[rescue] Slightly OT: Bad Cap Saga

[Joshua Boyd]

On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 09:19:56AM +0300, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:

> As an example, cheap DVD players. If they were to be used everyday for
> three years before the capacitors leak, will they still work? Have
> the laser diodes degraded to the point they no longer put out enough power?
> Did the plastic assemblies that hold the disk in place degrade to the
> point they no longer hold the disk in a readable position?

At work I'm lucky to have a DVD player last 1 year.
 
> They both happen to cheap DVD players and often in less than three years,
> so why buy capacitors that last "forever"?

Nonw of the DVD players I've bought have lasted 3 years, and in two of
the cases I was trying to spend more for a better unit.  In the first
case, I had one that was repairable (PSU was a seperate board, used a
regular IDE drive) and I should have just kept it and repaired it, but
it wasn't progressive scan and I thought I wanted that.