Steven Lawrance wrote on Thu, Nov 08, 2001 at 07:50:43PM -0800 : > > Since I'm just a software person and not an electrical engineer, a bad > capacitor means that I'll have to probably replace the motherboard,
Having been an electronics tech in a previous life, I can verify that electrolytic caps are a problem that gradually onsets. We used to get boards in that before we would even start checking parts, we would change all the electrolytic caps. The standing rule was if it's not been changed in less than 6 years, change it without question. Flaky caps on power supplies were the #2 most prevalent fix. (#1 was bad gate driver or base driver circuits, depending on if it was DC or AC equipment). Caps most frequently "dry out" in warm ambient temperatures. And it really is drying out. If you open a new cap and compare to an old cap, you'll see that it's much less moist. That also contributes to it getting warmer (and is mainly why they burn up...no moisture). I'd consider inside of a computer running for several years to be warm ambient temperature. Your mobo could very well be doing this if it's been in service for 4 or more years. Blue skies... Todd -- tlyons at mandrakesoft dot com http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en
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