Microelectronics | TRENDnet TEG-S80TXE

Synopsis

This switch has been in my home network for at least seven years. It once supported the backbone of my (now) defunct Home Office, routing network traffic between the storage area network and the various servers involved in my work. Now it has a different purpose: it provides two wired connections to each of the three rooms in my home. While wireless has mostly taken over copper cable, it still can't support multiple PCs that generate intense traffic over the network. Thus, copper wire is here to stay.

Disclaimer
This article is not to be treated as a do-it-yourself tutorial on how to fix, restore, rebuild, or improve this unit. This was not my initial intention. But you can consider this whole content as a general guideline, should you decide to attempt any service procedure on an identical or similar unit.

The entire documentation is just a reflection of my work and I cannot be held responsible if you damage your unit, or even harm yourself in the process.

Maintenance

I decided to replace the eleven-year-old electrolytic capacitors on the switch PCB. The originals were TEAPO, a brand which is known to cause issues from time to time. Especially since this switch operates under relatively high internal temperatures. I'm lucky that the capacitors survived for this long in a 24/7 environment. As for replacements, I used high-temperature Panasonic FR series capacitors.

Pictures

Here are some pictures that I took during this operation.

This switch should be good to go for a few more years of network traffic.