I had this 55 inch Samsung from 2019 on my bench Tuesday with no picture but sound. Pulled the panel off and found 3 blown LED strips but also a tiny piece of a screwdriver blade stuck between the driver board and the frame. Someone else tried fixing it before me and snapped a tool inside. I swapped the strips and cleaned out the metal piece and it fired right up. Has anyone else found random junk inside TVs from previous repair attempts?
Had a rush repair on a Pioneer receiver last Tuesday, needed to reflow some bad joints on the main board. My old Weller finally died so I grabbed this $40 station off Amazon with the glowing red tips. Big mistake. The temp control was way off, maybe 50 degrees too low, and the tip oxidized after 10 minutes. I spent an extra 45 minutes fighting with it and still left a few cold joints. Customer came back the next day saying the left channel dropped out again. Had to redo everything with a borrowed Hakko from a buddy and it took 15 minutes total. Anyone else tried to save money on a soldering iron and ended up paying double?
I was working on a dead power supply for a customer's monitor last Thursday and my regular Fluke was dead as a doornail. Grabbed that $10 special out of my truck just to check continuity and it worked fine. Then on Saturday a buddy asked me to look at his car stereo that wasn't turning on and I used the same meter to find a blown fuse in under 2 minutes. I keep nicer gear in my shop but for quick field checks that cheap thing has been surprisingly reliable. Anyone else keep a backup meter that cost less than a lunch and actually comes through?
I've brought back dozens of these things. Replaced caps, fixed clock capacitors, the whole deal. But this one had a trace that was corroded so bad I couldn't even find where it was supposed to go. Spent 3 hours with a magnifying lamp and a multimeter and finally just ran a jumper wire. Worked like a charm after that. Has anyone else run into a board so eaten up you almost gave up?
I was working on a 2007 Viera plasma that had vertical lines and the service manual from 2008 had a flowchart that pointed me to a failed buffer IC on the C board in about 10 minutes. Has anyone else found that older factory manuals are way more helpful than anything modern?
Last Tuesday I had a bad day at a repair shop in Cleveland. I spent 3 hours replacing caps on a TV that ended up having a shorted flyback transformer, and the customer blamed me. But then Friday I saved $80 on a stereo receiver by just testing caps first with my ESR meter before changing them. What do you all do when a power supply seems dead? Do you shotgun the caps or check them first? I go back and forth depending on the job.
My buddy Mike (he works at a local shop in Phoenix) kept telling me to switch to flux core for my outdoor repair jobs. I thought he was crazy since I'd been using solid wire with gas for like 8 years. Finally tried it last week on a rusty tractor fender and honestly, the weld penetration was way better with no wind issues. It saved me about 2 hours of grinding and re-welding. Has anyone else found flux core works better for certain metal thicknesses or is it just me?
I was working on an old Sony STR-DE475 receiver last week, trying to replace a blown capacitor near the power supply. I hit it with my Hakko 808 at 400C and the solder just wouldn't flow, so I held it there maybe 5 seconds too long. Heard a faint tick and saw a hairline crack right through a trace near the cap. Had to run a jumper wire to fix it. Anyone else wreck a board this way or am I just too heavy handed?
Had a vintage Fender Bassman come in last Tuesday, the owner wanted me to recap it. I was pulling the chassis out and my grip slipped, sent it face down onto the corner of my metal bench. Cracked the power transformer mounting bracket clean off and bent one of the rectifier tube pins. Spent the next 3 hours finding a replacement bracket on ebay and straightening the pin with a pair of needle nose pliers. Anyone else have a moment where you just stared at the damage for a solid minute before moving?
Last month I had a stack of dead power supplies from a local audio shop, and I cleared 12 of them in one shift by just replacing bad caps and bridge rectifiers. Not a single one came back, which is RARE for me. Has anyone else had a day where everything just clicked like that?
I picked up a Hakko FX-888D clone off a deal site for $200 last month. First few boards it was fine, but then the tip temp started jumping around like crazy. I had a guy tell me I should have just stuck with my old Weller for half the price. Now I'm debating if the name brand is worth the extra cash or if I just got a lemon. What do you all think, has buying cheap ever actually worked out for anyone here?
Found a old motherboard at a garage sale, covered in battery gunk. Tried white vinegar on a Q-tip and the corrosion just melted off. Anybody else got weird household stuff that works for cleaning?
I was chasing a dead short in a dryer in Medford last month and kept getting weird resistance values. Spent 2 hours testing fuses and switches before I got suspicious. Turns out my test leads had a broken wire inside the rubber boot, giving intermittent readings. Replaced them with a $8 set from the hardware store and fixed the dryer in 10 minutes. Anyone else had a simple tool fail and waste your time?
Pulled a 2003 Sony receiver out of a Goodwill in Denver and a 6800uF cap had split right down the seam. Has anyone else seen age just destroy caps in gear from that era?
I was picking up some old gear from a guys garage last Saturday and he mentioned a TV that 'stopped working' years ago. He was gonna throw it in the trash. I popped the back off and saw the tube neck was fine, but the plastic shell had a huge crack right where the main board mounts. Ended up swapping the guts into a similar chassis I had sitting around and it fired right up with a rock solid image and no geometry issues. Made me think about how much we assume old gear is dead just because the case is busted or the plastic is brittle. Do you guys ever bother saving the circuit boards from cracked shell TVs or is it usually not worth the bench time?
Guy brought in an old Xbox from 2014 last Thursday complaining about overheating. I told him I just needed fresh paste on the CPU. He argued the paste in my drawer was too old, said I had to open a brand new tube. I used a 3 year old tube I already had and the temps dropped by 15 degrees after. Has anyone else dealt with customers who think thermal paste has a shelf life that matters?
I was dreading fixing this old Sony TV from 2012 that kept shutting off after 10 minutes, figured it was a dead mainboard. Turns out it was just two swollen caps near the power supply that I swapped in 15 minutes for under $2. Has anyone else had a repair that looked way worse than it actually was?
I hit 50 repairs this month on a mix of old Xbox 360s and PS3s from my local Facebook listings. Started doing this as a side hustle in Dallas about 8 months ago, and I didn't expect to get that many so fast. Most of them had bad capacitors or disc drive belts, nothing crazy hard. Has your repair count surprised you at any point, or do you keep track at all?
Some user named 'fixit_frank' told me to always replace a bulging cap with the exact same brand, so I spent 3 days tracking down a Nichicon for an old monitor. Turns out any decent low-ESR cap would have worked fine and I wasted $12 on shipping for nothing. Anyone else run into bad advice from this sub?
Figured they were just overpriced toys for hobbyists, but after soaking a filthy motherboard from a 2010 receiver in one for 10 minutes it came out looking factory new. Anyone else have a tool they dismissed for years before finally trying?
I was fixing a busted power supply from a 2012 Dell desktop last weekend. The capacitor was stuck on the board like it was welded on. I cranked my hot air station to 400C and hit it for a solid minute. Nothing moved. So I kept going another 30 seconds and the whole surrounding plastic connector started melting. Learned that slow and steady wins with these boards. I should have used flux and a low melt solder first to break the connection. Now I'm out a connector and the cap is still half on there. Anyone else have a trick for getting stubborn through-hole caps off without damaging the board?
Last month my neighbor, who fixes old radios, told me to spray canned air upside down to freeze bad solder joints. I laughed and told him that's just going to spray liquid everywhere. Tried it on a cracked joint in my own stereo and it actually made the connection pop right out so I could see the problem. Has anyone else been given advice that sounded totally backwards but actually worked out?
I was trying to remove a voltage regulator off an old laptop motherboard with my 858D set at 400C and it just would not budge. After 3 minutes of heating, the solder still wasn't flowing right and I ended up lifting a pad. What temperature do you guys actually use for ground plane components?
Spent an hour scraping adhesive off a Samsung tab yesterday until I remembered to preheat the frame to 90C for 2 minutes before pulling the glass. Has anyone else found a specific temp that works best for different tablet brands?