One of the misconceptions about electronics is that if there are no moving parts, the system should last forever. This is closer to true than not, but one really common item that does wear out on many systems are capacitors. Electrolytic capacitors are the usual problem, but, fear not! You can repair them easily and at home! Beyond just repairing a mainboard, this week is a bit of a discussion on the art of repair, and why you should get good at it.
Timely! I need to replace a cap on the digital gauge cluster in my Prius. I am travelling through Idaho with the soldering iron and parts in the door pocket right now- just in case, since I didn’t get to it before the trip.
I am interested to see if i could bring my DeltaQ motorcycle charger back to full functionality instead of 1/3 power with capacitor replacement therapy, too.
2018-05-12 by KyleSan
Thanks for the props! Everyone at iFixit is a huge fan of your writing as well.
The 12" G4 was a great machine. It was a bit of a puzzle to get back together but once you figured it out you could fix just about anything.
2018-05-12 by Russell Graves
Hey, great to hear you guys read my blog! I certainly don’t have the same camera equipment you guys do for teardowns…
I felt the 12" G4 had about twice as many screws as it really needed, but it was definitely a challenge machine to work on. The Powerbook era is when I learned my habit of drawing out all the layers on a sheet of paper and putting screws in their respective places. I could usually tell if someone else had worked on one because screws were missing or in the wrong places (half a turn of thread contact, stuff like that).