LCD monitor

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Thu, 27 Jul 2017 11:58:35 +0100, David Fletcher wrote:
>Are capacitors the number 1 culprit?

Yesno, even good electrolytic capacitors with the correctly chosen
voltage value will dry out or the oxide layer goes away, even if you
regularly apply power. From time to time power should be applied to
a capacitor.

There's the urban myth about the capacitor plague between 1999 and
2007, but ignore it.

Fact is, that a classic power supply doesn't necessarily require
working capacitors, they still could do a more or less good job with
broken capacitors. A switching power supply existentially does need the
capacitors to work. Some vendors chose voltage undersized
capacitors for their switching power supplies, because they last for
around three years, while warranty period usually ends after 2 or 3
years.

IOW capacitors by nature don't live forever, but it's a well known
predetermined breaking point of cheap gear to come with voltage
undersized capacitors for the switching power supplies. Another issue
of cheap gear is the time you need to replace the capacitor.

You could open and close cases of professional audio gear with
averaged tools in a few seconds, but it could take more than a day to do
it for elCheapo audio gear. For other consumer gear it could be, that
opening the case will break some pins or you need special tools to
assemble the thingy.