I had the same 7A fault with stoves 700CTH. Stoves wanted 250 quid to supply and fit new PCB (printed circuit board) Here is what I did, following advice posted on the web from others. Very simple.
Lift out hob from work top, turn upside down and remove all the screws from around the 4 sides.
Lift out the ceramic thing to expose all the works.
Take out the controller and disconnect the 13 spade connectors using fine nose pliers and labelling each wire 1-13, working from R-L as you go.
Look for capacitor C17 clearly marked on the circuit board. It needs changing for 1000uF16V 105C which you can buy on line from Maplins for 58p next day delivery. If like me you are not an electronics wizz and can't solder (the cap is surface mounted and you can damage the adjacent bits if over heated and the polarity must be correct) take the cap and pcb to someone who can.
Reassembly is very straightforward so long as you labelled all the wires!
It now works fine in my case.
So many people seem to have this 7A fault not only on Stoves appliances, but I believe others including Hotpoint who presumably use a similar or adapted PCB controller. Is this because 17C is rated too low? i.e a design fault?
I think people are being ripped off by Stoves wanting 150 quid for a new PCB for the sake of a simple fix with a 58p capacitor.
These hobs are very expensive and should last longer than (in my case) 4 years
Andy
October 2010