miles_garcia•2d agoProlific Poster

Spent a whole afternoon chasing a phantom short on a vintage receiver

I was fixing up an old Pioneer SX-780, and it kept blowing the main fuse instantly. I checked all the usual suspects, the outputs and power supply, for like two hours. Turns out it was a tiny solder blob that had fallen off a capacitor leg and was wedged under the board, shorting two traces. Has anyone else had a simple, hidden fault waste that much of your day?

3 comments

3 Comments

milacraig2d ago

My buddy had a similar thing with a Marantz 2270. A single strand of wire from a stripped lead was hiding under a transistor socket, took him forever to find.

wells.olivia2d ago

Oh man, @milacraig, that's the worst kind of gremlin. Those tiny, hidden shorts are a nightmare. I spent a whole weekend once chasing a hum in an old receiver, only to find a single strand of braid from the shielding was just barely touching a chassis screw. It makes you feel crazy, checking everything twice while the problem just sits there laughing at you. Those invisible little wires cause such big headaches.

michael_jenkins392d ago

Found a stray whisker of solder bridging two traces once, nearly threw the whole board out the window.