode for plumbers is different
that for electronics. “No Corrode” brand flux can not be used electronics.

Been there done that. Talked to the “No Corrode” flux people.