"Blinking lights of death" ? Netgear Switch GS108

Robert L Cochran cochranb at speakeasy.net
Fri May 1 00:51:17 UTC 2009



On 04/30/2009 02:47 PM, Aldo Foot wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 7:23 PM, Robert L Cochran
> <cochranb at speakeasy.net>  wrote:
>    
>> Has the device firmware been pharmed or simply partly flashed and then a
>> power failure struck?
>>
>> If you would like to donate the unit to me, I'll try to find the time to
>> take a look at it in the next few months. I'm still very much an amateur,
>> and I'd like to try analyzing why the unit is not working and see if I can
>> fix it. This assumes physical damage to the circuit board of some sort.
>>      
> <...snip....>
>    
>>> The only way to be sure it is capacitor plague is to gut the unit and look
>>> at the PC board. If you look at the capacitors in it, and one or two are
>>> slightly bulged, or have black stuff that looks to be leaking from the
>>> bottoms, the device is dead, and should be replaced, unless you are the
>>> hacky type and change out the cap's or harvest the good parts off the corpse
>>> of the old switch.
>>>
>>>
>>> ~Seann
>>>        
>
> The unit has a blown capacitor, bulged and brown matter around it. Also there is
> a white-ish powder under the PCB. It looks dirty. There is corrosion.
> Not sure it's
> worth fixing. It went on for well over a year working perfectly in a
> well ventilated
> room. The unit is for a server at my workplace, so they will replace it.
> Many years ago, I used to make and fix network cards and switches at some
> company, so I'll give it a shot myself at fixing this one just for kicks.
>
> I very much appreciate your offer to fix this thing --even though there was no
> warranty implied. :-)
>
> Now, I've got to get a more reliable unit to last longer.
> ~af
>
>    
You probably have Chinese- or Taiwanese-manufactured capacitors in that 
unit, which are not as reliable as Japanese-manufactured capacitors. If 
you search the net you will find lists of known-unreliable capacitor 
manufacturers.

Bob




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