Re: Living with bad caps?

Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
On Thu, 15 Nov 2007 12:11:17 +0000, "[ste parker]"
<imaginey@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Whilst looking at the girlfriend's parents PC which was "going
slowly", amongst the masses and masses of spyware I also decided
more RAM above the 256MB in there wouldn't go amiss (with all the
stuff they use, memory usage in WinXP is usually near double that).

However, when I opened up the box I noticed that around 10 of the
caps on the motherboard are bulging to the point of leakage on the
tops. Looks to have been the case for some time but they've not had
any probs bar the system being slow (which I'm attributing to the
spyware and lack of RAM). System is from 2003, so looking at 4 or
nearly 5 years old.

If I don't replace the motherboard now, what are the implications?
It's becoming one of those "wish I'd never have opened it" things...

Easiest thing to do is add more RAM and then leave it til they start
seeing sudden freezes or shutdowns.

If you want to do something about it, and you have a spare dead mobo
or another source of appropriate caps: Take the machine apart, either
desolder the dodgy caps and replace (make sure you resolder the new
ones right way round!) or use a chunky set of snips to take the dodgy
caps apart leaving the wires in the mobo, and solder new caps to the
wires. Capacitor innards aren't very healthy to be around, so be ware.

Or buy a new mobo. Trouble is with a machine of that age is that you
either get a secondhandy replacement with similarly-dubious caps, or
have to replace mobo/cpu/ram/video all at once. At which point you
might as well get them to buy a £300 Dellish box or (to be kinder and
avoid standard malware infestations) a Mac Mini.

....Or of course go to KustomKomputa.co.uk and order a Save+Plus on offer
until 2008

(7 spams Linux everywhere, and Dell and Apple have been mentioned; so why
not plug a decent company too?)

I've a vague idea I owe you a favour: I've got a bunch of caps I could
get over to you, salvaged from dead-from-other-reasons mobos. Want?

And why not give that a try first to see if you can save even more?


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Living with bad caps?
    ... amongst the masses and masses of spyware I also decided more RAM above ... when I opened up the box I noticed that around 10 of the caps ... bar the system being slow (which I'm attributing to the spyware and lack ... If you want to do something about it, and you have a spare dead mobo ...
    (uk.comp.homebuilt)
  • Re: Living with bad caps?
    ... amongst the masses and masses of spyware I also decided more RAM above ... when I opened up the box I noticed that around 10 of the caps ... bar the system being slow (which I'm attributing to the spyware and lack ...
    (uk.comp.homebuilt)
  • Re: INTERMITTANT COMPUTER SLOW DOWN
    ... Spent a lot of time with a Microsoft Technician who helped me considerably. ... I am using Norton for virus and Trendware for spyware. ... Thanks for being more gracious about the all caps. ... What anti-virus program do you run? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain)
  • Re: Living with bad caps?
    ... If you want to do something about it, and you have a spare dead mobo ... or another source of appropriate caps: ... desolder the dodgy caps and replace (make sure you resolder the new ... caps apart leaving the wires in the mobo, and solder new caps to the ...
    (uk.comp.homebuilt)
  • Re: Bad PC PowerSupply or MotherBoard?
    ... There have been 2 PSes tested with this MoBo. ... they were both AMD Athlon machines. ... Clear the CMOS. ... I have looked but so far have not seen any leaky or bulging caps. ...
    (sci.electronics.repair)
Loading