Found out 85% of board repairs fail because of bad solder joints, not dead chips

I read a study from a repair lab in the UK that said most failed repairs come down to cold solder joints or bridges, not actual component failure. That blew my mind because I spent years swapping out expensive ICs. Now I spend way more time checking my iron temp and using good flux. Has anyone else wasted hours chasing a bad chip when it was just a connection issue?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_jordan1mo ago

Right? Spent three months and like two hundred bucks replacing audio ICs on a console once. Turns out it was just a cold joint on a cap. The cap was fine. I was not fine. Had already trashed the old board for parts too. Now I just reflow everything with fresh flux before I even touch a multimeter. Saves me a ton of headache and money.

ward.jamie1mo ago

Feel that man, @the_jordan, now I just check all joints first before spending a dime on parts.

val9491mo ago

Damn, three months on a bad cap joint? That's brutal. I'd have been throwing tools across the room by week two. I had a similar mess with a TV power board once, swapped out every regulator and diode on the thing. Ended up being a tiny hairline crack on a resistor leg I could barely see. Makes you realize how much time we waste guessing instead of just looking closer at the connections first.