Failed to unsolder the power jack. Advice for next time

I attempted to replace the power jack on a Inspiron 6400 laptop. Unfortunately I could not get any of the solder points to unsolder. I am inexperienced at unsoldering but have done it in the past and after being unable to get these to unsolder I took apart an old router and cleaned everything off the board to prove my tools were working. So. On the inspiron power jack nothing would flow into the desolder pump, I could see the solder melt but it was like I only melted the top layer and I wasn't able to get anything to suck through the board. These solder joints were small and I assume I have toasted the board from screwing with it for so long. I tried several different irons all the way up to a massive weller gun. I also tried the radio shack soldering iron with the suck bulb integrated into the iron. My desoldering pump is inexpensive but worked great deconstructing the dlink. Any idea what the difference was here in the board or my choice of tools or technique that caused me to not get this to work?