Reparing PARIS' Internal Electronics
Added by Doug Wellington 2014-01-10: Surface mount electronics are actually easier to repair than through hole! I use a hot air rework station and have had no problems with traces lifting or any kind of board damage. Don't throw away your old PARIS gear if it stops working! If you don't want to deal with it any more, contact me and I'll pay for shipping. My email address is: doug(at)ensoniqparis(dot)com.
NOTE: Sorry, I don't have time to do repairs for anybody else. Please contact http://thesoniq.com/ for Ensoniq repairs.
The short answer is "no". The more correct answer is "Possibly yes, but...". The answer in years to come may be "why not give it a try?".
To explain: Most "repairs" to board type electronics are not really repairs at all but replacements of faulty boards. No more boards = no more replacements = no more repairs.
However in some cases repairs and replacements of individual surface-mount components can be done (providing the damage is not to the comparatively few proprietary components that are no longer available) by a sufficiently skilled electronics technician - in some cases, even working without a schematic or circuit diagram.
At the current price of a MEC, it is generally not cost effective as it would be difficult to find a sufficiently skilled electronics technician who will work for a "minimum charge" that is less than the cost of simply replacing, for example, an entire MEC.
The answer today is "Yes, but doing so is generally not cost effective yet" - whereas in years to come, with dwindling availability of individual components, the ratio may change in favor of investigating repair for those sufficiently motivated to keep their rigs running. The short answer is - given enough money, it's all possible.
