Loading…
5
Pro tip: the guy who taught me to check caps before swapping a PSU
A walk-in came to my bench in Norfolk two weeks ago with a dead tower and a story about a lightning strike. He watched me crack the case and said one thing: check the caps before you sell him a power supply. Good thing I did, because 4 bulged caps on the board told the real story, not the PSU. He was an old repair guy from the Navy base who did this work for 22 years. He stood there and pointed at the vents with a pen while I tested rails with a multimeter. I almost charged him $85 for a part he did not need. Any of you keep a checklist for this stuff or do you just go by gut?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
the_sean17d ago
My gut has cost me more money than any bad part ever has, so you already know which way I lean. Learned the same lesson the hard way on a customer's rig years back, swapped the PSU, charged him, and the thing died again in a week because the board was the real problem the whole time. He was nice enough about it but I still felt like a clown handing back his money. Now the cap check is the first thing I do, even before I pull out the multimeter, just because it takes ten seconds and saves me the walk of shame. That old Navy guy did you a solid standing there with his pen.
7