c/electronics-repairers

PSA: Should we fix old gear or just tell people to buy new? I got split on this last week at a local shop.

Last week at a friend's repair shop in Austin, a guy brought in a 2012 Samsung TV with a blown power supply. My buddy quoted him $85 for the part and labor. The guy laughed and said he could get a used 4K set for $120 on Facebook. I argued we should fix it because it's less waste and the picture is still solid. But my buddy pointed out that most people don't care about e-waste, they just want the cheapest option. So where do we draw the line as repairers? Do you guys push back and fix old gear even if it costs close to a replacement, or do you just hand them a referral to Best Buy? Has anyone else dealt with this argument at their own bench?

Swapped my old multimeter leads for silicone ones and it was a game changer

I used to use the stock leads that came with my Fluke for years. They were always stiff and annoying to route around tight spots on boards. About 3 months ago I grabbed a set of silicone test leads from Probe Master for $40. The flexibility is night and day, I can actually hold the probes steady without fighting the cables. Plus the silicone insulation doesn't get all tangled up like the PVC ones did. Anyone else made the switch or still rocking the factory leads?

Switched from heat guns to a hot air station for SMD work

I always used a cheap heat gun for small SMD stuff because I figured why spend more. After killing two boards on a customer's Pioneer receiver in Denver last month, I finally grabbed a Yihua 858D. Night and day difference - I can actually control the airflow now instead of blowing tiny resistors into orbit. Anyone else hold out way too long before upgrading a basic tool?

That capacitor that took me 40 minutes to find but 2 seconds to fix

I was working on a 2012 Samsung TV from a customer in Daytona Beach and it kept going into a weird power cycling loop. I wasted a full hour checking the power supply board and the main board before I noticed a tiny bulged capacitor near the inverter circuit. It was a 1000uF 10v cap that literally looked fine from one angle but had a hairline leak on the bottom side. Anyone else ever chase a simple cap replacement for way too long?

Found out most soldering irons are set way too hot for modern boards

I was reading through an old IPC handbook from 1994 last night and saw they recommended 600-650F for through-hole work, but modern lead-free boards actually need lower temps around 480-520F according to newer specs. I had been running my iron at 700F for years because that's what the old timer who trained me said to do. Has anyone else found their joints improved after actually checking the temperature ranges for their specific solder and board type?

Found a trick for fixing loose headphone jacks with a toothpick

Spent 20 minutes trying to figure out why my left earbud kept cutting out and a guy at the repair shop said to shove a tiny piece of toothpick into the jack hole to tighten the connection, and it actually worked perfectly, has anyone else tried something that dumb that actually ended up fixing the problem?

Found out my soldering iron tip was 50 degrees off from what it said

Checked it with a cheap thermocouple I grabbed off Amazon last week and turns out my $80 Hakko was running way hotter than the dial said for months. I had been cooking boards instead of soldering them. Anyone else ever check their station temp and find a big surprise?

Shoutout to the guy who showed me how to reflow BGA chips without a proper rework station

Last week I was stuck on a laptop that kept shutting down randomly. A retired repair guy at a local meetup in Austin told me to try hot air from the top and a preheated skillet underneath. I set the skillet to 190 degrees and used my cheap 858D on full blast for about 2 minutes. The board came back to life and I haven't had a crash since. Has anyone else cooked up a hack like this with stuff you already own?

Hot take: Component-level repair is dying and it's our own fault

I keep seeing people on here swap whole boards for a blown capacitor or a bad transistor. Why? A pack of 50 caps costs $8 and takes 10 minutes with a soldering iron. I get that time is money, but I fixed a 2012 Samsung TV last week for $3 in parts that someone was about to toss. On the other hand, I know guys who charge $80 an hour and say swapping boards is faster and more reliable. So what's the line between saving a device and losing a customer? Are we pushing this trade toward being just part swappers, or is component work just not worth it anymore?

Why does nobody talk about how bad those cheap capacitor testers are?

I bought a $12 multimeter with capacitance mode off Amazon and it was reading 470µF caps as 300µF. Switched to a Peak Atlas and suddenly my power supply repairs actually worked first try. Am I the only one who wasted money on those junk testers?

Had to pick between reflowing a laptop GPU or replacing the whole board

Picked the reflow last Thursday on a 2017 HP Omen and it worked great for 2 days before the same graphics glitch came back, has anyone else had better luck with a full reball instead?

Had a crazy good week fixing old turntables last month

Four straight days where every single job was just a simple belt swap or a dirty pot, no big soldering nightmares or broken tonearms. Anyone else ever get a run like that where the repair gods just smile on you for a few days?

Swapped flux types on a motherboard repair and it saved me an hour

I was working on a laptop board with some corroded solder joints near the power jack. Started with the cheap rosin flux I always use, but it kept burning and leaving a mess. Switched to a gel no-clean flux from MG Chemicals, and it flowed way smoother with less cleanup. That one swap cut my rework time from maybe an hour and a half down to 45 minutes. Has anyone else noticed a big difference between flux brands on delicate jobs?

That customer who brought in a 1980s radio taught me something about patience

Last month a older gentleman came into my shop with a vintage receiver that had been his dad's, and instead of rushing me he just said 'take your time, it's been sitting for 30 years.' Anyone else had a customer remind you that not every repair has to be done in 20 minutes?

That thermal pad on the chipset is just for show, stop ignoring it

I keep seeing repair vids where people slap a new GPU on a board but leave the chipset heatsink bare or with a crusty old pad. Last week I had a PS4 that would crash after 10 minutes, fresh thermal paste on the APU did nothing, but a 1mm pad on the southbridge fixed it instantly. How do you decide which chips actually need pads vs just air cooling?

Just had to choose between reflowing a laptop GPU or scrapping the whole board

Got an old Dell Precision in last Tuesday with no display but the backlight worked. I was sitting there debating whether to hit the GPU with hot air or just junk it for parts. Ended up going with the reflow because I figured I had nothing to lose, and after 3 tries it actually posted again. Has anyone else had that gamble pay off with a graphics chip?

Got a used oscilloscope off Facebook Marketplace, it was full of cockroaches

Picked up a Tektronix 465 from a guy in St. Louis last week for $40. Thought I got a steal. Got it home, popped the case off to check the internals, and there were a dozen dead roaches inside. Fried power supply too. Spent 3 hours cleaning it out with compressed air and isopropyl. It actually powers on now but the trace is wavy. Anyone else deal with bug-infested gear before? How do you prep a find like that?

Figured out why my multimeter gave wrong readings for months

Kept getting weird resistance numbers on a control board repair last week and finally realized my test leads were dirty. Wiped them with isopropyl alcohol and suddenly everything made sense. Anyone else ever overlook something that basic?

I bought a whole new logic board for a MacBook Air when it was just the trackpad cable

A customer brought in a 2020 MacBook Air with a dead trackpad and I jumped straight to a full board replacement, thinking it was the common M1 issue. I ordered a $350 used board from iFixit, spent three hours swapping it, and the problem was still there. Turns out the trackpad flex cable had just come loose from a drop, a $0 fix if I'd checked it first. Anyone else ever feel dumb for missing the simple stuff on a rush job?

My neighbor said his new phone was 'too thin to fix' after a screen crack

He brought his phone to a mall kiosk and they turned him away, said the parts weren't worth the labor. That got me thinking about all the modern gear we're told is disposable. I've fixed three Galaxy S24 Ultras this month, so it's clearly doable. Are other shops seeing more 'unrepairable' devices from big box stores?

Just realized I spent way too long fighting with old solder wick

I used to think good desoldering meant a roll of wick and a lot of patience. I'd sit there for 15 minutes on a single multi-pin connector, adding flux, burning through wick, and still leaving junk in the holes. The change came about 8 months ago after a job on a 90s stereo amp where I had to pull 24 pins. A guy at the local shop in Austin told me to stop being stubborn and get a proper desoldering gun. I bought a Hakko FR-301, and it was like night and day. That same connector took maybe 2 minutes, and the through-holes were spotless. I was just making the job harder for myself because that's how I learned. Anyone else have a tool they held out on that totally changed their workflow?

Warning: The new Hakko FX-888D iron tip I bought oxidized in two days

Just got a fresh chisel tip from the local supply house, ran it at 700 degrees on a basic board job. Wiped it on the brass wool like always, but it turned black and wouldn't take solder by the third morning. I'm not running it hot, and my old tips last months. Has anyone else had a bad batch of Hakko tips recently, or did I just get a dud?

Had a crazy day with a 2017 MacBook Pro that came in for a simple screen swap

The client said it had a cracked screen, but when I opened it up, the battery was swollen and had started to push on the trackpad. I had to do a full battery replacement and a new top case before I could even think about the screen, which turned a two hour job into a full day. Has anyone else had a simple repair turn into a major project because of a hidden issue like that?

Finally fixed a flickering monitor I've had for 3 months by reflowing the main board with a $50 hot air station.

My approach to board-level soldering flipped completely after a repair job in 2022

I used to rely on my old Weller station and a ton of flux for every single SMD component, thinking a bigger iron tip was always better. Then I had to fix a water-damaged iPad logic board where the tiny caps were just dissolving. I switched to a cheap hot air station I got for $80 and a much finer tip, and my success rate on those micro joints went from maybe 60% to near perfect. It felt like learning the whole skill over again. Has anyone else made a major switch in their basic soldering technique that paid off big?