A word about bad Solder:
As you are most likely aware, solder plays the important role of connecting all the electronics in each circuit board as well as providing some physical strength to hold the parts in place. What you may not know is that solder goes bad after a period of time. After years of heating up and cooling down of any electronic device, the solder expands and contracts accordingly to the point that it cracks and becomes resistive. Just like other components, solder will fail after a time, and so, the solder must be replaced. Televisions are notorious for this. We are all familiar with the need to slap the side of a TV to make it work properly again. This is indicative of intermittent solder connections from this very phenomenon. Look for cracks around the solder connection at the circuit board. Since most of the consumer level equipment includes circuit boards that are only plated on one side, and have no plate through holes, there is only one point of contact for the solder. This is asking a lot of the solder when it must make a good electrical connection as well as provide for all the physical strength needed to hold the device together. Be sure to remove as much of the old solder as possible before resoldering.
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