Posting this in the hopes that it might help someone down the road. I acquired this board in a semi-working state. When I first turned it on, there was no test tone, but the LED would come on. After about 10 seconds, there was a pop...then the sound would work, but it was a bit static-y. Then, after about a minute, the sound would cut in and out completely and then fade away all together. The amp and heat sink were scorching hot!
So I knew the amp was working, but it was cutting out due to heat. I re-flowed it for good measure. The next step was to determine why it was overheating. The board looked ok physically, so I start looking at the socketed chips. I noticed on the U17 GAL that one of the legs was bent under the chip. I straightened it and reinstalled the chip. Success! I got the test tone at start up, no more scorching amp (although it could use some more thermal paste to help because it's still a bit warm)...but I still had the static.
I decided to replace ALL the caps near and around the amp. Fortunately, I had a spare parts board to get them from that most definitely had other issues, trust me. I was confident the replacement parts were good, and they were! After changing all the caps, I fired up the sound board and it's now working flawlessly. Been running for over and hour with no issues. Just wanted to share. FIGHT!








So I knew the amp was working, but it was cutting out due to heat. I re-flowed it for good measure. The next step was to determine why it was overheating. The board looked ok physically, so I start looking at the socketed chips. I noticed on the U17 GAL that one of the legs was bent under the chip. I straightened it and reinstalled the chip. Success! I got the test tone at start up, no more scorching amp (although it could use some more thermal paste to help because it's still a bit warm)...but I still had the static.
I decided to replace ALL the caps near and around the amp. Fortunately, I had a spare parts board to get them from that most definitely had other issues, trust me. I was confident the replacement parts were good, and they were! After changing all the caps, I fired up the sound board and it's now working flawlessly. Been running for over and hour with no issues. Just wanted to share. FIGHT!








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