short story i was showing one of the builders my a1200, i was showing him the ide port when i saw that it was lose, on closer inspection i saw two of the pins broke off and are stuck in the ide wire, is there a way of fixing this and how 
Hi!
don't be scared, it's more or less easy to fix. You can buy the pins at any electronic shop, just remember that the size is for 2.5" HDs. Bring your 2.5" HD to the shop to compare the size. They have long blocks of pairs of pins and they cut as many as you need.
Remove the motherboard and put it on an empty table with enough space. If you just broke a pair of pins you can cut very very carefully the black plastic of pins you broke with a small box cutter. It's better that you relax and perform as many small cuts as you need, but avoid to apply much pressure to cut the pins because it's easy that you damage the motherboard so just relax and perform as many small cuts/scratches as you need... 100, 150... it doesn't matter how many small cuts, do it without applying force and slowly.
Once the black plastic is cut you just apply your soldering iron in the broken pins (looking at the part of the motherboard with no components), do it without touching much the motherboard, just the plumb and the pin. You can use small pliers to take the pin from the component part (but remember that the pin will go out softly without applying any force, don't pull from it much). Repeat the operation with the other pin. Once the pins are out you should remove stanium/plumb in case there's still some in each hole. Once the motherboard holes are cleaned you can cut a pair of jumpers from the ones you bought (use new ones, don't remove old ones from old motherboards). This is the easiest part for my taste, just be careful and avoid burning the motherboard. Be careful with dry soldering points and that's all.
I resoldered my A600 ide conector with no previous experience and everything went great. If you are unsure please ask a friend experienced with electronics. Repair it slowly, repair it well :-)
Good luck!
