+Warwagon MVC Posted August 31, 2012 MVC Share Posted August 31, 2012 Bad capacitors can happen on any motherboard, new or old. They can also explain issues that are other wise unexplainable. 1) Computer won't turn on 2) No display 3) Random bluescreens 4) Lockups Just to name a few When looking for bad capacitors on a motherboard, it helps to know what a healthy one looks like first. A good capacitor usually looks indented, when viewing it from the top. In fact if you rub your finger over it you can feel the indentation A bad capacitor or one that is starting to bulge will start to swell at the top, no longer looking indented http://www.pcstats.c...m?articleID=195 Others swell to the point of blowing thus you can see electrolyte brown crud on the top of the capacitors. Others Leak http://www.pcstats.c...m?articleID=195 In any case once you start to see the following symptoms it's time to either replace the motherboard, replace the computer, or know that the issue is not going away White Man, Phouchg and Psyco359 3 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
sc302 Veteran Posted August 31, 2012 Veteran Share Posted August 31, 2012 those would be blown capacitors. replace mobo or replace computer. it happens, usually due to heat/overheating, not enough to cause a thermal shutdown but enough to be above operating temp of the capacitors. is it common? yes, across lots of models and manufacturers. It is so common, that once pc's start acting crazy with blue screens and shut downs that the first thing I do is pop the cover off and inspect the motherboard. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595137933 Share on other sites More sharing options...
neufuse Veteran Posted August 31, 2012 Veteran Share Posted August 31, 2012 if you have a newer motherboard with solid-cap's you won't find these signs generally... solid capacitor don't "bloat" like the older caps did Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595138031 Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted August 31, 2012 Author MVC Share Posted August 31, 2012 Bare with me on the formatting of this thread. For some reason it wants to space out. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595138039 Share on other sites More sharing options...
CentralDogma Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 If you?re good with soldering, you can even replace blown capacitors. f0rk_b0mb 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595138043 Share on other sites More sharing options...
f0rk_b0mb Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 If you?re good with soldering, you can even replace blown capacitors. Yup, that's what I'd do, however, it is not as easy as it looks. I had 2 years of electronics and my joints are never perfect. goretsky 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595138087 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 My Samsung tv had bloated capacitors. At the end the tv would take 5-10 minutes to turn on (once on it was fine). I opened the TV and replaced the capacitors and it works great now Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595138099 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hell-In-A-Handbasket Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 OT can see electrolyte plant food in a computer ? *edit - every time i see Electrolyte(s) i think of Plant food Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595138325 Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagum Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 Yup, that's what I'd do, however, it is not as easy as it looks. I had 2 years of electronics and my joints are never perfect. Through hole soldering is one of the easiest tasks to perform, can can be done with the most basic of kit. I've saved loads of motherboards, and monitors by replacing ALL the caps at once. They usually come in at the local electronics store at around ?10 for goodie bag full, certainly a lot cheaper then replacing a motherboard or PC... and certainly less wasteful then throwing out a otherwise perfectly good monitor screen and backlight. I replace all caps if i find any that have died. usually if one is bloated or leaking, its a bad batch or the others are on their way out (or have already but just not showing visual signs yet). There is always an under line cause, mostly its cheap or dodgy batch of caps used when making the boards. I had some spare caps so I replaced just that one - it didn't work. So I replaced the rest, and even though they all looked fine, it fixed the problem. goretsky 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595138361 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crisp Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 Cannot I hit them with a hammer / screw driver to dent them again? lulz. /s Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595138371 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linkinfamous Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 Bad caps don't always bulge at the top. An electrolytic will almost always bulge at the bottom first. You can tell if it's not resting flat on the board. (Source: I'm an EE. Also, I just ran a 10V 10uF cap at -15V for over a minute. Zero effect on the top of the cap.) Be wary, when replacing capacitors. These days, organic polymer caps are coming into higher usage. They're used for higher ripple current applications and have generally better performance than the standard aluminum electrolytics. If you replace one with an aluminum electrolytic, it'll probably overheat and fail very quickly, or lead to unstable operation from poor transient response, as they have an ESR an order of magnitude higher. goretsky and FiB3R 2 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595138377 Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted August 31, 2012 Author MVC Share Posted August 31, 2012 Bad caps don't always bulge at the top. An electrolytic will almost always bulge at the bottom first. You can tell if it's not resting flat on the board. (Source: I'm an EE. Also, I just ran a 10V 10uF cap at -15V for over a minute. Zero effect on the top of the cap.) Can you post a photo of that. I'm looking but can't find one. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595138413 Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahhell Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 My Samsung tv had bloated capacitors. At the end the tv would take 5-10 minutes to turn on (once on it was fine). I opened the TV and replaced the capacitors and it works great now Samsung lost a class action suit against them because of this. My DLP crapped out and I'm sure that this is the problem (that or bad solder connections). Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595138417 Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Laughing Man Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 I remember the counterfeit cap issues from back in the day they were a huge cause of blow/leaky caps. goretsky 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595138433 Share on other sites More sharing options...
f0rk_b0mb Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 Through hole soldering is one of the easiest tasks to perform, can can be done with the most basic of kit. I've saved loads of motherboards, and monitors by replacing ALL the caps at once. They usually come in at the local electronics store at around ?10 for goodie bag full, certainly a lot cheaper then replacing a motherboard or PC... and certainly less wasteful then throwing out a otherwise perfectly good monitor screen and backlight. I replace all caps if i find any that have died. usually if one is bloated or leaking, its a bad batch or the others are on their way out (or have already but just not showing visual signs yet). There is always an under line cause, mostly its cheap or dodgy batch of caps used when making the boards. I had some spare caps so I replaced just that one - it didn't work. So I replaced the rest, and even though they all looked fine, it fixed the problem. Yes! Through hole soldering is the easiest. I really hate the ones where they rest ontop of the board. Like this. Just got done fixing this for a friend. Works! :) Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595138691 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 Ya think ... ? Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595138699 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadrack Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 Whenever someone tells me that a computer went bad because of bad capacitors, I usually interpret that as they can't figure out what really is wrong so they are blaming bad capacitors. It's kind of a catch all for bad motherboard :/. I'm not saying it doesn't happen. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595138721 Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeta_immersion Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 I have seen blown capacitors before but the system was running ok under light load (email and random stuff) .. eventually it died .. told the user to go buy something better .... cannot deal with cheap crap people buy from Costco and they rave about as if it is the latest model that came out last minute. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595138737 Share on other sites More sharing options...
sc302 Veteran Posted September 3, 2012 Veteran Share Posted September 3, 2012 Whenever someone tells me that a computer went bad because of bad capacitors, I usually interpret that as they can't figure out what really is wrong so they are blaming bad capacitors. It's kind of a catch all for bad motherboard :/. I'm not saying it doesn't happen. Don't work with pcs much do you? When capacitors blow, esp around the processor, it will produce some interesting results from random blue screens to being very slow to respond, to not coming on at all. If you are on a computer and it feels like someone turned on a heater under the desk, also with slow or no response and blue screens, I would be you a bag of donuts that the caps are done and the cause of your issues....If you went to reinstall the os, it may not even install (it would bomb constantly during the install process). Dell sff's are good for that. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595143989 Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Supervisor Posted September 4, 2012 Supervisor Share Posted September 4, 2012 Hello, It has been a while since I have seen any motherboards with bad capacitors but when I did, they were usually around the ATX power connector or the AGP slot. Residue varied in color from red to brown to black. Regards, Aryeh Goretsky Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595146127 Share on other sites More sharing options...
f0rk_b0mb Posted September 4, 2012 Share Posted September 4, 2012 Umm...Just took a second look at my above post: My joints are never perfect. LOL! Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/#findComment-595146583 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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