Picked up a $40 monitor from Goodwill, fixed it with a $3 capacitor

Drove to the Goodwill on 82nd and saw an old Dell 22 inch sitting in the electronics bin with a note saying dead power. Paid 40 bucks, opened it up, the cap next to the transformer was bulged like a soda can. One 35v 470uf cap from a local shop for 3 dollars and it runs perfect. Anyone else grab broken office monitors and just swap caps instead of buying new?

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felix_jones1mo ago

Dead power" is right, Ive fixed two of those exact Dell monitors the same way. Tbh the cap thing is such a classic, but one time I grabbed a HP from a flea market that turned out to have a cracked solder joint on the power jack. Took me longer to find that than it did to just reflow the whole board with a cheap iron. Now I keep a bag of random caps and always check the joints first. It's a fun little hobby until you zap yourself on the discharge, learn that lesson the hard way.

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