On Sunday, September 20, 2015 at 12:25:07 AM UTC-5, Don Y wrote:
On 9/19/2015 10:10 PM, wrote:

It's worth it to at least give it a try repairing those boards yourself..
Hopefully you have a decent capacitor ESR meter to find bad electrolytic
capacitors. Mine paid for itself the first week.

You can usually recognize bad caps from their brand names, bulging/broken
vents, and the nature of the circuit in which they are employed. E.g.,
with high temperatures and high ripple currents that lead to internal
heating.

Caps are cheap (more or less). I've seen folks selectively replace only
the "defective" caps on a board. Where's the logic in that? Do you think
the others are less likely to fail or will somehow be more convenient to
replace at a later date?

The bean counters working for most manufacturers insist on the cheapest parts that will work. Saving a dollar on each circuit board really adds up when they're producing millions of units. I repaired some POS (Point Of Sale) ViewSonic monitors that had GRONKED in a hot kitchen. It was bad electrolytic caps in the power supplies that had the lowest voltage and temperature ratings the manufacturer could get away with. Of course I replaced the failed caps with the highest voltage and temperature rated electrolytics of the same value that the supply house had in stock. It's been five years and those monitors are still cooking in that hot restaurant kitchen. An identical monitor in the restaurant office has never failed. ^_^

[8~{} Uncle Cap Monster