Another dead radio LED thread...

[Provokr]

I tried this...
But my radio is still not working... anyone got any suggestions??
Thanks in advance
-Jed-

 

[rwenzing]

I have successfully repaired 2 of the Mach radios with dead or fading displays. One big trouble area is the 4 large resistors on the power supply board. These resistors get very hot and the solder joints tend to go bad. It is often not enough to simply remelt the existing solder. The original solder needs to be removed as much as possible and the joints resoldered with silver solder. While you're at it, it is also a good idea to raise the resistors slightly off the board to allow them to cool better. Then do a good job resoldering the metal shield that you had to remove to get clear access to the resistors.

OK, having said all that, it is not the whole story. There are dozens of other solder joints on that same board and some of them may be contributing to the problem . If resoldering the resistors and shield doesn't do it, you might have to take the shotgun approach and resolder all of them. This can be a serious pain because there are so many and some of the components are quite small.

I've also heard of people getting the display to come back by using alcohol to clean the pins on the small ribbon cable to the display. That didn't work for my radios but maybe it would for yours.

 

[Provokr]

I've also heard of people getting the display to come back by using alcohol to clean the pins on the small ribbon cable to the display. That didn't work for my radios but maybe it would for yours.

I used a sort of flux cleaner and a toothbrush and got all the brown stuff off the board. It is still not working.