Remember when you had to buy a whole new motherboard for a bad capacitor? I just spent $2 on a soldering iron tip to fix one.

Back in the day, a blown cap on a board was basically a death sentence for the whole system. Now I keep a cheap iron and a bag of caps on the bench. Fixed a customer's old gaming rig last week that just needed a single 1000uF cap swapped. Took 5 minutes. What's the oldest piece of gear you've brought back from the dead with a simple component fix?

3 comments

3 Comments

mason3314d ago

Grab a cheap desoldering pump too, makes pulling those old caps clean way easier.

webb.dakota11d ago

Actually, a cheap pump can sometimes make more of a mess by not pulling all the solder. I've had better luck adding fresh solder first to get a good melt, then using a decent pump. It just works more cleanly on old boards.

christopher_sullivan14d ago

My 2006 iMac G5 was just a bad power supply cap. Found the exact value in an old DVD player board.