Had a laptop that would randomly shut off. I spent an hour with a soldering iron trying to reflow the GPU pins, no luck. Then I grabbed my 858D hot air station at 350C, hit the area for 30 seconds, and it fired right up. Been stable for a week now. Anyone else find hot air way better for BGA rework than an iron?
Picked up a cheap digital microscope off Amazon for inspecting solder joints on phone boards. Spent $200 and it had so much lag I couldn't even see where my iron was touching. Returned it after one disaster repair where I bridged three pins on a charging IC. Anyone else get burned by those no-name USB scopes?
I was going through a tip every couple weeks on my Hakko station and it was driving me nuts. Figured it was cheap tips or maybe my flux was bad. Turns out I was leaving the iron on at full temp for hours between uses. I'd walk away, get lunch, come back, and it just sat there at 700 degrees with nothing to do. Read a post on here about turning it down to standby temp around 300 when idle and using tip tinner before putting it back in the holder. Tried that for a month and my tip still looks new. Cost me maybe $30 in wasted tips before I sorted it out. Anyone else run into this or have other tricks for tip longevity?
Last Tuesday I took in a 2017 Samsung TV with a simple blown fuse, and by Friday I had somehow killed the power board AND the main board trying to fix it. (like, two different boards fried on two different days, I still don't get how). Has anyone else had a repair week that just snowballed into disaster, or was it just me?
I took in a 1970s Zenith console from a customer in Oak Park last week, just needed a new power supply cap. But when I opened it up, someone had replaced the original flyback transformer with one from a completely different model, wired it in with speaker wire and electrical tape. That thing must have been running like that for decades without anything catching fire. Has anyone else run into a backyard repair job that made you shake your head?
Bought it off eBay to save cash and the thing couldn't even hit 200c consistently. Has anyone found a reliable budget station under $150 that actually works?
Wasted $35 on a 40 pack of tips that were supposed to fit my Hakko. They didn't. The first one oxidized in about 10 minutes and the second one wouldn't even heat up. Shoulda just spent the extra $12 on genuine ones from the supply house. Anyone else burn money on those knockoff tip sets?
I was fixing a Panasonic DVD player from 2004 for a neighbor last weekend. There was a cracked capacitor near a plastic connector, and I worried the hot air would melt it. I went with my Hakko soldering iron and a pair of tweezers instead, taking it slow. The cap came off clean and the new one went in without any damage. Has anyone else had to pick between tools on a tight spot like that?
Picked up a Pioneer SX-780 at a flea market in Denver for $40 last Saturday. Got it home and the left channel was weak with a hum. Recapped the power supply board with some Nichicon caps from Mouser, took about 2 hours, and now it sounds clean as a whistle. Anyone else notice how much life these old units have after a basic recap?
I was reading through a repair log from a shop in Austin last night and saw that nearly 40% of dead power supplies they get in have at least one bad cap. That number seems crazy high to me, but after thinking about all the blown caps I've pulled from old monitors, it kinda makes sense. Where do you guys usually see the worst capacitor problems in your repairs?
I passed 500 board-level repairs last Tuesday on a old Samsung TV power supply. It surprised me because I never actually counted them before, I just fix stuff as it comes in. That number made me realize how much I've learned since I started doing this out of my garage in Des Moines four years ago. Has anyone else tracked their repair count and been surprised by the number?
I went to the county transfer station last Tuesday to drop off some old stereo gear. Walking through the e-waste section, I noticed at least 30 VCRs and DVD players stacked in a bin, most of them looked like belt-drive failures or bad laser lenses. It hit me that these are super easy fixes with a $5 belt kit or a lens cleaner, but nobody bothers anymore. Do you all ever pull stuff from the curb or dump for quick flips, or is it not worth the time?
I was in Denver last weekend killing time and found a FLIR One for $15 at a pawn shop on Colfax. It actually works great for finding hot components on boards without risking my good meter. Anyone else used one of these cheap add-ons for troubleshooting?
Bought a no-name vacuum desoldering tool off Amazon about 8 months ago and it worked fine for small boards, but yesterday I was pulling a 24-pin connector and the tip clogged so bad it just gave up. Anyone else have a budget desoldering tool that let them down at the worst time?
I had an old iPhone 6s with a swollen battery that I couldn't get the adhesive to release on. After 20 minutes of struggling, I grabbed my wife's hairdryer and hit it on low for about 90 seconds, and the whole back came off clean without prying. Has anyone else tried unconventional heat sources like that or is this just a rookie move that'll backfire eventually?
I keep running into people who swap out a bulging capacitor on a board like that's the whole fix, but they skip checking the traces under it. Last month a guy brought me a 2007 Samsung plasma power supply where he did exactly that and missed a burnt-out via about 2 inches down the line. How do you even diagnose a problem if you won't grab a multimeter and follow the voltage path?
My buddy Mike swore by his $40 hot air gun for years until it melted a connector on a board I was fixing last Tuesday. I stuck with my $15 soldering iron and flux, got the job done in 10 minutes flat. Anybody else ditch the hot air and just go back to basics?
So I was at Micro Center yesterday picking up some desoldering braid and this older guy next to me says to the clerk 'most people don't realize flux expires after a year if you leave the cap off.' I honestly never thought about it. I been using the same tub of flux for like 3 years and wondering why my joints were looking grainy. Went home and swapped it with a fresh one I had in a drawer. Solder flowed way smoother. Has anyone else had bad luck with old flux gumming up their work?
I was swapping a cap on a motherboard last tuesday and my iron was set to 400C like always. My buddy whos been doing board repair way longer than me walks by and goes "why are you cooking it?" I laughed it off but then he had me drop it to 315C. Same joint flowed perfect in half the time. Felt like an idiot. I guess I figured more heat = faster work but really I was just waiting for the whole board to soak. Anyone else have a basic thing they did wrong forever?
I stopped by this monthly repair cafe at a library down on Belmont last Saturday. Honestly I went in thinking it would be a bunch of hobbyists showing off their soldering skills. But this older guy fixed my broken desk lamp in about 10 minutes by just cleaning the contact points with a pencil eraser. That simple fix cost me nothing and I had been ready to toss the lamp in the trash. It made me realize I don't always need to swap out entire boards or components when half the time the problem is just dirt or a loose wire. Now I'm kicking myself for all the stuff I threw away over the years that probably just needed a good cleaning. Has anyone else had a simple fix like that make you rethink your whole approach to repairs?
I spent a whole Saturday chasing a ghost in a vintage Pioneer receiver that would power up but put out zero sound. Turned out to be a single bad coupling capacitor on the preamp board that tested fine with my meter but went open under load. Has anyone else had a component pass bench tests but fail in circuit like that?
I was going off a pin-type meter reading that said 8% moisture, but the client's baseboards were swelling anyway. Turned out the meter was reading the top layer of dry paint, not the wood underneath. Anyone else had a pin meter give you sketchy readings?
I spent an entire afternoon trying to desolder a capacitor on a vintage receiver before it clicked that the iron wasn't heating right because of a crusted tip, not a dead heating element, has anyone else wasted time on a simple fix like that?
I always thought that was just an old wives' tale for desktop PCs. He was talking about a specific 2018 Dell laptop that would only get to the logo screen. After cleaning and reseating the RAM did nothing, he just moved the single stick from slot A to slot B. It posted on the first try. I tried it this week on an HP with a similar hang, and it actually worked. I guess some boards have a real picky primary slot. Has anyone else seen this fix work on newer machines, or was it just luck?
I keep a tally on a whiteboard, and seeing that exact number made me realize how many of these things are failing from the same flexgate/backlight issue that Apple won't fix for free anymore.