Found several Blown caps on MB, what are they for

dukeman · Post by **dukeman** » Sat May 08, 2004 2:21 pm

Hail all,

I was installing some more junk into my computer when i noticed several blown(boiled) caps on my board. As they are near the mosfets i can assume that they are filters of some form. I touched them and the tops were dry so i have no ideal how long they have been like that.

http://home.comcast.net/~ppeede/eccleston.html

My computer is running fine for now. The only problem that is bugging me is the sound is messed up. i am getting alot of crackling when it is turned up and the Nvidia nforce screen has everything maxxed out. i think it might be a driver issue.

I am wondering what those caps do and if it will effect me down the line. I have changed my northbridge cooler and added heatsinks to the mosfets about a year ago so i have no warranty. If anyone has any ideals i am all ears.

thanks
Peter

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sat May 08, 2004 2:24 pm

It's this. You should replace the caps.

boardsportsrule · Post by **boardsportsrule** » Sat May 08, 2004 6:29 pm

loooooooooool i got a mobo with so many busted caps that they have now leaked onto AGP and pci slots below...oh, and it still works...MUHAHAHAAH

Skylined · Post by **Skylined** » Sat May 08, 2004 7:14 pm

Take a look at my threads.

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=12414

Info about how to fix and the whole story, find the links in this thread.
http://forums.gideontech.com/viewtopic.php?t=24290

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Mon May 10, 2004 2:09 am

The capacitors are there to make sure you get stable voltages. The more they leak the less capacitance you have, and the more ripple you get on your voltages. More ripple means that your motherboard becomes less stable.

If you are really unlucky something might burn out on your motherboard when a capacitor gives up totally. I would defenatly replace the capacitors.
My guess is that they were bad from the beginning, so if you replace them with new ones it should not happen again.

dukeman · Post by **dukeman** » Mon May 10, 2004 5:08 am

i pretty much figured they were for voltage filtering. I guess that explains why i get reboots sometimes if i am loading a game off of the cd drive. it happens about 30% of the time when my kids play BF1942.

I am going to email Epox and see if they can send me some caps seeming as they know about the problem and never bothered to post/email registered users about it. I hate when companies are afraid to say there is a problem with their product. I would much rather be informed about a problem then deal with it when it craps the bed.

My problem is at the end of the summer i was planning on upgrading to amd 64. I wonder if my present motherboard will last that long or if i should take the time to replace the caps now.

nannygoat · Post by **nannygoat** » Mon May 10, 2004 2:45 pm

I just replaced all the voltage-smoothing caps on my Gigabyte 7VRXP and despite havng to hack away with a blunt soldering iron in order to get the old ones out and the new ones in, the board now works fine. My advice, replace the (usually 6.3V rated) caps with higher voltage ratings, and try and get caps with the highest quoted lifespans - I noticed most caps went on sale with less than 5000hours expected stable usage = 6-7 months if you leave your computer all the time.

CallMeJoe · Post by **CallMeJoe** » Tue May 11, 2004 5:50 am

nannygoat wrote: My advice, replace the (usually 6.3V rated) caps with higher voltage ratings, and try and get caps with the highest quoted lifespans - I noticed most caps went on sale with less than 5000hours expected stable usage = 6-7 months if you leave your computer all the time.

Higher voltage ratings won't help. The problem stems from some batches of bad electrolyte used by several Taiwanese capacitor manufacturers that outgasses hydrogen and blows out the seals on the caps. Look for low ESR (equivalent series resistance) capacitors. Any good electronics supplier should have "computer quality" ESR caps. Try to stay with the Japanese manufacturers (Nichicon, Rubicon, etc).

While many mobo manufacturers were affected by this problem, AFAIK only IBM and Abit have acknowledged the problem.

Skylined · Post by **Skylined** » Tue May 11, 2004 12:44 pm

Don't waste your time, go and get the new capacitors, they're cheap.

My GF's mobo always freezed at random places, boot, windows, shutdown, etc. That was the problem caused by these bad capacitors.

dukeman · Post by **dukeman** » Tue May 11, 2004 5:44 pm

i think i will replace them myself. i dont want to be 4 weeks with out a computer. where can i get caps for a decent price?

Skylined · Post by **Skylined** » Tue May 11, 2004 8:36 pm

If you live in USA, check this out.
http://forums.gideontech.com/viewtopic.php?t=18120