Chosen Solution
This is my first time trying to repair an ipod touch, and I’m trying to replace a battery and my dock connector flex cable. I tried desoldering the flex cable for the dock connector and the following image links depict the tradgedy that has occurred. I used pen flux, put a little solder on the joints, then applied wick…I thought I was doing it right when I was taking off the cable with heat but then the region over the pads wouldn’t come off. I know I probably shouldn’t have done this but I tried desoldering again to get the rest of the tape off and this is what i ended up with…how can I save this?
http://i.imgur.com/ZdASSNV.jpg http://i.imgur.com/UpvFPvp.jpg
Get some flux on the pads and apply leaded solder on them. Once your pads look bulky enough from leaded solder with a wick absorb all the solder adding flux again. Place wick right above pins and your soldering pencil on top of the wick and guide it pulling the wick instead on pushing the pencil. Once they are all clean and shiny let us know if there are any pads missing on the board. If there are not then you are ready to solder the new flex on it :)
This is not likely to be salvageable because you are missing so many pads. If you’re lucky, the missing pads will be ground or nc–unused. With no schematic available for the iPod fifth touch, it will be difficult to map the function of your missing pads. Israel gave you some good advice here. In the future, use a low melt solder to flow the pads and resist putting any force on the connector until it completely slides on its own. Different pads require different amounts of heat to flow. Your best bet is to buy a new iPod 5th touch. You won’t find a logic board for less than the cost of a new device….and you probably didn’t need to do this repair to begin with to solve a no charging iPod 5th.
