Hardware Insights Forum

http://www.hardwareinsights.com/repairing-display-acer-al2023/

I think the soldering on the power board looks awesome for something that's supposedly (and, going by the manufacture date, legally required to be) RoHS compliant (the soldering on the logic board looks quite a bit worse). I'll admit that I have seen a few quite shiny lead-free solder jobs, but this one looks uncannily like the real (pre-RoHS) deal. Did they somehow slip that one through the system? (There were Seagate's Barracuda 7200.7 and 5400.1 HDDs circa 2003, which had RoHS compliant PCBs even though the HDA components were non-RoHS; while unmentioned in their datasheets, later versions of the 7200.7 manuals did claim RoHS compliance. But I'm just guessing at an explanation. Ever looked at a Barracuda ATA IV "unshielded", by the way?)

I do also like that there aren't any BGA chips in the unit, as even the strongest solder will eventually crack under the strain experienced by their solder balls.

There were still problems in this era. I remember doing the AL2423W which had cold joint under the freewheeling diode so it was pretty burned due to the high voltage. Resoldering did not help, it burned again after few months. The diode legs were oxidated so I had to replace the diode. I've used high-power diode in TO-220 package (from old CRT ) which had long legs and soldered the long legs there as a parallel part of the conductive path, just for case. Works fine ever since.