Okay, I revise my original life expectancy expectation. I expect a piece of solid-state electronics to outlast my car, i.e., 10-15 years. (My car has a billion moving parts and tons of consumables!)



I was under the impression (from Bansai8, who is an electronics quality control engineer) that the early-2000's capacitor problem was mostly a ROHS compliance issue. They had to use higher temps to flow the ROHS-compliant lead-free solder onto the boards, but the capacitors weren't up to the extra heat, and many of them leaked out of the foot-holes because the higher temps in the solder damaged them. Maybe I was understanding her wrong, but that was the impression I got.