Cap woes...

LaTech · Posted: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 11:55:21 Post Subject: Cap woes...

Ok,

So, I went to change my computer from the all acryllic case back to my old Antec case (the stupid thing was REALLY loud with all the fans...I can now hear myself think) and noticed that 3 of the 5 large capacitors next to the CPU were damaged.

By "damaged" I, of course, mean bubbled tops with the "tar" substance contained therein leaking out the top. Now, I realize that someone with good soldering skills could, probably, remove the damaged caps and replace them with new ones...however, I am not esactly the best at soldering things such as this and am worried about mucking it up.

Are there other options? I've tried contacting the company (Soltek out of Taiwan...we'll see how that goes), but as I sit here, I can't help wondering how long it's going to be before they terminate. I CAN'T lose this system...it's got everything on it (yes, I lost everything a couple months ago, but I'm back up and I have NO money to buy a new board with).

Any ideas?! I can take pics if it helps.

LaTech

BeerCheeze · Posted: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 12:16:25 Post Subject:

Well.... the only things I can think of are:

1) Hope the manfacture will RMA it.
2) Learn to solder
3) Find a friend that will solder
4) Go find some sort of an electrial repair shop (such as a microwave, TV, etc...) and ask them if they would do it for you. Just not sure it would cost less than replacing the board.

acruxksa · Posted: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 12:59:25 Post Subject:

I replaced 3 or 4 leaking capacitors on my old SFF Shuttle SV-25 before and it really wasn't that hard. The problem is that where there is one bad capacitor, there are likely more. After about 3 or 4 months a couple more capacitors started leaking and I didn't want to have to replace old capacitors every couple months so I ended up trashing it..

LaTech · Posted: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 06:15:36 Post Subject:

Just a thought that popped into my head: Could overclocking my system have caused this?

IceNine · Posted: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 13:54:08 Post Subject:

acruxksa · Posted: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 14:12:31 Post Subject:

High temps can also accelerate capacitor failure. I had a shuttle sv-25 sff system that suffered through multiple capacitor failures. I replaced 3 of them the first time and then 2 more started leaking a couple months later and I just trashed the board rather than face the probability of eventually having to replace every capacitor on the board. Anyway, the point being that the small form factor system had pretty high case temps and this attributed to the capacitor failure problem. Crappy capacitors also had a lot to do with it though.