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Pro tip: found a dead short on a motherboard by checking the caps with my finger
Was poking around a busted Dell Optiplex last Tuesday and felt one little ceramic cap getting warm near the RAM slot, replaced it for maybe 20 cents and the board fired right up, anyone else use the finger test for spotting bad caps on stubborn boards?
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burns.richard17d ago
Man, I was totally in the opposite camp for years. I always figured the finger test was too risky or just old-school hackery, you know? But last month I had this HP board that was totally dead - no beeps, no video, nothing - and I finally tried it. I ran my finger over the caps near the VRM area and found one little guy that was hotter than it should be (like, warm to the touch when everything else was cold). I replaced it with a cap from a junker board and it booted right up. That one experience totally flipped my thinking, now I do it as a first step before even grabbing my multimeter.
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cooper.mark17d ago
Honestly, the finger test is how I find like 90% of my motherboard issues. Tbh if you're careful around the power supply and don't go poking live exposed traces it's honestly the fastest way to spot a short without pulling out the multimeter every time.
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