For all you techies out there I have come to a conclusion as to why electronics do not last in this country.
In the last five years I have been here, this is the list of failures I have experienced of my own equipment:
Apple Imac computer
Bose sound system
Satellite receiver
Laptop power supply
JVC amplifier
Philips DVD player
Apple time capsule
As you can see these are mostly medium to high end spectrum of brands, so you would not expect premature failures from them.
Having a background in electronics, as I am an Avionics engineer, I decided to investigate the cause of these failures.
In every single case it was a blown capacitor/s on the power supply board or module. A bit of googling lead me to believe that the DR is a prime spot for capacitor failure due to the varying mains frequency, spikes in voltages combined with hot and humid climate.
For those of you who are not familiar with what a capacitor looks like, the ones that seem to fail the most, look like little cylinders that about the size of a marker pen cap. On the top of them, they have an aluminium lid with an X marked all the way across.
A failed capacitor will show a bulge in this top and you might also see a brown discharge from it. These things cost pennies and if you are any good with a soldering iron, you could save yourself hundreds in repair bills or replacements!
In the last five years I have been here, this is the list of failures I have experienced of my own equipment:
Apple Imac computer
Bose sound system
Satellite receiver
Laptop power supply
JVC amplifier
Philips DVD player
Apple time capsule
As you can see these are mostly medium to high end spectrum of brands, so you would not expect premature failures from them.
Having a background in electronics, as I am an Avionics engineer, I decided to investigate the cause of these failures.
In every single case it was a blown capacitor/s on the power supply board or module. A bit of googling lead me to believe that the DR is a prime spot for capacitor failure due to the varying mains frequency, spikes in voltages combined with hot and humid climate.
For those of you who are not familiar with what a capacitor looks like, the ones that seem to fail the most, look like little cylinders that about the size of a marker pen cap. On the top of them, they have an aluminium lid with an X marked all the way across.
A failed capacitor will show a bulge in this top and you might also see a brown discharge from it. These things cost pennies and if you are any good with a soldering iron, you could save yourself hundreds in repair bills or replacements!