If you are working on a piece of equipment with no circuit and obscure integrated circuits, don't assume the ICs are at fault.
ICs are usually very reliable.
However, if you find an IC with the same voltage on most of its pins or running very hot (or cold) you could start to get suspicious.
Realistically, though, if you reach the stage of changing ICs that are not in sockets, just in case they are faulty, you should give up.
It is much more likely that a faulty electrolytic capacitor will go faulty than an IC, so if you want to try a random fix, that is more likely to get a result.
I have seen TV repairs done like that. Change all the electros first and then diagnose if it still doesn't work.
If you have well known ICs in sockets and you have a spare one, you can substitute the spare if you remove the old one carefully. You might get lucky.
At least be sure you are in the right area of the circuit, though. If a signal goes into an IC but doesn't seem to come out anywhere, at least you are right to be suspicious.