What is the best way to remove the ports from the board? Desolder braid is out and I'm thinking a desolder bulb should remove most and the using a heat wand to remove the ports afterwards. I'm not only just removing them but all the ports to relocate for a project that I am doing.
Thanks just pulled them all off a spare board. Only thing that may give me any kind of trouble is the HDMI port seeing as I will have to trace them down on the underside of the good board. If you're curious I'm putting a complete slim into a different case and am using the pieces that I pulled off the spare to relocate the ports.
If you still need to remove more ports you could try my method. I heat the solder joint with a regular iron and use compressed air to blow the solder away. I have the pressure regulated to 20 psi to reduce splatter. Only downside to doing it this way is the solder goes everywhere but it does clean the joint out completely and you don't have to heat the PCB forever risking damage to the board and part being removed. I found the splattered solder comes off real easy like and does no damage to the PCB. Using this method to check transistors on a dead TV set. Less heat = less chance of blowing the transistor on removal.
Get a desoldering pump. They're cheap and you don't really need to buy one that costs over $20. It basically is a spring loaded pump that takes in a quick blast of air when you disengage the hold on the spring (it's a button) It's the reverse of the above method, and the lead doesn't end up anywhere potentially dangerous. in some cases, it collects inside and then falls out after a while as a solid chunk that you can just throw away.
I have a desoldering gun with my Aoyue 2702a+ but it's hard to get them all off with it. Anyways I used my heat wand on it and pulled them right off.
Hence why I suggested using compressed air. I have a desoldering iron, a desoldering bulb, and desoldering braid but they don't work as well as the compressed air method. Especially for small areas where heat buildup is a concern.
Solder pump, solder wick and tweezers! You're running into troubles with the solder-splatter technique...