Failure Rate

[Gianni]

I'm not talking about CAPS, I'm just curios to know "how many time" experienced people can't repair MOBO or at least, after recapping, it doesn't work or it is not reliable.

I'm just curios because I don't repair PC for job, and the second time I tried to repair a MOBO with bad caps I failed .

Thanks
Gianni

[stevo1210]

Re: Failure Rate

I have suffered from these falls a few times. Usually they are dead when I get them and they would usually have burnt chipsets or similar.

Never have I had a recp fail on me.... even those recaps which I screw up so badly by heating up the PCB for too long and melting the paint off, unbelievably they still work?!. .... luckily I know how to properly recap a board these days so those issues are avoidable.

Thanks.

[willawake]

Re: Failure Rate

the thing is that you cannot directly compare experiences because the parameters are all different. it is not the same as if we were all building the same kit for instance and one guy failed on the first two attempts.

some boards may be beyond help or there are multiple problems with the hardware

perhaps you have been unlucky. i certainly would suggest that you persevere, unless you are incredibly shit at soldering which i doubt is the case.

personally i have recapped almost every board ok but i killed one by damaging traces, long time heating.

[linuxguru]

Re: Failure Rate

Yeah, I have nuked a few boards. However, some of those were probably already beyond repair due to sustained overvoltage, PSU or other problems outside the realm of the mobo issues alone. OTOH, I have rescued several boards that had been given up for dead - most recently an i865. On balance, recapping is worthwhile in the long run in spite of occasional failures.

[i4004]

Re: Failure Rate

not everything can be repaired. i think there are cases when even those who made it wouldn't be able to fix it, because it's just so complex.
(but they surely have better chances with all the tech data and spare parts etc.)


send that board to willa, let it spoil his average a bit...hehe...

oh, as they say, third time's a charm....

[Gianni]

Re: Failure Rate

unless you are incredibly shit at soldering

Impossible I started when I was 16teen to solder in a small firm, I made pre-production for small electronics board. They wanted a very good job on prototype board.
Ok now I'm old and probably I have some rust but I still solder almost every day for job so I must solder well otherwise my boss get angry.

I agree with you, it is not possible to make comparison, probably I have wrote the question in the wrong way; what I meant to ask is "how many time something looks like reparable but even trying you can't get it working?".
My English needs improvement.

some boards may be beyond help or there are multiple problems with the hardware

not everything can be repaired.

You are probably right. This afternoon when I brought the PC to my friend, when I was connecting the mouse to the USB port removing the PS/2 adaptor, she told it had never worked on the old PC on USB port. When we started the PC, win has installed it without problems. I think the previous MOBO had to much problem and the damn crap caps have given it the last shot.

oh, as they say, third time's a charm....

Right again!! I forgot that I have already recapped a third board since it is sleeping in my cellar waiting for someone that need a PC. With it was easy and I had no problem at all.

On balance, recapping is worthwhile in the long run in spite of occasional failures.

Ok then I will continue, but next time I ask for curriculum-vitae of the PC before starting to do something. If you fix a problem but you don't know that there were other problems... you get crazy to do the job.
I have to add that usually I help people for software problems (virus, corrupted OS, recovering DATA, installing SW...) only sometime I work on the HW.

Thanks a lot guys
Gianni