Had an interesting repair recently.
Grand daughters Boombox stopped working and was given to Grandpa for repair because apparently he can fix anything.
Anyway, took some time to open up this European device.
Absolutely no idea where to start apart from measuring obvious power supply bits, regulators etc.
Whilst pondering how to explain to Grand daughter that It is unfixable, noticed the old dark brown dried up gorilla snot that was the curse of the repairman some 30 years ago.
Anyway chipped at this and it easily fell away from the multipin surface mount components, whilst thinking of a good story.
When I could see no more of it, powered up and all fixed!
Have the manufacturers not learn after all these years, and a reasonable quality and expensive unit.
Grandpa’s reputation stands, but for how long.
For those of you that do not know what I am talking about.
“Gorilla snot” was a name given by servicemen, so it’s now a technical term, to a glue similar to contact adhesive used to hold or support components. Started around 40 years ago. Over time this glue goes dark and becomes conductive.
And caused many problems particularly between ic legs and in some instances caused fires in power supplies.
JJ

I have experienced this stuff many years ago and actually had forgotten about its existence. Thank you for the reminder.

Ah, what we used to call Sony Bond. That stuff caused all sorts of problems on 70's and 80's era PCBs. IIRC, it became both conductive and corrosive over time.

Gorilla snot is also a nickname for contact cement and one I use frequently though it also has a few other nicknames which I can't mention here due to the G rating. I'll let you all use your imagination to work out the answers.

This Boombox made in 2012.
Unbelievable that they still use it.

This Boombox made in 2012. Unbelievable that they still use it.

Throwaway mentality.

I note how hard it is these days to get cases apart. Hidden screws, etc. Such a PITA that only 'love jobs' warrant the effort.

I have heard of that gooey glue that becomes conductive over time, but not with any of those nicknames.

I've seen lots of modern gear that can't be repaired, either they use tiny surface-mounted parts that are no longer available, or the case needs to be demolished to get the thing open.

Fixed quite a few VHS VCR's with Gorilla snot invoked faults. Usually around high impedance servo circuits.