How hard is it to solder capacitors? (answered first hand)

easy peasy through hole or snap in caps are very easy, Surface mounts are harder... seriously, just take your time do them one at a time, and cut the end tails off when your done... nothing to it.

I agree. I've made a few custom simple circuits on PCB from radioshack and caps were a sinch. Other things like IC's are a pain though
Take your time and let things cool down after you solder each lead and you should be golden.

Can I get confirmation that the bottom cap is bulging out a little?

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Hey there.

Well, truth is, to answer you question directly "HOW EASY" it will be is really relative lol.
A common knowledge of electronics, or more specifically, electronic circuits would be of great help, and the more you know the better obviously.

I've been fooling around with circuit boards for seriously, longer than I can remember - so soldering is pretty basic in my mind.

But in your case, you've NEVER soldered anything before, so you need to pay attention to a few things. But its not brain surgery at all And its a lovely skill to develop.

Here's a quick lil solder guide for you (only one page)
http://www.epemag.wimborne.co.uk/solderfaq.htm

give it a read, It'll bring out some pointers to your forefront that you should always keep in mind/make a part of your technique.

Let me APPLAUD you for deciding to try to FIX your motherboard.
The truth is that technicians of old different from the ones today.
Today's technicians are lego fiddlers!
Tech's of yesterday tried to actually FIX the damaged parts where possible, and not just replace them!

Reparing a motherboard requires some bit of sensitivity though
Namely bacause there are heat sensitive components on the board that you dont want to damage.
You also need to pay keen attention to electrostatic ("shocking") your mobo.
You can get around that simple by either using a GROUNDED soldering Iron, OR, plugging out your 2 prong plug (ungrounded) soldering Iron as soon as its hot.

(and, duh, dont let solder get where it shouldnt, to short anything.)

PLEASE visit this site.
www.badcaps.com

they're your motherboard's salvation!
ANYTHING related to motherboard repair, thats the place to be.

They have all the history of why MOBO's have/develop this problem too.

Now that I've lectured you,..... lul
I'll say one last thing, my pop said it to me and it helped my technique IMMENSLY

- the Idea behind soldering is NOT to get the solder hot, and drop it unto whatever

it is to get the JOB hot, then to apply solder.

To take out the caps, It would be great if you had a solder sucker.

If you do, you can just heat ONE leg, suck.
Heat the other leg, then suck and it should be more or less free by then.

if you DONT have a solder sucker - you'll have to develop a lil technique.. that I call....

ok havent quite named it yet.

But you'll have to heat a leg, pull on that side a bit so that it comes forward a bit (so much as the other, unheated and still fixed leg will allow it to).

Then do the same to the other

continue that process till they both come loose.

Then you can drop back in the new caps.. with a bit of common sense.

REMEMBER THE POLARITY OF THE CAPS!!!!!

the striped part of the cap USUALLY (its written on it) is negative, and so goes to the negative leg.

That side of the area of the PCB where the cap sits may also be coloured to help you.

but never put them in backwards!

Their are BETTER guides on the site that I gave you.
Step by step guides on MOTHERBOARD repair RE: capacitors

TEll us how it goes!

-EDIT-
Yeah, you have at least 2 bad caps allright.
Remember, only replace them with caps of higher voltage/capacitance.
NOT LOWER.
In the case of the mobo though, try to get as close a match where capacitance is concerned.

Awsome! Good job man ^_^

So, did it work?
Show us some pics!

And Very Good Idea practicing on old circuitry first.
I swore I mentioned that you should - good thing you were smart lol.

I encourage you to continue too.
You can use just commonse sense to make some nifty little circuits. ^_^

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Yeah it worked great. It could probably be better but for a first timer it wasn't bad at all. TV works again. Its a 65inch Projection HDTV and it would have been a shame to leave it as it was. I would show you pictures of the board but I already put it back into the TV and sealed it up (can't wait for my dad to get home *saved him a couple hundred bucks*).

I have all the equipment now so it wouldn't makes sense to just leave them here without trying some other stuff. Thanks again for all the help grim... your expertise was indispensable.

Glad it all worked out for you

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tell me now.
Isnt that just.. a great feeling?
sink it in. Its savoury

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hey no biggie.