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What killed it, well after reviewing some PS4 gameplay I noticed that it was having audio issues, like it would allow some sounds but not all. It was almost as if it was receiving a 5.1 audio output but was missing the centre channel. Even though the PS4 was set to stereo.
After trying various cables, configs, and boxes. I narrowed it down to this box. Not sure what killed it, whether it's just old, or that it's been powered on for over 5 years straight. But its long service will never be forgotten in the hours of Netflix and Disney Plus it passed through to my recorder.
Open it up and replace any electrolytic capacitors.
No caps, all solid state!
This is pedantic, but there are indeed capacitors there. They're all surface mount components, so they don't look like the caps that people typically talk about replacing, and they likely aren't what caused it to fail. Anything labeled on the board with a C## is likely a SMD capacitor.
I presumed so, but when I hear someone asking, I think of the old caps in old 90s PSU and Motherboards that are likely to go boom. I've never heard of these surface mount caps blowing though.
Agreed. SMD components fail silently.
Not all of them. I’ve seen the mess of shorted bridge rectifiers, burning LEDs, IC packages cracked from heat...
True, there are caps but no electrolytic caps.
My money is on a cold solder joint or two on a couple of the IC pins but that's just a wild guess.
I see corrosion/deposits by those two leds and the hdmi.. rinse it with vinegar, then DI water, then 90% alcohol. See if that doesn't bring it back to life once it's fully dry. You also might have to reflow the solder though.
I have another in the setup thats working, but I'll probably hold onto it though if I can fix it as easily as you say
This.
I would absolutely try cleaning the board.
I would also spend $8-20 for a new one before I tried to DIY solder reflow various SMD caps.
How would you reflow the solder?
With an iron? Or a heat gun? What would be the best approach for something like this with lots of tiny surface mounts?
Not who you asked but 100% use a narrow heat gun, no question; it saves so much time alongside not accidentally bringing connectors
Would an oven work?
They can work, though I'm always reluctant to suggest using them, unless you have one that you can spare without worry of ruining the oven (offgassing from components/PCB/flux), the other problem is ovens can be a lot more variable in temperature than you'd think, and in this scenario where it may even be the chips showing their age, subjecting them to very high temperatures isn't recommended.
Honestly when I bought a small £20 heatgun (smaller than the type you'd use to strip paint), I was kicking myself for not having bought one sooner, they make surface mounted components an absolute breeze Vs using a soldering iron.
The one exception for using ovens is if you're having to do an intricate board with hundreds of components, then I'd suggest buying a small/medium toaster over, and an oven thermometer for more accurate readings.
I've reflowed a raspberry pi 0w with a camping stove and a thermometer. As long as there aren't any components on the other side of the pcb, it might work.
Edit: here's an old photo. Thing still works, many months later
If you have a hot air rework station, that's one way. Because then it is temp and flow controlled and you can choose a suitable nozzle and direct heat to small spots.
Just curious since you clearly know a lot about this stuff: What are your thoughts on the heat sinks being a part of the issue? Is there a decent chance the device could benefit from replacing whatever adhesive/paste was used to attach them? Or is that even doable?
It depends on how much heat it's actually making, but maybe if the factory job done was crappy. It's probably thermal adhesive though which is harder to remove.
Good call. And better than 90% isopropyl is Anhydrous alcohol.
A neighborhood laptop repair shop could probably do all these steps for you, too.
Provided they don't explode first, ceramic capacitors tend to fail short circuit. If you have a multimeter, do continuity checks across all of them. In-circuit capacitance testing is very inaccurate, so that specific test is almost always moot. Continuity testing may help.
Also, depending on the speed of the multimeter and the charge of the capacitor, it may briefly give you a tone and/or register as a short circuit. Capacitors can register as a short circuit very briefly until they get a slight charge.
The diode at the top right is another easy thing to check. (D12 // SS34) if it's failed short, it will cause issues for you as well.
I am not sure what the component is that is under the heatsink by the USB connector. Sometimes, you may have voltage regulators stepping down the USB 5V to 3.3V. Those are easy to replace as well. However, if it is a USB controller of some kind, you would have to reference the datasheet and test it somehow.
Those are some simple checks you can do, anyway.
Then replace the magic smoke.
Dirty girl