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Capacitors burned out?

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orion456

Member
Joined
May 31, 2004
If several of your capacitors are no longer flat and silver on top and look like they are being pushed up in the center....is that a sure sign the board is shot?
 
ummm means those caps certainly are .... you can try replacing them and salvaging your board ... might be a little cheaper than having to replace it
 
definatly sounds like there bad or heading that way..
I wouldn't attempt to replace capasitors on a motherboard without the proper equipment, a normal sodering iron is quite underpowered for the job.

If the motherboard is worth the cost and its out of warrentee it might worthwhile to see if one of the expeinced with capasitor replacment members would have time to give it a shot.
 
Super Nade said:
Can't really tell without a picture, but if the vents have bloated out, you have a bad cap on your hands.

"vents"...you mean the 4 triangle shaped pieces on the top of the capacitors? If so, yep they are bulging out with some what looks like black stuff around the slits.

"vents" for what exactly?
 
They're not vents, its just where the aluminum is designed to break when the caps pop.

There are lots of places on the net that you can search for that will do a complete re-capping of your motherboard for a good price, and use good quality caps.

The problem stems from the Chinese stealing the formula for the capacitors internal liquid, but they either didn't make it right, or got a bad formula, so there was a period of about 2 years where damn near every motherboard manufacturer used these "bad" caps on their boards. Some manufacturers have stepped up to the plate like Abit, and will fix them for free no matter how old the board is (they used to at least). Some manufacturers had class action law suits brought against them an settled our of court.

The first step I would take is contact the board manufacturer, but only after doing a bit of research so you sound knowledgeable about the bad caps. If it's one of the big boys, they may say sent it to us, and well fix it for free.
 
Thanks Rocinante, black stuff is obvious on at least 8 of the caps on the board. I'll look into it a bit, but a new 478 board can be had for $50 so it's probably not worth the time and postage to send it back.

The board is a Mach Speed PT800DBP which I paid $55 two years ago. I will contact the manufacturer and see what's up.
 
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NO word from the manufacturer of course. I will send a 2nd email.
 
I've recapped many boards, very easy once you learn how, so maybe this could be a good learning experience.
 
JDXNC said:
I've recapped many boards, very easy once you learn how, so maybe this could be a good learning experience.

He's got a point here.. it's a cheap mobo thats easily replaced.. could be a good oprotunity to learn.

If it was one of the best mobo's for that socket ever made, then I would be more hesitant. Or at least swing it by a local electronics repair shop.
 
I replace the caps on an old Abit MB that I had gotten from a friend, he was going to throw it away and used it to make a PC for my brother's family. I got the replacement caps here http://www.mouser.com/index.cfm?handler=home
I had to do 8 caps I think and it costed about 15.oo including shipping. On the side of the caps are the ratings and make sure you get the + and - correct when installing them.
 
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