[acherion]

Some old components will be, sure, but there are some chips that aren't manufactured anymore. There's no one blanket rule.

[hsbauauvhabzb]

I doubt it would be impossible to replace a Pentium 2 machine in most of the western world for at least the next 20 years.

[AlotOfReading]

I worked at a company that decided to do a new design because the chips for the old one had been out of production for decades and a solid percentage of what was still available on eBay was sitting in the warehouse to be scavenged for new production.

[acherion]

Pentium 2s aren't the only retro computers out there. There's many different computers, especially in the 1980s, that have components that are just simply not made anymore -- break one of those components, and you'll have a hard time repairing / replacing them.

[emersonrsantos]

That's true, but in many cases, it's not the integrated circuits (ICs) that fail, because they tend to be quite reliable. It's more often the capacitors, resistors, storage devices and power supply components that degrade over time. Capacitors, in particular, can fail due to heat, aging, or voltage surges, which can lead to failure in devices even if the ICs are still in good condition. Power sources can also fail due to wear on these exact components.

[userbinator]

I've seen enough electronics repair videos that it seems the default for troubleshooting absent other conspicuous damage is to start checking the electrolytic capacitors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

[icehawk]

> It's more often the capacitors

And the electrolyte can and will start to leak and foul the ICs around them, if not by ruining the traces/pads, then they can also foul the legs and/or find their way into the chip package itself, so the ICs will fail as a secondary issue.