How do I know if I burnt up a transistor?

[saultime]

I'm working on a project, and discovered I had the FETs installed--you guessed it--back asswards. Yes, next time, I will use sockets.  :roll:

After I finished cursing myself for being such a tard, I de-soldered them, and used a heat sink were I could. It was hard to get it on all of leads. Sometimes, I couldn't.

For future reference though, if I do damage a transistor with my soldering iron, how will I know that?

[gtrmac]

Simplest check is that there shouldn't be any shorts between any two terminals. Probably best with the FETs out of the circuit. You need an ohm meter for this. If you have a digital VOM with a diode test function this is probably the best method.

For $0.30 each I would just put some new ones in there and be done with it.

[saultime]

Cool.

Anything else I can look for, using a DMM? Will things just sound bad?

I know it's just a 30 cent part, but I usually don't have extra lying around.