Replace board on Printrbot Play?

[Dr3w5]

One of the capacitors on my Printrboard Rev F5 fell off not long after I got it. (Just fell off! I love the thing, but...) Anyway, I am trying to decide if I need to replace the board, and if so, with what.

It still works with the missing cap, but it was printing poorly; and I chalked it up to the bad board. But as a last ditch effort, I re-flashed the firmware, and I have had a couple of acceptable prints! (Any defects I might be attributable to old PLA!)

So I have two questions that someone might help me with:
1. Just curious: why would re-flashing the firmware change anything? I don't know that much about the tech, but how does firmware "go bad"? Or is it just that a newer version just works better with a newer Cura or something?
2. I have looked around for a replacement board. Actual Printrboards seem pretty much unavailable. Would love to try the "G2" Brook Drumm was touting right before the firm closed, but I haven't found that for sale anywhere. (Anyway, some of his talk about tech requirements might be daunting to me.) The RepRap board looks like my board, except the pins seem to point along the plane of the board in pictures. That would lead me to think it would not easily fit in my enclosure. That's ok, but not ideal.

(By the way, "looks like my board" betrays my level of sophistication about such things; I'm handy and persistent, but not experienced or knowledgeable! Also, I could buy a new fancy thing if I really wanted, but hacking it back to work is a badge of honor worth working on.)

Thanks!
Drew

[novice]

Have you seen this ? An F4 would entail hard wiring the Hot End fan as it did not have the second fan terminal, but would work.

[cbxbiker61]

If the firmware is a newer version...it certainly can print better. Software designers are always on a path of improvement. The Printerbots will print way way better with the latest version of Marlin.