I’ve been using the Asus WL-500g Premium under OpenWRT for years. I always keep a second cold-spare device in stock to minimize our household’s downtime in case the router breaks. Last year, it was actually the router’s power supply unit that ceased to function. After I replaced it with the PSU from the spare device everything was back to normal. The same thing happened again this week, so I decided to document how I fixed the wall-wart back then.
Note: This is potentially dangerous so don’t try this at home! You’ve been warned.
Actually, the hardest part was to open the PSU. Both parts of the case are glued together, so separating them will inevitably scar the case. After the case was open, the worn out capacitor that broke the unit was clearly visible. I just de-soldered the capacitor, replaced it with a new one, and closed the case using two strips of adhesive tape. Done.
