Open a modern laptop and the motherboard is covered in parts smaller than a grain of rice. When one of them fails, the whole laptop can stop working. Microsoldering is the skill of replacing those tiny parts by hand, under a microscope.
Microsoldering in plain words
Normal soldering joins wires and big parts with a hot iron. Microsoldering works on parts so small that you cannot see them clearly without magnification: capacitors the size of a pinhead, power MOSFETs, charging chips with dozens of hidden pins underneath, and connectors with pins thinner than a hair.
On our bench in Juja we use a stereo microscope, a hot air station, fine-tip irons, flux, and a DC power supply to find shorts. A thermal camera helps us see which part heats up when it should not.
What microsoldering fixes
- No power: a shorted capacitor or failed power chip on the motherboard.
- Not charging: a damaged charging chip, a burnt DC jack or a broken USB-C port.
- Liquid damage: corroded parts and broken tracks cleaned and replaced.
- No display: a failed backlight circuit or a damaged screen connector.
- BIOS faults: a corrupted or failed BIOS chip removed, reprogrammed or replaced. See BIOS chip reprogramming.
- Physical damage: ripped connectors and broken pads after a drop.
Why it beats replacing the motherboard
A full replacement board is often expensive, hard to find for older models, and sometimes not available at all in Kenya. Board-level repair replaces only the part that failed. Your data, your BIOS settings and your original board stay as they were.
How a microsoldering repair works
- Diagnosis. We measure the power rails and find the circuit that is not working.
- Find the exact part. Using the schematic and boardview for your model, a thermal camera and careful measurements.
- Remove and replace. The failed part comes off with hot air or an iron, the pads are cleaned, and the new part goes on.
- Test. We power the board, check every rail and run the laptop. You get a video of it working before you pay.
When a part is not available in Kenya, we source it from overseas suppliers. Read how we source burned chips.
Not just laptops
The same skills fix TV boards, power supplies, and other electronics. Our micro-electronics repair page lists what we take in.