The lock button on my car key fob hasn’t been working for ~ 6 months. I was looking at buying a new key fob for between $9 to $35, but something told me to take it apart.
Some isopropyl alcohol, a used toothbrush, and 5 minutes later I discovered some kind of sticky blue goop had infiltrated my key fob. After a quick brush down and slight emersion of the lock button, my key fob is now working again.
Satisfying isn’t it? I had a fancy mini-fridge that died after 5 years. We called a repair guy and he said it needed a new board but when he called the company, they said they don’t make them and just suggested we buy a new fridge. Well no shit… I’m sure they WOULD like it if I bought another one of their crap fridges, but whatever - not gonna happen. So since I had a brick on my hands anyway, I pulled the board and Googled “most common reason for PCB failure” and the answer was “capacitors.” A short Youtube video explaining how to find bad ones and voila: I found the culprit, a swollen and useless capacitor.
Thirty-seven cents later (well, $2.22, I had to buy half a dozen from an eBay vendor) and she started right up (I already had desolder/solder tools). Felt great.
Ah I did similar with a broken furnace logic board from 2004. Carrier still made the boards, but wanted $250 and none of the components used on the dang thing justified that besides them knowing most people have no choice in the moment.