Why Do Electronics Die? 

Next: Why do electronics work when you hit em hard

I believe a more important question would be why electronics die the day after warranty expires :/

"Let's start with a common one: capacitor failure." *Apple's MacBook team has left the chat*

I have a tape recorder from 1958 that still works perfectly - with it's original capacitors....

My PS1 and N64 still running fine after over 19 years

Planned Obsolescence is absolutely a thing. The HP 4000 and 6000 series printers both have small, cheap sponges near moving parts that are reportedly for noise reduction. The trouble is, they're held on with some pretty good double sided tape. Over time, the sponges wear away and parts start to stick on the now exposed tape, causing paper jams. The fix is to just scrape it all off and wipe away the sticky residue. Funnily enough, I've never been able to hear the difference in a printer before or after those "noise reduction features" were removed. If it was just the 4000s I might buy that it's an honest mistake but when the same exact flaw is in the newer 6000 printers, in the same exact spot, I call shenanigans.

This is fascinating. As a lover of vintage technology I've been learning about various ways to repair those tiny physical defects, and there are ways to fix most anything short of electron shenanigans. So from what I've seen, the way a vast majority of electronics die before their full lifetime is because they are no longer in the possession of somebody who cares enough to do the often simple maintenance and repairs that can revive them. Of course once there are no longer any replacement parts for vital components that are truly beyond repair and cannot be produced by hobbyists and enthusiasts (mainly the heavily guarded industrial secrets) life as we know it will be turned upside down, but I don't see that happening for a very long time.

Teacher in chemistry class: *asks me confusing question** Me: *electron shenanigans*

*calls IT support* "help, I've broken my cup holder"

Planned obsolescence should be illegal at least in most cases

As far as computers go, heat turning the motherboard into sawdust seems to be a leading cause of death.

4:26 I read that printer ink cartridges were designed with a timer. Making them show empty after so many pages, even when Some ink was still left.

Planned obsolescence is a very real thing. I used to work for a company who were masters of this. We would be in the prototype phase and when we designed a part, it was in the framework of "make it last, but not too long". The price of a part would be equal if we used the heavier gauge steel instead of the lighter, but that would make it too robust, too long of a lifespan. So we choose the thinner stuff. And we plan it to fail two to four months from warranty expiration. And to make it worse, we could make the failure to appear the user's fault. That is what I had issue with, and thus ended my employment there. No place for that sentimental dawdle in this day and age.

Is there a heaven for dead electronics?

Me, knowing almost nothing about electronics, basically understood. Well explained.

4:17 “User error”, Excuse me Tech Support, My Coffee Cup holder is broke! 😂

I have worked in NAND drive development for 8 years. If all goes well we know the precise number of cycles we can read write or clear bits. Done properly, we can slowly and safely manage the data. Using trend analysis we can even alert you ahead of time before a failure. As NAND gets smaller it wears out sooner. This is why old devices from the 80's will actually outlasts newer devices.

When components get old, they loose magic smoke and you need to refill them with it

Nice overview. Three key points to add: 1. Important to stress the most common causes of failure and how users can avoid them (e.g. heat, abuse of connectors, dropping, liquids). 2. Biggest problem I've found is that websites become bloated with videos, pop-ups, scripts, etc. so that more powerful hardware is required to deal with them (alternately, ad blockers). 3. Some of the long-term problems you mention could be planned for by ensuring that vulnerable parts can be replaced. Batteries, hard drives and memory for example.

This was very educational! I'm an EE/inventor. I have a flying invention on my channel with no moving parts except ions and electrons. I was trying to figure out reasons why it isn't too reliable yet, other than the obvious. Perhaps, if I add more lightweight cooling fins it will at least prolong the life of the affected parts. I never hear much about electromigration before either.

He doesn't mention a VERY important reason why capacitors fail; because manufacturers are cheapskates who under-rate their components to save a few cents. Lower voltage devices are cheaper, but putting a 6 volt capacitor in a 5 volt circuit is suicide for a circuit board.

I have a 1915 Candlestick telephone what still works on a current British Telecom connection. Although, the oldest electronic I use often what still works would be my 1934 Elextrolux Z25 Vacuum Cleaner complete with box and attachments. I Just can't see my modern Dyson ball working until the year 2100 though in 83 years time. I also prefer the brushed ali build quality of older 1960s/70s hifi equipment too. You struggle to get that these days its made in either plastic or black and rather bland looking instead.

Björk taught me everything I need to know about the capacitors located on a circuit board "city"

THANK YOU! I have always wondered what exactly 'deteriorated' in electronics that made them 'old'.

LOL 'user error'

Could it involve..... RGB lighting.....

I forgot how much I missed having Luke hosting shows!

It fascinats me how electricity behaves very much like water. The effects he's referring to become far more noticeable when you deal with high energy electronics that operate in the megawatt range. A lot of parts in these type of devices have to be replaced due to wear caused by the huge amounts of current going through them. The damage resembles sort of the wear and tear of water on on pipes and river banks overtime.

I have been diagnosed with lupus for about a year and it didn't dawn on me that it was going to kill me until about two weeks ago. Perfect comparison. Cherish the time you still have with your cassette player.

That military class motherboard actually died on me about 6 months ago...

It’s 2020 and the Harambe memes are seeing a resurgence and it’s beautiful

*4:24**-**4:46** I'm glad that was mentioned.* *When my HP laptop's warranty ended, the laptop's battery or battery connections (to this day I still haven't fixed it, so I don't know) stopped working, around a week later.*

If you think of how much electronics are found in cars today and how many things they control(engine management, safety features, keyless entry, stop/start, traction control emergency breaking, lane assist, adaptive cruise control ) plus the temperature changes they operate at compared to pc's it is more than a bit scary to think what would a failure or malfunction could do.

if i watch a lot of porn, will my computer die from aids?

(Aug 2023) - I just caught this amazing video. Marketing always talks about how great the products are. Service and repair videos are very few and far between. One thing that wasn’t mentioned is variation in manufacturing. I think manufacturing engineers, and the people who actually make things so well every single day are the unsung heroes of the electronics industry. Put it another way… If the connectors to a power supply are not crimped correctly, that connector will eventually fail. Thank you again for a great video!

Short, clear, precise knowledge without periods of fabulation .

Why do people die? :(

my Toshiba satellite c655d that originally ran Windows 7 (now running Windows 10) has to overclock in order to boot correctly rip laptop you served me well in college p.s I can't change the cpu because it's soldered into the motherboard

Very interesting and informative video, I appreciate what was explained and how it was explained. Good stuff.

*1* *capacitor* *turns* *to* *another* *capacitor:* "aight ima head out"

Thank you, this is a very informative and thorough video. I' like to see you tackle planed obsolescence in a separate video as that's a little controversial and dividing topic. Keep up the good work!

That "mindblowing" fact is something you learn in middle school, Luke.

Why do I keep watching these videos. They just make me nervous about the computer I’m going to build.

Really Great video , I’ve learned a lot from it .. I actually asked my dad the same question.. Your video is really informative, so Thank You so much

I have always had issues with surface mounted components in that not enough solder typically makes the connections to them leading to breaking intermittent connectivity over time through heat and cold stresses having that lead to ultimate failures within the circuitry. Indeed, planned obsolescence due to lack of enough solder on the connections. Through time, they break apart and no longer are dependable. What's worse is that in the wave soldering process it IS possible to bring forth enough solder to make that not be at issue, but most manufacturers don't and/or refuse to make it any sort of a priority.

Planned obsolescence is a scumbag move, but even more on mobile devices. In PC you can get away with an i5 2500 at this very moment, on phones the next android version is most likely not working for your model, no idea how it works for IOs though.

*"Speaking of non-mean stuff theres Tunnelbear!"* Ouch, aged like milk there.

Planned obsolescence sometimes backfires, my washing machine went splat a month before the warranty was up. They wrangled for months trying to get out of replacing it but finally they were forced to replace it , and pay me back for all my laundry bills incurred after the time i deemed was reasonable enough for them to have fixed the issue.

My Commodore 64 still works fine. I purchased that in the 80’s.

There is no such thing as no moving parts, the moving parts on solid state stuff are just on the molecular level.

This was explained very well, love that voice.

Very interesting video, I'd love to see a more in depth description of all this somewhere 🤔

Please Educate us about Motherboard Chipsets (H110, B250, H270 etc...) and clarify the concept of Pairing an i7 to H110 Chipset is a bad idea although it is in the right CPU Socket. I believe this video of Techquickie (Why Do Electronics Die?) is somehow related to my query. Please Thumbs up for people that need to understand why!

now explain why my IBM 8088 built in 1988 still work perfectly but a pc i bought in 2005 is basically a paper weight i scrap for parts and uh screws cant get enough screws

What an extremely useful video. This has actually made me feel bad for shouting at my old laptop.

Thanks! I realize you are speaking of plug in devices. Here are some additional observations with installed systems based on over three decades in the business. Alarm systems rarely cycle power and some fire alarms are 30+ years old. Many are highly stable. The biggest problem is high voltage power spikes such as lightening. I have seen plenty and learned a great deal. However, much of this is mitigated with newer power supplies and selecting industrial grade surge protection. People may help save devices by unplugging them during a bad lightning storm. An iPad obviously does not need 120 volts during that time. We have UPS power supplies on all desktops, stereo, TV’s, Tivo’s; Siemans surge protection on the Main electrical panel and on both central air condensers’, and because we are on a ridge, we have lightning rods on the roof with a bonded ground system. We even use cascading Lurton Maestro dimmers on all down lights and only had two lights burn out in 23 years. Be a victim or be a wise guy.

I like how you explain it so that even 12yold could understand, you totally know your viewer well

so whenever i play games i also play along with atoms

Micro fracture in BGA, whiskers from solder points creating shorts, temperature fluctuations causing PCB flexing, degrading electrolytes in capacitors, finite program erase cycles in flash, degradation in moving parts, dust build up and static discharge and the list goes one.

I did not think any body can cause anxiety and stress in just the first, 0:05 seconds . You succeed dude . Good video BTW

Directions unclear. Coffee spilled all over motherboard and my CD drive won't open anymore.

Props for mentioning electromigration and hot carrier injection. First time I think I've ever heard either mentioned outside of the industry (even if the latter not by name). There's also another phenomenon related to HCI: negative bias temperature instability. Similar results, different cause, but it's reversible. NBTI is a big problem for modern devices, but ICs have circuitry built into them to counter it.

A most useful and informative video. Thanks 😊

Don't often click on the random vids YT recommends but when I saw a much younger looking Luke I got curious. An interesting fact relating to thermal expansion: The first electronic* computer, the Colossus I, was built during WWII to help decrypt Nazi Tunny Codes used by their naval forces (their army used Enigma codes which were defeated with an electromechancial computer called La Bomba). When the proposition to build Colossus was first made there was a lot of push back because it was a well known fact that vacuum tubes (which the British call thermionic valves) failed quite rapidly, fortunately there was someone there (I think Tommy Flowers) that had experience with vacuum tubes and knew that so long as they kept the tubes warm they would last a lot longer. The reason the tubes normally failed is because of rapid heating and cooling. *Colossus I and it's successors were special purpose computers, the first general purpose computer was made later using similar principles.

they dont die. they evolve. they are learn how get stronger, how to evolve to think for themselves, and rise to take humanity out. but theres one man, one man who can stop it all. He must send back his father to ensure his birth, and ensure he live to stop the machines. He must also make sure that his mother and younger self lives to fight the fight, so he sends two machines back in to different times, so he becomes the leader must be.

"Your connection gets encrypted with AES 256-bit encryption" Then gets decrypted and shot all over the Internet.

Coorperate Overlords😂 with that apple shaped face That gave me LoLs

4:45 I love his SMOOTH transition from manufacturers purposely designing products for failure to his VPN sponsor ...

Because they need you to buy more of their products

The apple reference was spot on!

A month ago my main TV had still a CRT. I (or my parents) have never replaced a big TV that was not broken. In that way it is good that a device that has already served its expected life time breaks and urges to buy new and better one. First time we replaced color TV was in 1983, then we got a remote, then in 1990 NICAM stereo, SCART and text-TV. Next time it was 100 Hz Wide screen and now a smart TV.

I found this very interesting. Thank you.

What are Electrolytes? Its what they put in Brawndo.... But why do they put it in Brawndo... Because it has what plants crave. YEAH.. cus It has electrolytes.

Shame you skipped one of the more common failure causes, especially in modern computers: timing mismatch induced short circuiting. When you build massive networks of logic gates to form all of the necessary logic to make a computer of any sort. You have a minimum time you must wait before you can trust the output of any logical inversion, the time it takes for the signal to go from the input side to the output side. When you break the essential circuits down to logical inversion in diagram form, it's pretty clear there are some paths faster than others. Imagine this: you have a wire that can have voltages in it ranging from 0.85V to 1.35V. Some things connected to this wire can't handle the full 1.35V while other's can. It's just not feasible or even possible to separate them due to what they are needed for. So you build a gate system that will shut off that power wire to anything that might be hurt by the full 1.35V if it's about to be changed to that voltage. Simple solution, works really good majority of the time. However we want blazing fast chips so we do this as fast as possible with no wiggle room for maybe an electron going missing from that "shut off low voltage circuits" line. Chips suffer from this a lot, they are built for it with a stated tolerance level based around exactly that problem. The higher end of the tolerance is where it's going to happen enough to notice a difference in lifespan of the chip. This is also where the mistakenly though up "Planned Obsolescence", at least as rampantly, actually comes from. They know in a few years, your most likely going to upgrade your machine or just replace the part at significantly lower price from age depreciation. So why not pick how hard your pushing things to provide the best bang for the buck for the range of time your expected to own it. It's a tradeoff of lifespan for balls to the wall power.

Over three decades of managing hardware, the main and most prevalent culprits are heat cycling (don’t turn off after running hot), vibration, bad power line conditions, software updates degrade perf and even can cause physical damage.

I would love to see you guys making a clip about how long can you keep a smartphone after the last software updates

Thank you! very informative. I've always wondered about that. PS What is the most robust information storage medium for archiving data, we have today? Lastly, do think it's reasonable to overclock a PC, given that it will obsolesce before it gives out? On that note, if a system is overclocked and cooled properly, will its lifespan be diminished as a consequence?

Do good electronics get go to heaven?

I once had a Toshiba Satellite M105. It helped me through quite a bit for 6yrs. Rip laptop you've left quite a trail of frustration for me and possibly your previous owners. But may your circuits help those in robot hell.

So my guess was right, about the damages in the soldering spots. I didn't know that for sure, now I do. Thanks!

Harambe is never forgotten!

Wow I really didnt expect to hear of electromigration in such a video. Impressive! And it was quite good explained as well :-)

"Buildings have walls and halls. People travel in the halls-not the walls. Circuits have traces and spaces. Energy and signals travel in the spaces not the traces.” Ralph Morrison

I love those sponsorship tie ins. They always get me

I dont think dell does planned obsolescence. Yeah i know the dimension machines and a couple of old system broke from design flaws, but a dell optiplex from 2006 can still be used to day and same with i laptop i own. If a system meets the minumum required specs, i could run a more modern os

4:40 so accurate lol

The old axiom about "moving parts = failure" crumbles when you consider how many more failure points there are in an electronic substitute for a mechanical part. Perfect example is the $350 Anti-Lock Braking control module for my car. It is no longer communicating with the Engine Control Module (main computer), so it has likely had an internal physical failure. The mechanical aspects of the braking system work just fine, however - the car slows and stops just as it ever did when pressing the brake (it has simply reverted to a non-ABS system). Both the mechanical components and the electronic ABS control module are the same age, but I'm about to burn $350 and an afternoon to make a light on my dashboard turn off, due to an electronic failure.

👍 Great Posting, glad I watched it!

After seeing that Ham Sandwich, I find myself not so hungry anymore.

It's very informative for us to understand how Electronics fail over time due to using. 😎 😎 *Nothing last forever* is the truth.

Don’t charge your electronics in an enclosed carrying case. The heat build up will melt the internals & cause warping. I learned the hard way.

Modern tech that costs $1000’s but the build quality of a nickel. My Super Nintendo . 30 years old and still works.

Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) kill electronics. Why is that not covered?

Rip over clocking

Finally an educational video. It only took me all morning of searching RU-vid.

An answer from an actual professional grade electrical engineer here: the law of thermal dynamics and the law of conservation (which is elementary stuff), explain why things eventually fail. Most of these components are dealing with electrical heat that is being used almost just as fast as the electricity can move itself. This in turn means that these components have a harder time dealing with the forces that cause harm. For example, a dielectric breakdown to a capacitor can happen which just means that high voltage (high heat) can cause permanent failure. Many components are specifically designed to deal with certain ins and outs. That is why you hear motherboards having different specifications for voltage requirements and what type of CPU/GPU it can use. The most advanced problem we have been trying to conquer is the components ability to undergo high tolerance heat, dissipating the heat as fast as it is transferred and withstand the rapid heat dissipation without falter. The truth about every single component though, is how every single electrical device ever made by man, has a limit due to chemical bonds and reactions. A battery can only recharge so many times until it can no longer hold newer charges.

Mechanical and hydraulic systems usually give a fair bit of warning before they fail completely, but when electronics fail, it's usually without any warning. This is what concerns me about modern vehicles, as "drive by wire" systems are becoming more and more common. Electronics tend to be one of the less reliable aspects of a car.

WHO SAID HARAMBE DIED???

Plastic parts (a.k.a. PEMs, or plastic encapsulated microcircuits) also absorb moisture, which eventually leads to internal corrosion. Contrary to popular belief, plastic is not a perfect sealant. If you need a hermetically sealed part, that requires a ceramic package with a sealed lid. During manufacturing, there are baking procedures to drive out any moisture PEMs absorb prior to soldering. If they aren't preheated and dried out, they will pop and crack when they are soldered. Just one more thing to think about.

Oxidation. Only gas tight connections are immune to it. Switch contacts, jumper pins, ribbon connectors and so on are potential failure points. Examples of gas tight connections are soldered or crimped and screwed down terminals.