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The capacitor that Apple soldered incorrectly at the factory

downtowndougbrown.com

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Re: The capacitor that Apple soldered incorrectly at the factory

#61

Post by alias_neo »

azinman2 wrote: post #24
kbelder wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that's well beyond the expected useful lifespan of even a modern TV, let alone an older model like these A modern TV may have an expected lifespan of five years. TVs from several decades ago had lifespans of... several decades. Quality has plummeted in that market.

5 years? Is that really true? I’m currently using an LG from 2017 and cannot imagine needing to change it. I would be shocked if it stopped working.

I have an LG OLED from 2017. It started getting really bad screen burn/pixel degredation just after the 6 year mark (6 year warranty), I did a quick search on Youtube, and lo-and-behold, a whole bunch of other people, with the same model, started having the same screen burn-in issues at the same age!

It covers the middle third of the screen, top to bottom, and the entire bottom 1/4 of the screen with some odd spots as well, it's really distracting and essentially makes the TV useless (to me).

Re: The capacitor that Apple soldered incorrectly at the factory

#62

Post by bogantech »

fredoralive wrote: post #17
rasz wrote: post #8

Commodore struggled with same mistakes on negative rail in Audio section, but also somehow on highend expensive CPU board. https://wiki.console5.com/wiki/Amiga_CD32 C408 C811 "original may be installed backwards! Verify orientation against cap map" A4000 https://wordpress.hertell.nu/?p=1438 C443 C433 "notice that the 2 capacitors that originally on A4000 have the wrong polarity" Much worse is Commodore A3640 68040 CP…

Typical Amiga fanboyism and Apple envy, if a Mac does something they have to prove the Amiga outdid it. “Only one model with a reverse polarity capacitor? With Commodore it was a systematic issue!”

> Typical Amiga fanboyism and Apple envy, if a Mac does something they have to prove the Amiga outdid it.

I think we're envious that Apple did a better job of engineering their systems

Re: The capacitor that Apple soldered incorrectly at the factory

#63

Post by Peanuts99 »

kbelder wrote: post #14
duskwuff wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's a reasonable expectation in general, and certainly not in this case. The affected TVs were all at least 20 years old - that's well beyond the expected useful lifespan of even a modern TV, let alone an older model like these. Nor is it clear what Sony could reasonably have done to repair them; even by 2010, a lot of the parts used in CRT TVs were out of production and unavailable.

> that's well beyond the expected useful lifespan of even a modern TV, let alone an older model like these A modern TV may have an expected lifespan of five years. TVs from several decades ago had lifespans of... several decades. Quality has plummeted in that market.

A TV used to cost a few weeks pay and now you can get a TV for the equivalent of a few hours pay. There just isn't much of a market for a $3000+ TV.

Re: The capacitor that Apple soldered incorrectly at the factory

#64

Post by ethernot »

liontwist wrote: post #57
ethernot wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reason this is an issue for repair shops is they can't sell you recycled stolen parts at bottom of market prices for a sky high mark up. On top of that the "non genuine parts", some of which really are utterly dire, show up in the OS as being not genuine parts. Buying genuine parts, which are available from Apple, eats into the margins. There is very little honour in the repair market, despite the makeup app…

> they can't sell you recycled stolen parts at bottom of market prices for a sky high mark up What represents a more efficient economy. The one where broken phones get reused for parts or the one where you have to throw them away?

The economy that isn't backed with criminal activity and loss for customers.

Re: The capacitor that Apple soldered incorrectly at the factory

#65

Post by rcxdude »

likeabatterycar wrote: post #53

The author seems to misunderstand PCB design flow. This is neither a "factory component placement issue" nor a silkscreen error. The error is in the schematic. The layout CAD is often done by a different team that follows the schematic provided by design engineering. Automated workflows are common. The silk screen is predefined in a QA'd library. It is not their job to double check engineering's schematic. The compon…

>The layout CAD is often done by a different team that follows the schematic provided by design engineering.

Just as a note, this is a fairly archaic way of working nowadays. At my place schematic design and layout go hand-in-hand, and we rejected a candidate because he didn't do the latter. The main reason is layout is no longer an afterthought, it's a key part of the electrical design of the system, and there's little room for a tedious back and forth between the circuit designer and the person doing the layout about what traces are and aren't important to optimize for various attributes.

Re: The capacitor that Apple soldered incorrectly at the factory

#67

Post by rvense »

verzali wrote: post #46
rvense wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But when it does, it will probably be the capacitors in the power supply that have dried out.

Is that really the case? Because if so, it seems like simply replacing the capacitors would save a lot of waste and unnecessary purchases of new TVs...

This is a very common fault, yes. Power supply issues in general. It is also not uncommon for people to replace e.g. Wifi routers because the wall warts fail.

It comes down to a few people don't knowing a lot about it - and I'm not blaming anyone for that, we all have our interests and most people have more than enough to do already to worry about what goes on inside their stuff.

Also, electronics are, to a lot of people in a lot of places, so cheap that they would rather just curse a little and buy a new thing, instead of bothering with taking the thing to a shop. And of course a few hours of skilled labour in a big city in the west might also be almost as expensive as making a whole new TV in a factory in Asia plus shipping, so it might not even make economic sense.

Re: The capacitor that Apple soldered incorrectly at the factory

#68

Post by xattt »

blitzar wrote: post #50
tobr wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I’ve known a TV that was in more or less daily use for over 30 years. Not sure why we stopped expecting that from electronics.

> Not sure why we stopped expecting that from electronics. Last years model only does 4k, my eyes need 8k

32K ought to be enough for anybody.

Re: The capacitor that Apple soldered incorrectly at the factory

#69

Post by raxxorraxor »

fragmede wrote: post #27
shiroiushi wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about? Capacitor technology hasn't changed substantially in decades, and it's just as possible to change caps with a soldering iron now as it was 20 years ago. I have no idea what you mean by "serialized".

not capacitors, but more advanced components, like the camera, have serial numbers embedded in them, and the serial number needs to match, otherwise it won't accept the component. Components off a stolen device are put on a list and won't work in admirer another phone, so stolen phones aren't even worth anything for parts, driving down the market for stolen phones. It also makes the job of repair shops harder, which…

It is not about stolen phones, it is about monetization of customer services. If stealing phones was legal, job description for procurement/purchase departments would look differently as well.

Re: The capacitor that Apple soldered incorrectly at the factory

#70

Post by b112 »

krige wrote: post #47
codewiz wrote: post #6

Commodore had 3 capacitors mounted backwards on the A3640, the CPU board of the Amiga 4000 with 68040 processors: https://youtu.be/zhUpcBpJUzg?si=j6UFmIJzoC-UDS6u&t=945 Also mentioned here: https://amiga.resource.cx/exp/a3640

Commodore just kept doing this. Just listing shoddy craftsmanship would take forever, and then we get to intentional bad decisions, like giving the A1200 a power supply that's both defective (capacitors ofc) and barely enough to support the basic configuration with no expansions, which is extra funny because PSUs used with weaker models (A500) had greater output...

The number of used a500 power supplies I sold to customers when I upgraded their a1200 with a GVP 030 board + RAM...
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