Nick Sabalausky wrote:
A few months ago my computer's onboard ethernet stopped working. The wonderfully ironic part is that this was no more than a day after I had finished one of my "Cranky-Kong"-esque rants defending my use of older computers. (The onboard ethernet seems to be working perfectly fine again now though. Maybe there was just some dust on the contacts or something.)
Over time, contacts can get dirty or corroded, resulting in erratic connections. Reseating the connectors will fix that most of the time. Sometimes you might need to "polish" the connector a bit, a pencil eraser is just right for that.
Beyond that, most (nearly all) component failures I've had have been in the power supply. It's probably because of the heat.
My stereo runs all day every day, and has for the last 25 years! I'll be sorry when it finally croaks.
