emerycarr•1mo agoProlific Poster

Is it really necessary to replace every single capacitor you see on a board?

I've been noticing more and more repair videos and forum posts where people just shotgun replace every electrolytic cap in sight without even testing them first. I get that bad caps are a common issue, especially with older gear from the 90s and early 2000s. But last week I had a Minolta X-700 on my bench that wasn't firing the shutter. Dude online said replace all the caps in the power circuit. I checked them with my ESR meter first and only two out of seven were actually out of spec. The rest were fine. So I just did those two and the camera works perfectly now. Saved the customer like $30 in parts and an hour of labor. I feel like some people are creating extra work and charging for unnecessary parts. On the other hand, I've also had cases where a cap looked fine but was starting to fail and caused intermittent issues a month later. So where's the line? Do you test every cap before swapping, or just replace them all as a rule? How do you decide?

2 comments

2 Comments

amy_foster561mo ago

Testing with my ESR meter first saved me time and money on the exact same camera model.

alex5241mo ago

The 10v zener in the voltage regulator circuit is usually the first thing to check on those boards. Saves you from replacing the whole ribbon cable assembly that costs more than the camera's worth.