I tried fixing my Switch with a heat gun vs. a soldering station...

So my Switch's HDMI port got ripped out when my cat tripped over the cord. I watched a YouTube video where some guy used a heat gun to remove the old port. Spent 20 minutes trying that and just melted a bunch of plastic around the connector. Broke down and bought a $45 soldering station with hot air from Amazon. First try with that thing had the old port off in under 3 minutes. The heat gun approach is just a disaster waiting to happen unless you really know what you're doing. Has anyone else ruined a board trying the cheap method first?

3 comments

3 Comments

jana_price15d ago

I gotta push back on the heat gun being a total disaster though. "Spent 20 minutes trying that" is pretty much the problem right there. You used it for way too long. A heat gun can absolutely work for stuff like this, you just gotta keep it moving and not sit in one spot. I've used one on a couple old consoles and phone repairs, and it worked fine as long as you're careful and don't crank it up to max heat. The soldering station is definitely easier and more controlled, but saying the heat gun is a guaranteed mess isn't totally fair. It's more about knowing your tool and how long to heat things for.

carr.blake15d agoOG Member

@jana_price my buddy melted his whole laptop trackpad trying that.

hannah24015d ago

Did you ever see that video where a guy tried using a heat gun on his Switch and ended up melting the whole battery connector? My buddy tried that same trick and his board was toast in like 10 seconds. Soldering station is definitely the move.