Spent $300 on a proper thermal camera last fall and it paid for itself in a week.

I was chasing a random shutdown on a gaming rig for a client. The usual suspects checked out fine. With the camera, I spotted a tiny voltage regulator on the motherboard hitting 120C under load, a problem I'd have never found with just my hand. It was a $25 part to fix, but finding it saved hours of guesswork and a likely board replacement. Anyone else find a tool that seemed pricey but ended up being a total game changer for diagnostics?

2 comments

2 Comments

tara_sanchez6d ago

You said you'd have never found it with just your hand, but honestly, you probably would have. That regulator at 120C would have given you a nasty burn in a fraction of a second. The real win is finding the exact tiny part without having to touch a bunch of scorching hot spots. The camera lets you see the problem from a safe distance and pinpoint it right away. That's the actual time saver, not just finding heat you could feel.

jamie1306d ago

Heard a tech say the same thing about his thermal camera last week.