Upgrading to a Dolby 650

[Stefan Scholz]

The picture is just the switching end of the board. Not the conversion / rectification end. However one will typically find the same leaky capacitors on the entire PS board...

Also note that the Caps on the XD-10 motherboards leaked the exact same way. If you sent your XD-10 to DTS for repair it cost give or take, about $1200. They installed a different motherboard which also required different metal parts. Recapping the original A-Open MB's only took about 90 minutes. So, about $15 in caps and what ever 90 minutes of your time would be.

Right, Marc. But the boards were soldered lead free, and at least 2 capacitors on the XD mainboard were very difficult to remove.
Same applied to the Integrated Power PSU on 650s.
I never repaired those, swapped them for the same size 3x5" Nean Well. Might require a modification in the output power plug, but nothing difficult.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Right, Marc. But the boards were soldered lead free, and at least 2 capacitors on the XD mainboard were very difficult to remove.
Same applied to the Integrated Power PSU on 650s.
I never repaired those, swapped them for the same size 3x5" Nean Well. Might require a modification in the output power plug, but nothing difficult.

Yea, the XD-10 boards were at least 4 layers. They were somewhat difficult to solder, but not impossible. I used a bit larger iron, 50 watts, than one might normally use (25 watts), but everything always worked great and a few are actually still occasionally used. I always carried lead free and rosin core solder with me. The hit air rework station I had then was not enough to do the job.

[Marco Giustini]

removing caps from motherboards is always a pain. It often requires a pre-heater or a hot air station, a good soldering iron and some patience. I doubt a 50W iron can be any good for an electronic board - yes, I know you've done it and "never had an issue" but that's my opinion!
The issue is that ground planes on internal PCB layers are acting like heatsinks so when you touch the solder joints the heat is being dissipated away through those copper sheets. The solution is to warm up the whole board - applying eccessive heat on a spot is not good for the PCB itself.

Yes, I've done 650 PSUs and XD10 boards etc
Still doable of course. It just needs a little time and the right tools.

But again, all the 650 PSUs I repaired never had issues with capacitors.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

removing caps from motherboards is always a pain. It often requires a pre-heater or a hot air station, a good soldering iron and some patience. I doubt a 50W iron can be any good for an electronic board - yes, I know you've done it and "never had an issue" but that's my opinion!
The issue is that ground planes on internal PCB layers are acting like heatsinks so when you touch the solder joints the heat is being dissipated away through those copper sheets. The solution is to warm up the whole board - applying eccessive heat on a spot is not good for the PCB itself.

Yes, I've done 650 PSUs and XD10 boards etc
Still doable of course. It just needs a little time and the right tools.

But again, all the 650 PSUs I repaired never had issues with capacitors.

Yes, they can be difficult sometimes. I have a Lenovo M93P tiny that I am adding a second M.2 drive on. There is one through hole capicator that is a stinker to install, but I finally got the holes opened up for it. The rest of the mod involves just adding about a dozen other components... smt resistors, ceramic capacitors, a small inductor and another M.2 socket. The really strange thing is the opposite end support post is already there for the SSD. I should get back to it later in the week to finish it off. I'm guessing these motherboards have many more layers than the DTS MB does. Those through holes were something else.

[Jason Speers]

If the CAT 790 worked with your old one, it'll work with the new 650, no extra gear needed. Just plug it in like before, and you should be golden.