[Coco] I've killed my CoCo3

[Paul Shoemaker]

Hi everyone,

Yesterday evening I decided to replace the 6809 with a 6309 in my CoCo 3.  Although I am still an amateur with a soldering iron, I've been practicing and recently completed this same process on one of my CoCo 2 systems where I clipped out the 6809, desoldered the remaining pins, and soldered in a socket.  However, when I tried this same approach on my CoCo 3, as soon as I started using solder wick, I noticed some of the solder pads began to come off.  I don't think I was using excessive heat (same iron, same heat settings as before).  Even the traces on the board began to lift up.  It became clear to me after this happened to a few pads that I had destroyed the board.

If anything I was more gentle with the CoCo 3 board than I was with the CoCo 2 board before.  It was evident that the CoCo3 board was more "weathered" than any of my other systems...  more dust and dirt inside, a lot of oxidation on the RF modulator box, etc.  It may be that this CoCo 3 spent many years in a garage or shed prior to me rescuing it from eBay last year.

Any advice on how to avoid from happening again this in the future?  

-Paul