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Damn, nice job Spanky.

I dunno about that yet I haven't turned it on yet.

Yea I thought I could heat it up and keep the solder fluid and just push the cap through. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow. Good news is that I have a nice camera position for the time lapse

I might do it today actually, it's windy out and not much to do inside. Here's the specs:

HP Pavilion A500Y
Mobo: MS-6577 v4.1
CPU: Intel Celeron 2.6GHz 128k 400MHz SL6VV

Again it's not high-end but netbooks and those mini-computers are slower so this still has a purpose. I think the mobo will take 2GB of DDR400 which isn't bad.

Most all electrical components contain capacitors. Modern motherboards typically contain solid-state caps which can still leak or explode but are supposed to last longer. The older ones, leaking is common, especially in lower-end ones. Not too long ago I did some work for this woman that bought a computer from me and in exchange for the labor I did (backing up files and whatnot) she gave me her old computer. It's an older HP, based on a Intel Celeron. It's not high end but it still has plenty of life left in it as a basic computer to surf the web, listen to music, watch videos. I figure, I got it pretty much for free so if I drop less than $30 on new capacitors and re-sell it for double that or more, that's a profit and an invaluable learning lesson in one deal. So I got home with the computer and looked inside and here's the horror of what I saw:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/headshot/mobo_recap/DSC05852.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/headshot/mobo_recap/DSC05855.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/headshot/mobo_recap/DSC05856.JPG

Basically, all those capacitors feed power to the CPU. Leaky caps in this spot could mean power issues and a lot of frustration. So I read around and whenever you attempt a recap, it's a good idea to replace all the caps above a certain value (I forget exactly, something like 470uF). Since they're relatively cheap, I bought enough to replace all the ones on the board and enough to have spares in a pinch. I purchased them from Mouser.

I haven't done the recap yet but I will and I'm going to record it and run it as a time lapse and put it on YouTube. Should be pretty interesting, especially since I haven't replaced capacitors before (only taken them off as a test of my skills).

*EDIT*
First Progress:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/headshot/mobo_recap/DSC05867.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/headshot/mobo_recap/DSC05868.JPG

Thread split, find the new one guys.

Newer, to me, = P4 and up. I'm not too familiar with the AMD ones, I know there's single-core Athlons that don't have an IHS and have the SMD resistors on them.

I read somewhere that Intel or OEM's or something add wax to the thermal compound to help carry it to the crevices. I think I actually have had that problem with AS5 just from using a pinch too much and a super tight seal (I hand compress the heatsink against the motherboard after mounting). However, I haven't seen dry AS5.

GTFO with your non-conductive-ness. Noobs worry about that AS5 isn't conductive per-se, but it's components CAN make an electrical joint. Even if you got some on a SMD resistor or something, you would have to join it with another connection that would damage the component and hope that the AS5 makes an electrical connection in order to damage something.