[rescue] rescue Digest, Vol 134, Issue 13

[Fred]

>Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2014 03:23:40 -0500 (EST)
>From: Mouse <mouse at Rodents-Montreal.ORG>
>Subject: Re: [rescue] Trying to rescue a Sun Ultra 45

>> Interesting story, not heard of it before, have seen a few mobos with
>> blown caps (tants?) which did not impact the running of the system.

>You're lucky they didn't.  I have fixed three (out of three) dead
>flat-screen displays by opening them up, noting that caps in the power
>supply portion of the circuit have bulging tops, and replacing them.  I
>am not in a position to comment either way on the "industrial espionage
>gone wrong" theory except to note that what I've seen is entirely
[chop, discussion re: caps and lcd's]

Not to pull an AOL and say "Me too!", but ...

Me too!

Seriously though, about a couple of years ago I was doing work for a customer
and determined their LCD display was faulty.  I had recently discovered that
they (LCD's) too suffer from the bad cap problem, and with the customer's
permission "disposed" of the LCD to my trunk.  Took it home, disassembled, and
lo and behold - domed cap city.   $10 later for the best hi temp low esr caps
I could find of the same rating, and a couple hours of removing old,
resoldering new while rockin' to some music, I had a working LCD.  I don't do
soldering for a living either, I'm more of a tech generalist.  You don't want
me taking your object apart because there is a good chance I won't get it back
together.  Everyone has their fortes.

Since then I've acquired LCD's this way to the tune of 1-2 every six months. 
I have another in the basement currently waiting to be recapped next time I
have a spare hour or two.  I've got two 17"'s on my desk for dual display, my
wife received an upgrade to her 15", and I really don't know what to do with
the others - I may see if I can donate them to the local church or other
organization that are still using small LCDs or CRTs.  To me, it's just fun to
fix them.

I also agree with the other poster about waste.  If my time was worth $0,
they'd be cheap fixes.  ... but when you can get replacements for $70-$120
depending on model, it's hard to make any money repairing them unless you
could do serious volume. (note that making money is NOT the primary point I
was/am trying to make).

Plus, "planned obsolesence" by the manufacturers and all that.

It even hits home a little more, as my vintage 1968 natural gas in wall oven
most likely needs a thermostat.  Thermostats for these models are unobtainium,
which means going down the rabbit hole of removing, finding, and replacing the
oven to the tune of in excess $2500+ if all goes well and a proper dimension
oven can be found  However, I've found a company that will rebuild the 
thermostats, saving me quite a bit of money.  Turns a $2500+ project into a
$300-$500 project, which is a win in my book.

Perhaps I should close with "They don't make 'em like they used to!" ?

Fred