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Fixed a dead power supply thanks to a guy on here
Someone in this group told me to check the caps first. I was chasing a bad transistor on this old Dell monitor for 2 days. Pulled the board and saw 3 swollen caps right away. Replaced them for $4.50 and it fired right up. That one tip saved me from tossing a perfectly good monitor. Anyone else forget to check the obvious stuff first?
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grantthomas1mo ago
Did you check the solder joints on those swollen caps too? Just replacing the caps alone doesn't always fix it, sometimes the board has cracked pads under them.
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jamies451mo ago
You said "sometimes the board has cracked pads under them" and that is exactly the kind of stuff nobody thinks about until it's too late. I've been burned by that before where I replaced caps, powered it up, and still got nothing because one of the pads lifted off the board completely. You have to be super careful with heat and not pry at the old caps too hard or you'll pull the pad right off with it. That's why I always check with a multimeter on the back of the board after I'm done to make sure I've got continuity. If you do find a broken pad, you can usually scrape back some solder mask and run a tiny jumper wire to save the board.
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