c/electronics-repairers

The before/after on an old Marantz receiver I recapped was insane

Found a 1980s CRT TV in a basement last week, the difference after recapping the power supply was night and day

The picture went from wavy and dim to rock solid and bright just by swapping out a dozen electrolytic caps that had all drifted way out of spec after 40 years, anyone else still running into old gear with cap issues?

Got roasted for using too much flux on a motherboard repair

I was fixing a laptop board last month in my home shop and a guy from a local repair meetup watched me work. He flat out told me I was using WAY too much flux and it would cause corrosion down the line. I always thought more flux meant better joints, but he showed me how the residue traps moisture under components. Now I use a tiny syringe with a 22 gauge needle and apply just a dot per joint. Has anyone else dealt with flux residue causing issues months after a repair?

Picked a hot air station over a soldering iron for a delicate job and it almost backfired

I had to replace a tiny surface mount capacitor on a guitar amp board last week. My usual soldering iron was giving me trouble with bridging, so I switched to my cheap hot air station at 300 degrees. It worked, but I ended up melting a nearby plastic connector because I got too close. Has anyone else found a better way to protect sensitive parts when using hot air for small SMD work?

Hot air rework stations vs soldering irons for through-hole work

I see everyone recommending hot air stations for desoldering on here, but I tried using mine on a vintage radio board last week and it melted a plastic connector housing before the solder even flowed. My old Weller iron with a desoldering pump got it out clean in 2 minutes. I guess hot air has its place, but for older stuff with delicate parts, I think the iron is safer. Anyone else had a hot air disaster on vintage gear?

Had a chat with an old TV repair guy that made me rethink my whole approach

Met this guy at a swap meet last Saturday, must have been 70 something. He was selling old CRT parts and we got to talking. I was bragging about my fancy hot air station and how I can swap out BGA chips no problem. He just looked at me and said "you fix with your eyes, I fix with my ears." At first I thought it was just old man talk. But then I got home and had a power supply that was buzzing real faint. I was about to start pulling caps and measuring everything. Instead I just sat there and listened for like 5 minutes. Heard the faintest whine from a transformer. Found a cracked solder joint on its pin that I would have missed visually for hours. Made me wonder how much time I waste looking for problems I could hear first. Any of you guys still troubleshoot by sound or am I just late to the party?

Old guy at the flea market taught me a lesson about solder joints

Last Saturday I had this beat up vintage radio on my bench and one of the solder joints looked perfect but the circuit was dead. A retired electrician named Frank walked by my booth at the flea market and saw me scratching my head. He said "son, a shiny joint ain't always a good joint" and showed me how to check for a cold joint by tapping it with a plastic probe. Turns out it was cracked at the base but looked clean on top. I've been doing this for 7 years and never knew that trick. Has anyone else had a random stranger drop a game changing tip out of nowhere?

Hit exactly 1000 capacitor replacements last Tuesday and it made me pause

I keep a tally in a little notebook and when I hit 1000 I realized I've never actually blown up a board from a bad cap job. Has anyone else tracked their repair count and noticed anything surprising?

Spent 6 hours chasing a phantom capacitor leak yesterday

Had a power supply that kept tripping the breaker. Measured everything. Voltages looked fine. No shorts. Replaced the bridge rectifier for no reason. Finally noticed a tiny crusty spot under a 470uF cap. That was it. Leaking from the bottom where you can't see it. Replaced it and the breaker stopped tripping. Six hours for one stupid capacitor. Anyone else ever get tricked by a hidden leak like that?

Found a half-melted soldering iron in a lamp I was rewiring yesterday

Picked up an old floor lamp from a garage sale for $5, and when I opened the base there was a cheap iron stuck to the wires with melted plastic all around it. How do you even get that far into a project and just leave it like that?

Finally compared my old $40 iron to a TS1000 and wow what a difference

I've been using this cheap 40 watt iron from RadioShack for like 8 years. Finally broke down and got a TS1000 with a proper power supply last month. The difference in heat recovery on ground planes is night and day, especially working on this old stereo receiver with big solder joints. Has anyone else held onto bad gear too long just because it technically worked?

Vent: That HP printer from last week that just wouldn't cooperate

Had a guy bring in an HP Envy 6055e last Tuesday from over in Oakville. The thing just wouldn't power on, dead as a doornail. I swapped out the power supply board, but it still didn't kick on... turns out the main logic board had a tiny crack right near the connector. Anyone else run into these newer HP's where the boards seem flimsier than they used to?

That week in Phoenix where everything I touched broke

Last July I had a stretch where I couldn't catch a break. Started with a 65 inch LG that had a bad backlight and I accidentally cracked the panel pulling it apart. Then a customer brought in a vintage Pioneer receiver that I spent 3 days on only to find the transformer was shot and unobtainable. On Thursday my soldering station died mid-reflow on a laptop board. I ended up using a butane torch to finish the job and it actually worked but barely. By Friday I had three returns sitting on my bench from jobs I swore were solid. What made it stand out was how every single fix I attempted just made things worse. Has anyone else had a week where you should have just closed up shop and walked away?

Serious question, why did no one tell me about using a heat gun on stripped screw heads?

After fighting with a seized screw on a Lenovo laptop for 45 minutes yesterday in my shop in Tacoma, I tried hitting it with my heat gun for about 15 seconds and it came right out, anyone else find random tricks like this that seem too simple to work?

Had a run of 7 straight MacBook repairs that went perfectly last Wednesday

I don't know what was in the air, but last Wednesday every single MacBook that came across my bench in Austin was just a simple trackpad cable or a single bad RAM slot. No liquid damage, no broken board layers, no fighting with corroded screws. Usually I'm wrestling with something stupid for an hour, but that day every fix took under 20 minutes. Has anyone else ever had one of those weird golden days where nothing fights you?

Heat gun trick saved my butt on a stubborn motherboard repair

Had this old Dell laptop come in 2 weeks ago where someone tried to replace the USB port and used way too much solder. It was bridging like 4 pins and I couldnt get my iron to clean it up without lifting pads. On a whim I hit it with the heat gun at 350 for about 20 seconds and tapped the board. The excess solder just balled up and fell off. Clean as a whistle after that. Anyone else use heat guns to fix solder bridges instead of wick or a sucker?

The difference a good flux makes in a solder joint is night and day

I used that cheap flux from the hardware store for years and wondered why my joints looked like garbage. Switched to a quality rosin flux last month and now my connections are smooth and bright every time. Has anyone else noticed how much easier it is to get clean work with better supplies?

Debate: Spending $200 on a fancy hot air rework station vs. just using a heat gun

A customer's simple comment made me stop using canned air on every board

I was cleaning a crusty old game console board last week, the usual routine. I blasted it with canned air first to get the big dust off before hitting it with the brush and IPA. The customer, an older guy who used to fix radios, was watching and said, 'You know, that just pushes the fine grit deeper into the connectors.' I kind of brushed it off at first, but later I found a sticky button on that same console. I took the board out again and sure enough, there was a fine layer of dust packed under a chip where the air had blown it. Now I start with a soft brush to loosen everything, then use the air pointed away from the board to clear the brush, and only use the air directly on the board for final dusting after the main clean. It adds maybe two minutes but feels much more thorough. Has anyone else switched up their cleaning order because of something like this?

A weird trick with a hair dryer fixed a whole batch of dead laptops last month

I had a stack of five identical business laptops from a small office, all with the same issue: they wouldn't turn on after a power surge. The usual checks showed no blown fuses on the boards. I was about to start ordering parts when I remembered an old trick. I took a basic hair dryer, set it on low heat, and gently warmed the area around the main power chip for about two minutes on each machine. I let them cool for an hour, and three of the five actually powered up. The heat must have reflowed a tiny crack in the solder that I couldn't even see. It bought the client time to back up their data before a proper repair. Has anyone else had luck with this kind of low-heat reflow on modern boards, or did I just get lucky?

A customer in Tampa told me to just reflow the whole board for his flickering monitor

I did it, but the real issue was a single cracked capacitor leg I missed, which got worse with the extra heat. Now the screen is totally dead and I have to explain it to him. How do you guys handle a situation where a client's own advice makes the repair worse?

Found a whole drawer of 'dead' phones at my local repair shop

The owner in Dayton said people keep bringing in phones with the same simple fix, a bad battery connection that just needs cleaning. He showed me six iPhone 8 models, all with the same issue, that customers thought were totally broken. How many of you see one specific, easy problem over and over?

Shoutout to the old Weller soldering stations

I used a cheap $25 iron from the hardware store for my first year in the shop, and it was a fight every time. Then I got a used Weller WES51 station for $80 off a retiring tech, and the difference was night and day. The steady heat meant I stopped lifting pads on old Nintendo boards. Anyone else have a piece of gear that just made the work click?

Finally fixed a stubborn Nintendo Switch dock after a trip to the library

I was at the downtown branch yesterday and saw they had a whole DIY repair station with soldering irons and multimeters you can use for free. It gave me the idea to reflow the HDMI controller chip on a dock that's been sitting in my 'maybe' pile for 3 months, and it actually worked. Has anyone else found a public spot with decent gear for quick fixes?

PSA: I was using a cheap 25W iron on modern laptop motherboards for years...

A tech at a local shop saw me and said, 'You're cooking those pads, man.' I finally upgraded to a proper temp-controlled station and the difference is night and day. Anyone else have a 'how did I not know this' tool upgrade story?