On Tuesday, May 5, 2009 2:43:07 PM UTC-5, jps wrote:
Having to measure voltages off of a solder
point on a printed circuit board would probably be the point at which
I'd turn it over to a real tech.

In that case I got lucky and the part was cheap. It's not always the
case...

Too stupid to figure it out yourself?



On Tuesday, May 5, 2009 2:43:07 PM UTC-5, jps wrote:
On Tue, 05 May 2009 15:34:29 -0400, HK > wrote:

>jps wrote:
>> On Tue, 05 May 2009 13:27:10 -0400, HK > wrote:
>>
>>> wrote:
>>>> On Tue, 05 May 2009 12:41:32 -0400, HK > wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>>> Stop infringing on deer habitat.
>>>>>> I have seen deer in downtown DC (on the Whitehurst freeway), what is
>>>>>> "deer habitat".
>>>>> I've seen deer on the national mall.
>>>>>
>>>>> The deer habitat under discussion here typically is surburban and rural
>>>>> land on or adjacent to meadows, forests, et cetera.
>>>> Deer are becoming overpopulated in many areas. The lack of hunters and
>>>> large predators has made them 150 pound rats. They simply breed up to
>>>> the food supply, which tends to be just about anything that grows.
>>>>
>>>> BTW seeing a deer on the mall is not as exciting as seeing one 35 feet
>>>> above K street on the Whitehurst (an elevated freeway exactly 2 lanes
>>>> wide wall to wall). N39.54.9.54 W77.03.43.56 for you google E fans
>>>> No Don I wasn't doing the speed limit. it was about 4AM and I was on
>>>> my way to GEICO to fix 2 broken laser printers. doing about 50
>>>> I did manage to dodge them although one did jump over the wall. I
>>>> thought about looping around on M street and seeing if she was OK but
>>>> I had to go.
>>>
>>>
>>> You fix laser printers? Now *that* is a real skill. I am impressed. I
>>> met a TV guy a month or so ago who fixed a board on my glass picture
>>> tube HD TV by pulling the board, removing some chips and soldering in
>>> new ones. He's gotta be one of the last of the breed, too.
>>
>> I replaced a cmos chip on my Raytheon scanner 5 years ago and I didn't
>> know a damned thing about it before cracking it open to diagnose. Was
>> able to search the net for clues, talked to a raytheon tech over the
>> phone and isolated the problem. Soldering iron, solder suck, solder
>> and a $2 cmos chip and the thing worked like new. Damned gratifying.
>>
>> Replacing the board would've been $600.
>
>Well..I am pretty good at assemblying computer from component parts, and
>general soldering, but you guys are beyond my abilities.

Although it takes a little background knowledge, most of the
components that go bad are well known by the techs who repair stuff
for a living. Piggybacking on their knowledge makes diagnosing and
repairing lots easier. Having to measure voltages off of a solder
point on a printed circuit board would probably be the point at which
I'd turn it over to a real tech.

In that case I got lucky and the part was cheap. It's not always the
case...