[Coco] An interesting computer repair story

[James Hrubik]

And that ain't all.  I had to rebuild my iMac G5 power supply and  
replace all the caps on the motherboard because Apple used flaky  
parts.  Only consolation was that just about every other manufacturer  
in that time frame had the same problem -- bought the caps from an El- 
Cheapo place in China that had stolen the electrolyte formula but  
didn't get all of it right.

I didn't replace ALL the caps on the motherboard -- left 4 of them  
that didn't look bad, because the silver solder just wasn't melting  
properly -- and now I find that when I shut down, I need to unplug  
the iMac from the power strip so that all the charge bleeds off.   
Otherwise, if I leave it plugged in, it may fail to start (like a  
power failure).

I have a Bondi Blue iMac that my daughter gave up on when she was at  
Parris island; it quit the same way and some day I'll tear it down  
and see if not only the caps in the iMac itself but also in the CD  
tray drive went belly-up.  Betcha they did.  I wouldn't doubt that  
there are some CoCos out there that could benefit from a cap  
transplant, with higher voltage ratings.

Once you get flux fumes in your system, you're hooked.

Yeah, Gene, I'm still here, lurking.  Just didn't have a snappy  
comeback to that April 24th post %^D.

--Grandpa Jim

On May 2, 2012, at 6:26 PM, Steven Hirsch wrote:

> On Wed, 2 May 2012, Robert Gault wrote:
>
>> After doing this on my own, I then thought to do a Google search  
>> on the 204B and found many hits in connection with capacitors.  
>> Hmmm, seems that this failure was well documented and known for  
>> 4-5 years. Samsung switched cap suppliers and settled for a  
>> cheaper version with poor quality control. There are even U-Tube  
>> movies showing how to open the monitor and replace the caps.
>
> It's not just Samsung.  It's the single most common failure of LCD  
> displays, period.  I know folks who've made a number of bucks  
> picking up discarded LCD displays, recapping them and selling them  
> at flea markets.
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