3 ms·
Hacker tip: I had one of these FW900s I got for free from work. The screen was extremely dim and it was assumed the flyback had gone bad. Since I am a card car
by yardie 2y ago
Hacker tip:
I had one of these FW900s I got for free from work. The screen was extremely dim and it was assumed the flyback had gone bad. Since I am a card carrying member of "program the damn VCR" generation I knew that it was probably a bad capacitor. Throwing complete caution to the wind I removed the case and shields around the multiple circuit boards. And with nothing more than a multimeter and a few cans of Redbull (gives you wings, and you're going to need them) I found the offending cap on the back of the tube (IIRC, the D-board).
With nothing more than time, a 10c capacitor, and the immortality of a young, 20yo I was able to inline a working capacitor and got a free 150lb, $2000 monitor for my effort.
If you're comfortable with working on HV electronics and know how to solder and use a multimeter getting one of these for cheap is completely doable.
- jve 2y ago> If you're comfortable with working on HV electronics and know how to solder and use a multimeter getting one of these for cheap is completely doable. Err, you missed the most important one: knowledge to find the bad cap
- yardie 2y agoThis was during the bad caps era [0] of computing. Visual inspection and then testing with a multimeter was more than enough. The 10k volts was my bigger worry! But I was fearless for a free, large monitor. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
- buildsjets 2y agoIt's usually the exploded looking one, but not always. I have replaced a great number of blowed up RIFA film caps in ancient Apple hardware. https://www.crackedthecode.co/replacing-failed-capacitors-in-a-macintosh-computer/ https://www.crackedthecode.co/replacing-failed-capacitors-in...
- hakfoo 2y agoThe fun thing about Rifas is that they're most there as filters; half the time the equipment still works fine, even AS it's emitting clouds of smoke from the final act of the capacitor's life.
- akira2501 2y agoYou would expect a bleeder resistor to be part of the system. The real danger is, that resistor may stop functioning, and there's likely going to be no visual clue.