31/05/2026
One of the things that weakens an electronics technician is seeing your hard-earned replacement parts go up in smoke right before your eyes after you've carefully changed every component you thought was faulty.
But where else could the problem be?
That's the question that can make a technician feel embarrassed when a customer is standing there watching the amplifier, inverter, or power supply fail again after repair.
In this industry, we all have levels we have passed through and lessons we have learned from experience—sometimes the hard way.
This is where professionalism comes into play.
Some young technicians bring jobs to me and say, "I have replaced all the burnt components, but it still won't work."
A recent case involved a double-layer PCB that had suffered severe damage. Almost every faulty component had been replaced, yet the circuit remained dead. The technician had overlooked something very important: an internal broken copper track within the PCB.
Since the board was double-layered, the damage wasn't visible on the surface. After tracing the circuit connections and checking continuity point by point, I discovered that some tracks were no longer connected internally. The components were good, but the signals and power paths could not reach where they were supposed to go.
This is a reminder that successful troubleshooting is not just about replacing burnt parts. It is about understanding circuit operation, tracing signal paths, checking continuity, verifying voltages, and never assuming that the PCB itself is healthy.
Many repairs are lost not because the technician lacks knowledge, but because they stop troubleshooting too early.
Always remember: a burnt component is often the symptom, not the root cause.
Have you ever encountered a hidden fault that took you hours or even days to find? Share your experience in the comments. Let's learn from one another.
