c/electronics-repairers

Had a customer yell at me about my BGA rework temps

Last Tuesday I was reballing a laptop GPU and a guy who used to work at a board repair shop in Dallas leaned over my shoulder and said I was running way too hot. I had my preheat at 190 C and top at 260 C. He told me I was practically cooking the PCB and that I should drop the preheat to 150 and use a slower ramp. I argued with him at first because I've been doing it that way for years. But I tried his method on a scrap board and didn't pop a single cap and the solder flowed way smoother. Now I'm wondering if all the boards I've done before have hidden damage. Has anyone else had their whole process challenged by some random dude and ended up changing everything?

Flux vs no-clean flux on a vintage audio board - I learned the hard way

I was recapping a 1970s Marantz receiver last month and decided to try no-clean flux instead of my usual rosin flux. Big mistake. The no-clean stuff left this sticky residue that attracted dust and made the board look awful. After three days, I had to pull everything off, scrub it with isopropyl, and start over with my old flux. The rosin flux just works better on these old boards because it cleans up easily and leaves a nice finish. Has anyone else run into trouble trying to switch flux types on vintage gear?

Found a trick for cleaning flux off boards with isopropyl and a toothbrush

I had this old receiver board that was covered in sticky flux residue from a previous repair. Tried q-tips but they kept leaving little fibers everywhere. Then I grabbed a spare soft toothbrush and just dipped it in 91% isopropyl and scrubbed gently. The flux came off way faster and the board looks clean as new now. Has anyone else tried this or do you guys stick to dedicated brush kits?

Found a dead short in a TV by listening to the power supply

Was working on a Samsung 55 inch from 2019 last week. Kept blowing the fuse right when I plugged it in. Instead of pulling out the multimeter right away, I held the board up to my ear and heard this faint buzzing from one capacitor. Turned out to be a shorted MLCC right next to it that I would've missed for another hour. Anyone else got weird tricks for finding shorts faster?

Hit 1000 reflows on one BGA chip this week with no fails

So I've been practicing BGA rework on these old Xbox 360 boards for a while now. Last Tuesday I finally crossed 1000 reflows on the same chip and it still boots up every time. I used a cheap Chinese preheater and a hot air station from Amazon, nothing fancy. The trick was getting the profile right - I preheat at 150C for 3 minutes then ramp up slow. Before this I was killing chips left and right from thermal shock. Has anyone else tracked their success rate on a specific rework job like this?

I was dead wrong about those cheap thermal imaging cameras

Had a customer last month with a power supply that kept tripping the breaker on his CNC machine. I spent damn near 2 hours checking every diode and capacitor with my multimeter and couldn't find a thing. Was about to tell him it's haunted or something when my buddy brought over his $150 Seek thermal cam. Took one look at the board and saw a tiny voltage regulator cooking itself at 190 degrees that looked fine to the naked eye. 35 cent part fixed the whole thing. Has anyone else had a cheap tool totally change how you troubleshoot?

I finally stopped using compressed air for PS4 cleaning

I overheard a guy at Micro Center last Saturday telling his friend that canned air is the only way to clean consoles without damaging them. But after my third PS4 came back with a disc drive error from condensation residue, I switched to a low-power vacuum and a soft brush. That conversation made me realize popular advice often ignores real repair scenarios. Has anyone else found canned air causing more problems than it solves?

Heat gun trick for shrinking tubing might be overrated

I was at a shop in Denver last Thursday and heard a guy swearing by using a lighter for heat shrink instead of a heat gun, saying it's faster and just as clean. I tried it on a set of wires and ended up with black soot all over the connector and a weak seal. Maybe I did it wrong, but I think the heat gun is still the way to go for any job where reliability matters. Has anyone else found a good reason to stick with a lighter over a proper tool?

Just realized I've been cleaning flux wrong for years

Had a board come back from a customer last Wednesday with what I thought were cold joints. Reflowed everything, same issue. Turns out I was leaving enough flux residue under my microcontrollers to cause intermittent shorts. A buddy from the local firehouse brought in his phone that stopped charging, I popped it open and saw the same crusty mess I make. Took a good look under my magnifier and finally saw it. Now I'm scrubbing with IPA and a toothbrush every time. Who else found out they were making this mess the hard way?

Wasted $60 on a cheap soldering station and learned my lesson

Honestly I bought this no-name soldering station off eBay for $60 about 4 months ago. The temperature control was way off, like it would say 350 but actually be closer to 500 degrees. Fried two expensive logic boards before I figured out it was the iron, not me. Ended up buying a Hakko FX-888D for $100 and it's night and day difference. Anyone else get burned by cheap tools like this?

Warning: Don't buy those cheap capacitor testers on Amazon

I picked up a $15 capacitor tester from a random brand last month. Figured it was good enough for checking old caps on TVs and monitors. First three tests seemed fine, but the fourth one said a cap was good when it was clearly blown (bulging top and all). Ended up wasting 4 hours troubleshooting a power supply board because I trusted that faulty reading. Ordered a proper Peak tester for $80 after that, but man I wish I just spent the money upfront. Anyone else get burned by cheap tools that just waste your time?

Guy at the scrapyard told me to boil circuit boards... actually worked?

So there's this old timer named Marty who hangs around the scrapyard near my shop in Akron. He saw me digging through a pile of dead power supplies and goes "you gotta boil 'em for 20 minutes to loosen the solder joints." I laughed it off but last week I tried it on a trash UPS board just for kicks. Popped it in a pot of water on my propane burner, boiled it, and sure enough the through-hole components practically fell out after I tapped the board. Weird thing is it didn't even damage the board... has anyone else heard of this hack or am I just lucky it didn't explode?

That bathroom rewire in an old mobile home taught me to ALWAYS check for live knob and tube before touching anything

I was swapping out a switch at a client's place near Tulsa and got zapped so hard my screwdriver flew across the room, now I carry a non-contact voltage tester in my back pocket every single day, has anyone else run into ancient wiring that was still hot?

Finally fixed a 15-year-old Sony receiver I picked up for $40 at Goodwill

Last month I found this old STR-DE915 at the local thrift in Austin, and after staring at the schematic for three weeks I finally traced the crackling sound to a cold solder joint on the main amp board. Has anyone else had luck resurrecting those silver-era Sony receivers or am I wasting my time?

Noticed something odd about the soldering irons at the community college repair lab

I volunteer twice a month at the local community college helping students fix their electronics. Last week I walked into their repair lab and saw they had 15 soldering stations set up, but every single iron was set to 750 degrees. That seemed high for the basic through-hole work students do. I asked the instructor about it and he said they just set it there years ago and never changed it. I spent an hour showing a few students how to adjust the temperature based on what theyre soldering and the difference in their joints was night and day. Has anyone else seen this kind of thing in school or training labs?

Hit 5,000 capacitor replacements on old power supplies and never expected to care that much

I was just keeping count for fun but when I hit 5,000 last Tuesday it actually felt like a real milestone, has anyone else tracked a weird number like that just out of curiosity?

Pulled my first proper reflow on a PS4 last night and didn't mess it up

Been fixing consoles for like 4 years now, always just did cap swaps and drive swaps. Decided to try reflowing a GPU on a PS4 that had the blue light issue, used a hot air station set to 350C. Took about 6 minutes total and the thing actually booted up and ran GTA V for 2 hours straight. Has anyone else had luck with reflow vs a full reball on these old PS4s?

Just realized that old lady's VCR repair from 3 years ago still sticks with me

Found a blown cap on a 10 year old power supply last week that nearly took out a whole home theater setup

It was a $40 repair job but if I hadn't caught that bulging capacitor near the heat sink it could have fried the receiver too, has anyone else seen older gear fail like this after a power surge?

Stripped screw on a laptop hinge took me 2 hours to fix yesterday

I spent way too long trying to drill out a stripped phillips head on an HP hinge bracket before I just grabbed some superglue and a flathead. Has anyone else got a go-to trick for these tiny stripped screws?

PSA: That capacitor might just be extra glue, not a leak

Spent three hours last Tuesday chasing a power supply issue on an old Samsung TV. The board had this brown crusty stuff near a big cap that looked exactly like leakage. Cleaned it off, replaced the cap, still dead. Finally got out my multimeter and checked the actual voltage, everything was fine. Turned out the crust was just adhesive from the factory. Put the old cap back in, powered it on, worked perfect. Anyone else been tricked by that stuff taking up your whole afternoon?

Hot take: that multimeter you carry is lying to you on DC voltage readings

Last month I caught my Fluke 87V reading 0.3V high on a 24V rail and swapping in a cheap $30 Uni-T showed me the real value, has anyone else run into calibration drift on supposedly rock solid meters?

That old timer who told me to always reflow BGA chips before swapping them out

My mentor at the shop in Austin always said "don't replace what you can reheat" and after I spent $40 on a new GPU chip only to find a cracked solder joint on the old one, I finally got why he was so stubborn about it.

Hit 500 board repairs last month and it snuck up on me

Took me 5 years to figure out I was cleaning my soldering iron tip wrong

I always wiped the tip on a wet sponge right after finishing a joint, then tinned it. Last week a guy at a repair shop in Phoenix saw me do it and said I was shocking the tip with that fast cool down. How long do you let your iron cool before cleaning it?