PCB repair: the industry's blind spot

For a time, at Codium, we regularly handled electronic board repair. It was a natural fit: when you design electronic systems, develop custom boards and manufacture electronics for clients, you might think it equally natural to repair existing boards.

And in absolute terms, of course, it is part of our skill set.

But over time, we settled on a fairly straightforward position: electronic board repair is often far more uncertain, more time-consuming and more expensive than people expect. And today we prefer to say so clearly.

A repair is not always a real solution

When a board fails, people often picture identifying the faulty component, replacing it, and restarting the equipment.

Sometimes that is exactly what happens. A blown capacitor, an out-of-value resistor, a cold solder joint visible under a binocular microscope — this kind of electronic diagnosis is quick and the repair is reliable.

But very often, the damaged component is only the visible consequence of a problem elsewhere: an unstable power supply, another board in the system, a wiring fault, a peripheral drawing too much current, or a more general issue within the equipment.

That is precisely the core difficulty: fixing what you can see does not always mean correcting the real cause. And it is this fundamental uncertainty that makes electronic board troubleshooting so difficult to offer honestly.

In practice, you often work without the right information

This is the real heart of the problem.

When we receive a board to repair, it is almost always one we did not design ourselves. And in the majority of cases, we have neither the schematic, nor the routing files, nor a complete BOM, nor a clear picture of the system in which the board operates.

In other words, before even repairing, you first have to understand what you are holding. This analysis phase — reading traces under a microscope, continuity measurements, component identification, partial schematic reconstruction — takes time. Far more than you might imagine when you see "just a faulty board" sitting on a workbench.

A serious repair costs serious money

This is also a point we are very open about.

A properly conducted electronic board repair — with real diagnosis, real measurements and a genuine attempt at understanding — quickly mobilises half a day to two days of cumulative engineer time. Even at a perfectly reasonable rate, the costs add up fast.

And this reality is widely underestimated. Many industrial companies hope for a €100 repair on a board worth €800 new. In practice, the diagnosis cost alone can exceed the replacement value.

The real problem starts when the manufacturer no longer supports anything

And that is where the topic becomes broader than simple board repair.

Today, many industrial electronic boards become impossible to maintain as soon as their manufacturer:

• has stopped producing and supporting them
• provides no access to technical data (schematic, BOM, routing files)
• has disappeared, been acquired, or simply discontinued the product line

The result: you attempt repairs blind, strip machines to salvage others, or throw away equipment that could still have a real industrial life. At a time when everyone is talking about sustainability, reuse and industrial sovereignty, this situation no longer makes much sense.

At Codium, we believe an unsupported board should be able to live on

Our conviction is simple: when a manufacturer genuinely stops maintaining an electronic board, there should be a path to technical continuity. Not to undermine products that are still active or innovative — but to allow, when a product is abandoned, access at minimum to:

• its electronic schematic
• its PCB routing files
• its bill of materials (BOM)
• its manufacturing package

With these elements, there is no more "working blind". You can finally repair in better conditions, diagnose faster, or even re-manufacture an identical board if the industrial need still exists.

When designing a new board is the real answer

In many cases, faced with a faulty or obsolete board, the question is not "how do we repair it" but "is designing a new one better?" It is often the most rational solution, particularly when:

• 1 The fault keeps recurring. If the same board regularly fails, repair is a running battle. A design flaw or a component consistently at the edge of its specification cannot be fixed with a soldering iron.
• 2 Components are obsolete. Some components used on older boards are no longer available — not from distributors, not on the surplus market. Repair becomes physically impossible.
• 3 Repair cost exceeds re-manufacturing cost. For a board whose manufacturing cost is below a few hundred euros in small volumes, the diagnostic engineering can quickly cost more than a new board.
• 4 Requirements have evolved. A board designed ten years ago may no longer meet current constraints: connectivity, security, power consumption, CE certification, RED or CRA compliance. Better to start from a modern base.

In these situations, Codium can take on the custom electronic board design — schematic, routing, prototyping, production — with full ownership of the files and technical documentation. A board you will be able to maintain long-term.

What we take away from this

At Codium, we believe in the value of reuse, sustainability and technical intelligence. But we also believe in honesty: electronic board repair is not always the best answer, especially when it must be done without sufficient technical visibility.

If you are facing a faulty board, start by asking yourself: do you have the documentation? Is the fault isolated or recurring? Are the components still available? Is the repair cost proportionate to the board's value?

If the answers leave you doubtful, the conversation about a custom replacement board is worth having.