<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Apr 2, 2006, at 11:15 PM, Mikael Mørup wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Maybe i should just reflow all solderpionts like Rude66 did with he's :-)</FONT></P> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><DIV>Yes, that is exactly what you should do. Just do it. It's easy, cheap, and painless. While you're at it, resolder every connection on the whole board. What have you got to lose? Think of it as insurance against future failures. Really.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Your instrument was soldered in the factory on a crappy wave soldering machine, which left just barely enough solder on the connections to hold the parts in place and allow the circuit to work, but certainly not enough solder to withstand 10 to 20 years of rocking and rolling.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>When are people going to finally start getting it that 90% of electronic problems are electromechanical problems? When things stop working, the first thing people suspect is some sort of major chip failure. After that, some kind of mysterious, inexplicable passive component failure. In most cases, both of these are very, very unlikely.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Compared to cold solders, broken wires, dirty contacts, etc. -- actual failed components are extremely rare. Even the mythical electrolytic capacitors that are "so old that they're ready to fail". Naturally, there are plenty of anecdotal stories to the effect of "I replaced the capacitor and the LFO started working again!" Guess what, newbies? It wasn't the new capacitor that fixed that LFO, it was the simple act of soldering another one in! You would have most likely gotten the same result by simply reflowing solder on the old capacitor.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Yes, I know that components do fail, sometimes even unlikely passives such as resistors (Harry B. claims to have had to replace many mysteriously failed resistors in his Prophet V at one time, and he definitely knows the difference between a cold solder and a bad part). Remember, I did say 90%. But anyone who has done a LOT of repairs knows exactly what I'm talking about, and though they may quibble about the exact percentage, they wouldn't argue my basic point.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>One more thing while I'm still perched on this soapbox -- There is something to be said about NOT replacing old parts with new ones in an old unit (unless they are definitely proven bad). That is, the old parts have a History of Reliability, the new ones don't. Think about it.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Anyway, good luck with the repair, Mikael. If you determine that you really, really do have a bad capacitor in there, congratulations. I will still stand by my rant, and by the 90% statistic that I, admittedly, pulled from my ass. Keep in mind, though, that it's a very experienced ass. Wait a minute, that didn't sound right....</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></BODY></HTML>