@danderson The caps *look* okay, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. I'll try to replace them on one of the boards.
As for airflow etc, nah, these are just in a plastic shell. And it all feels incredibly cheap. Poor solder job, cheap plastics...
It might just be utter shit.
@hp Yeah could just be generally dead, just trying to figure out what would cause runaway heat rather than none heat. I guess power surge making the IC fail in a dead short, but a pair both dying the exact same way... I dunno it's possible but makes me look for common factors in manufacturing.
I guess you could probe out the power rails if you can find them, see if they look stable? And maybe measure current draw and see if it's worryingly high?
@danderson I don't really have a very good bench power supply, so measuring current draw is going to be a bit challenging.
It isn't getting "dead short" hot, just like... way hotter than I'd think would be reasonable given the device. Probably like... 40-50C? based on finger feel.
