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If a consumer electronic device suddenly refuses to power on, it's a failed electrolytic capacitor most the time (in my experience). Finding them requires effec
by bradstewart 7y ago
If a consumer electronic device suddenly refuses to power on, it's a failed electrolytic capacitor most the time (in my experience). Finding them requires effectively no knowledge of circuits. Sometimes one is visibly deformed/exploded, but I usually just replace them all.
If that doesn't work, yea you pretty much start testing things with a multimeter starting from the power source. But if it isn't a capacitor failure, it's probably ESD or power-surge related damage and not worth trying to fix.
- phkahler 7y agoYou can also test electrolytic in-circuit using an ESR meter. That's effective series resistance if I'm remembering correctly.
- dbuder 7y agoIgnoring cap plague PCs, in my experience it is blown input capacitors for modern devices and electrolytics on old devices. And if it's a tanty, you'll know.
- jdnenej 7y agoI attempted to repair a coffee machine that had a short that left a black burn on the PCB. Replaced the parts around it and it still wouldn't turn on. Likely the power surge destroyed a lot of things.
- pbhjpbhj 7y agoThose sorts of power faults can burn out traces on the circuit board too (you can bypass the break sometimes), and often there are fuses that would n need changing (in my very limited experience). Louis Rossman on YouTube has a lot of stuff on circuit repair that I find good, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_at9Jy3dfeY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_at9Jy3dfeY.