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Spent $300 on a thermal camera for finding shorts, and it just paid for itself in one job.
Had a gaming PC with random shutdowns, and my multimeter wasn't cutting it. The camera showed a tiny hot spot on a bad VRM on the motherboard in under a minute. What's the best unexpected tool that saved your bacon recently?
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corastone6mo ago
A thermal camera for one motherboard repair feels like buying a fire truck to put out a stove fire. My best unexpected tool is still a cheap bottle of isopropyl alcohol and a plastic spudger. You pour the alcohol over the board while it's running, the bad part evaporates the liquid faster and you see the spot. Found a shorted cap on a laptop power rail that way for about two dollars.
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the_pat6mo ago
That alcohol trick saved my old Xbox when nothing else would work.
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rayking6mo ago
Add a little freeze spray to really make that hot spot pop.
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felixm294mo ago
Yeah, the thermal camera is overkill for most of us. My version of that trick is spilling my drink on the keyboard. Found a sticky key that way once. Saved me the cost of a new soda, so I guess it's a win.
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