Semi-OT: Interesting or unusual PC Compatibles?

[Gordon JC Pearce]

On Sat, 2007-08-04 at 21:23 -0700, Chris M wrote:

>  would a decent eye loupe do the trick, as far as
> determining where the problem lay? Truthfully I've had
> problem power supplies in the past, and nailed each
> solder junction (on the underside of the board) w/a
> hot iron, and it always seemed to work like a charm
> (can't remember why I suspected it was cracked solder
> though). Soldering iron tips are made of copper, so I
> don't see any reason why I couldn't chisel one down
> for a specific task. Any thoughts? Am I courting
> disaster?

I regularly resolder entire boards of electronics from a certain make of
car that regulars will know I'm nearly as obsessed with as other people
around here are obsessed with certain makes of computers.

I've yet to see an actual dry joint on some of the boards, but that's
clearly what the problem is - flexing and poking the board brings it
back to life temporarily, resoldering cures it for another ten years
hopefully.  Some are glaringly obvious; one board has a big power
darlington and a 0.47 ohm current sensing resistor that get very hot.
These nearly always have dry joints.

Gordon