HP Laser Printers

Electronic Intermittent Problem - The Easy Way To Repair It

Troubleshooting and repairing electronic solid problems like no power, no display, color out and etc could be very straightforward if you know the right way to do it. For example, a replacement of fuse restored the equipment back to life. It’s easy and very direct but there are problems in the electronic circuits that can silently “steal” away your precious time if you do not know how to efficiently tackle the problems. The problem that I’m referring to is the “intermittent problems”.

The word “intermittent” according to dictionary dot com means “alternately functioning and not functioning or alternately functioning properly and improperly”. Take Monitor for instance, the red color may go off and comes back by itself or when you gently knock on the Monitor casing or cover. That’s right, any electronic components and circuits may or may not have the tendency to go intermittent and it all depends on the circuit designs, quality of components, environment and other factors. In some tough dog (difficult to repair) cases, a Monitor can work well for 8 hours and then suddenly just go off. When you switch the Monitor off and then switch it “On”, the Monitor will again work for couples of hours before shutting it down. If you do not know the right and absolute way to solve this “intermittent problem”, troubleshooting time will be lost and at the end you still could not locate the fault. Sometimes it is very frustrated too to locate intermittent problem because you just do not know where to begin.

Whenever you tap on the board (in all directions) with the handle of the screw driver, the display stop waving! In other words, no matter where you tap the board, the display shows some response. You may ask yourself these questions “should I check the primary side or the secondary side?” “Should I resolder the whole board (will take you lots of hours)?” “Should I replace all the suspected components in a particular circuit?” and the questions can go on and on. The answers to your questions are it depends on how the problems surface. In this article, I’m going to reveal all the possible ways that can cause intermittent problem and how to solve it.

The most obvious intermittent problem is when you hit the board with the handle of screw driver; there will be effect on the equipment. Take Monitor as an example, if you noticed that the display color flashes on and off, the first thing you do is to head to the CRT board section. Gently tap the CRT board with the handle of the screw driver; you could see that the display now will come back to normal. This is an absolute problem on a specific location (CRT board only) where you can easily detect and solve it by resoldering the joints (apply fresh solder to joints), reinsert the CRT board socket to the PC tube and reseat (unplugging and plugging several times) the VGA color signal cable.

Next is the thermal intermittent problem, where a component works okay when it is cool and problem arises when in the high temperature. In order to detect such problem, we need to use a little heat so that the problem can surface faster without you wasting hours to wait for it to happen. By placing a 100 watt bulb near the board of the equipment, the circuits will become quite warm after a few minutes. You may also use a hair dryer to point or focus on the circuit board. Be careful not to overheat the circuits as some plastic materials can be easily damaged or melt. Once the problem appears when it is hot, now is the time you use a can of freezer or spray cooler to rapidly cool the circuit components. A spray tube is included to control the application closely. Thus it is easy to confine the spray to one component at a time. Usually the circuit freezer temperature is about minus 40 Celsius. Once the faulty or intermittent component sprayed by the cold temperature, it will begin to work properly and the problem will immediately disappear. Most of the time using this method can help you to locate the bad components right to the spot.

A loose contact inside relays also may develop intermittent problem. Just tap on the relay when the equipment is working to see if there are any changes. Be careful when you are tapping the relay as the power is on. Replace with a new relay if you suspect it is the cause of the intermittent problem. Do you know that some technicians cut open the relay to service the internal contact with sand paper? You may try that method if you wish to.

Certain intermittent problems were not due to faulty components; in fact it was the board itself and the soldering or designs that causes the problems. Take a look at the bottom photos where you could clearly see that a component’s lead is touching on the other track, a component’s lead is touching on the other lead and some hairline cracked in the circuit track cause by a fall or some severe vibration! The hairline cracked can be easily seen by using a lighted magnifying glass.

Some boards have small presets and variable resistors (VR) on it thus it may be necessary to service those components after few years the equipment in service. The wiper inside the variable resistors can accumulate dust and causing intermittent in controlling the sound, display and etc. Just use a can of Philips oil base spray and spray into the variable resistors and it will work as good as new. However, after servicing the variable resistor and there is no improvement, then it’s the time to replace with a new VR. Please do not use a video head cleaner to service a VR as it will dry up fast and the intermittent may rise again.

Another component that you need to watch is the microswitch button. It may check good testing with a multimeter but breakdown when the equipment is running. Isolate all possibilities in order to successfully repair an intermittent problem. If possible just direct replace the switch and who knows the intermittent problem can be fixed!

Many technicians do not know that besides tackling the intermittent problem from behind the board, one must also be sensitive that many intermittent problems can be solved by removing the whole board because you could clearly see all area and all possible causes that made up the intermittent problems. Diode lead shorted to resistor lead, capacitors shorted with each others, resistor body touching the heatsink, resistor shorted to capacitor body, decayed glue in many parts of the circuit (you need to remove it), fading resistors color bands and many more. Carefully study the photos below and begin to absorb all the information that can help you to locate an intermittent problem fast.

There was one case where the Monitor was switch “on”, it has intermittent shutdown problem. I really spent lots of time trying to tackle the faults from behind the board. Flyback transformer replaced, PC tube changed, voltage testing on all circuits to be okay, but somehow I just could not locate the cause of the problem. This is where you can see the real frustration face of Jestine Yong if you are beside me. To cut long story short, I removed the board and begin to see from “in front”. Yet no obvious signs of problem can be detected. Since the board already had been removed, I just try opening up the HOT, to my surprised the back of HOT have a slight burnt mark on it. It causes a slight spark to the heatsink and shutting down the Monitor intermittently. The good news was that there were many similar cases happened to this model of Monitor. It just took me a couple of minutes to solve it. Who knows this problem could be happen in TV and others electronic equipment too. Not only that, the experienced that I learned from this case had help me to narrow down any possible cause especially dealing with transistors that attached to heatsink.

Before I jump to the conclusion, I have a question for you. Click on this photo, and try to find out what’s the problem with this Monitor board. What did you see from the photo? You can email me the answer or just wait for my answer on my next coming newsletter.

Intermittent problems can be tough to work on if you do not know the necessary steps to tackle it. Use every information in this article to localize the problem because it is far easier to check and test a few things than to check every joint, contact, and component in the equipment. Have a great hunt my friend!

Jestine Yong is a electronic repairer and a writer and if you want to become a professional in testing electronic components please visit his website at http://www.TestingElectronicComponents.com

Share This

Nokia E65 an Enterprise Solution for Mobile Phones

Introduction

In order to tap the large dealings consumer and the professionals on the go Nokia has introduced the E chain. Among that the E65 is one newest present by the guests intended at the high end consumers. different other dealings telephones that are extensive and ponderous this one is more like the ordinary mobile telephone. It is a method for lively people, who make tons of calls and communicate with great many of workmates

Nokia E65

This Nokia mobile telephone has a slider handset, and alongside the skillful S60 working method. It is the guests’s nominal slider-styled presents, measuring up at 105×49x15.5 mm. It is a rush part due to the present jacket and showy emerge. It comes in flag like silver and grey or black. The guests seems to power towards rage segment as they have launched in red too. This Nokia mobile telephone weighs in at 115 grams and dealings 137 mm long when zipped open, which makes for comfort. An added highlight is that you can accept and make calls lacking sliding the E65 open. One of the highlights of the telephone is the leather-like emerge of the series jacket at the back. The class of the synthetic is good it gives the feel of something between lenient upset and ordinary synthetic veneer.

Software

It has the Nokia’s squad Suite lenientware. This groups management lenientware helps to set up groups and transmit e-mails, texts and MMS’s to the entirety group at once, idea Web pages that transmit to them and initiate conference calls with them. One of the many knobs on the front of the casing is worn for conference mission. There is also a knob to silent the microtelephone.

skin

The handset utilizes QVGA present (240×320 pixels, 2.2 inches, 34×45 mm), skillful of 16 mln. insignia (TFT). The 65 comes installed with a mirror layer for the present, making its usable when the sun is shining vivid and custody the picture entirely plain, which is especially necessary for navigation form. Also the handset carries ambient light feeler, which adjusts backlighting direct basing on flow light conditions. It also has a 2 mega pixel camera but lacks nature-likeness mirror, rush, vehicle-focus or a macro form

The built in Wi-Fi makes in the handling of utter over IP calls and Web browsing greatly easier. The telephone comes with PC connectivity lenientware and a USB cable and has a series life of 10 hours of non-prohibit MP3 tune. The series life is quoted at 3 hours parley time and 240 hours maintain time. This Nokia mobile telephone comes laden with momentary company, ZIP, Adobe PDF, and HP imprinter. You can also upload Golf Pro Tour plucky. This telephone a well-packed method, fair classic functionality for flow S60 solutions, an add-on in the form of WiFi, a few further keys and squad Suite.

Nokia N95 Deals and Nokia E65 Deals is the hottest mobile telephone from its new in Nokia Deals and this mobile telephone is offered on stingy movable ring deal UK.

The origin Steve Dobson is a content critic and hunt Engine Optimizer for a Manchester based movable store.

Share This

Find a Prototyping Solution

A solution is the result of the method or process of finding the answer to a problem. A business is a complex system that, simply put, needs to constantly find solutions to problems tied to productivity and cost. Now, each business has a product. It may a tangible product that needs to be manufactured, or it may be a service that in turn offers a solution to another individual or business problem.

In the case of products that need to be manufactured, the problems are still tied to costs, productivity and efficiency. In short, when it comes to producing products, the development process needs to be done in the shortest amount of time and money with the assurance of increasing the business’ bottom line.

However, the process of development can be very tedious. Many prototypes can be made to refine a product before it is even produced and launched. Creating prototypes is a problem in itself because of the amount of effort and time it can potentially consume. This is why the solution to this problem was to utilize computer aided designs or CAD, where one can create the design using virtual 3D models on screen to test a product.

This though, obviously has its limitations and the solution to that is a machine that manufactures prototypes. In fact, there are many prototyping solutions providers that offer the answer to all prototyping needs. These solutions are made possible by machines that are compact and easy to use, which manufacture prototypes. These machines that manufacture prototypes simulates the production process for your products without the use of complicated, large scale mechanisms.

These machines produce prototypes based on a computer aided design. This way, you are able to transform your virtual design into actual 3D models and you can test the feasibility of your design and product.

Check out various prototype solutions provider to be able to find one that suits your specifications and needs. Generally, you should choose a prototype solutions provider that will be able to give a cost effective, compact machine that manufactures prototypes easily inside the design engineers’ workspace.

Whether your designs are for manufacturing digital products, automotive systems, industrial, medical, and other fields, the right prototype solutions provider will give provide your with a state of the art machine that manufactures prototypes for all your prototyping needs directly from your 3D CAD system. This way, your design engineers can test the prototypes quickly, efficiently and cost effectively.

Low Jeremy maintains http://prototyping.articlesforreprint.com This content is provided by Low Jeremy. It may be used only in its entirety with all links included.

Share This