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“Desolder the diode and see if the short goes away. Test the diode when its off the board (for both forward and reverse conduction).Forward conduction (as a diode normally should conduct), them diode should have a voltage drop about 0.6V. You can test this with the diode test mode on a multimeter.Reverse conduction can be tested with a power supply. Set a low current limit and start at a low voltage with the diode connected in reverse. Then start slowly increasing the voltage and see when the diode starts to conduct - make sure it matches the datasheet. Should be around 16V.Get a new diode as well and do the same tests and ensure that the values you get for that one are similar.“
23-07-2023
zener diode taken off, and the short stopped after removing
testing the diode for bias, seems like the diode was the problem