[ale] Bad capacitors in computer motherboards

[deritchie at earthlink.net]

Michael,
   sorry about the delay in getting back with you. 

   Capacitor failures are typically indicated by a split on the aluminum lid on the top
of the capacitor, which often is accompanied by leakage of the electrolyte. There was a problem
with certain brands of Taiwanese capacitors, due to a bogus formula for the composition of 
the electrolyte stolen from another maker. If you have leakage, you also need to clean up the 
residue off of the motherboard, as evidently it is fairly corrosive. See 

   http://www.asti-usa.com/support/appnotes/65.html
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
   http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_30328/article.html
   http://www.badcaps.net
   http://www.vp6-board.com/caps1.htm

and a host of others...

as good resources for further information and repair strategies. 

    BTW, this problem can occur with all electronics with electrolytic capacitors (i.e. EVERYTHING).
If you electronically inclined, the ESR meter is the proper tool to diagnose this problem. There
are kits available for fairly simple testers. Dick Smith Electronics of Austraila (http://www.dse.com.au)
has a analyzer kit for A$80 that should work well for most PC motherboard repair.. On the other
hand, just replacing everything is a reasonable strategy also... the problem occured most often on 
the higher uF capacity parts, BTW. 

Best regards,
Dave Ritchie 
-----Original Message-----
>From: Michael Smith <msmith at mikeandmel.com>
>Sent: Nov 1, 2006 12:49 PM
>To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
>Cc: deritchie at earthlink.net, Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
>Subject: Re: [ale] Bad capacitors in computer motherboards
>
>What are the signs of a faulty capacitor? 
>