Vintage Synth Repair

On Tuesday 31 July 2007 16:11, ambrosia800 wrote:
> Hi, Scott!
>
> I opened the Wavestation. Surprise... the high humming noise is
> coming from the Power supply. Thats for sure.
>
> At 5 or 6 components of the PSU there is a brown stuff, hardened,
> between the components.
>
> Most of all between L1 - L4. Looks like some sort of hardened brown
> chewing gum filling the gaps between some of the components.
>
> Everything except for the display backlight is working fine.
>
> So, what to do now?

Clean that brown stuff out!  :-)

I saw this mentioned in,  I think,  Sam Goldwasser's pages.  Those asian mfrs 
use that goop to hold parts in place prior to soldering,  particularly things 
like large electrolytic capacitors.  Over time,  it gets darker and darker 
brown,  and _it gets conductive_...!   This would account for at least some 
equipment failures,  I'd say.

-- 
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space,  a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed.  --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James 
M Dakin