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Changed my mind about recapping every single old board
I used to think you had to replace every capacitor on any vintage computer as soon as you got it, no questions asked. That changed after I spent a whole Tuesday carefully recapping a perfectly working 1987 Apple IIgs board from my collection in Seattle, only to have it fail to boot afterward. A tiny bit of solder bridged two traces and it took me hours to find it. Now I only recap if there's visible leakage or a known problem. Has anyone else had a recap job go sideways on a machine that was fine before?
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the_mason3mo ago
Remember my buddy who recapped his Amiga and fried the whole power supply.
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matthew_owens91mo ago
Did you ever see the guy who tried to recap a VCR and ended up with smoke pouring out the back? That was a mess. I get why your buddy was scared after that. Old electronics are unpredictable, one wrong move and the whole thing goes. Sometimes it's better to just leave them alone if you're not sure.
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That's a risky way to handle old gear though. Those caps are a ticking time bomb and can damage the board when they finally go. A single repair mistake shouldn't scare you off proper preventative care.
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