Busted caps
MrNiceGuy
Denmark
Sorry for the pun, and sorry if this should probably be in a more suited section, but I like it better here 
Anyway, I noticed my old P4 folder system wasn't booting (I got the hint when my dad came knocking on my door in the morning, panicking cause it wouldn't boot at all at home).
So, I figured it would be the old Codegen 300W PSU that had finally given up, as I've experienced others have done without notice.
After the normal check-up of faulty connections and such, I tried it, just to be sure. Sure enough, nothing happened. No fans, no beeps, lights or anything came on.
I then chucked a nice and stable 340W Chieftec PSU in and tried it; nothing.
Weird. I know that PSU is in fine working condition cause it powers another folder 24/7 and have done so for years.
Disconnected it again, double-checked all connections, when I laid my eyes on something weird..
http://mng.frac.dk/caps.jpg
(largish pic to show the detail, hope the host don't break now)
They're not supposed to look like that, are they now?
It's the best picture I could take of them, but there's some brown stains on top, and it's noticeably bulging upwards.
I Google'd around a bit and it looked like a classic example of soon-to-be-dead capacitors, screwing up the system.
My dad also mentioned it had done random shutdowns earlier, and since I know every bit of hardware in that computer works fine together, I'm starting to believe the caps to be the culprit.
Has anyone else experienced something like this, and can agree with my conclusion so far?
The motherboard in question is an old el cheapo ASUS P4B266-SE, bought in 2001-2002 or so.
Anyway, I noticed my old P4 folder system wasn't booting (I got the hint when my dad came knocking on my door in the morning, panicking cause it wouldn't boot at all at home).
So, I figured it would be the old Codegen 300W PSU that had finally given up, as I've experienced others have done without notice.
After the normal check-up of faulty connections and such, I tried it, just to be sure. Sure enough, nothing happened. No fans, no beeps, lights or anything came on.
I then chucked a nice and stable 340W Chieftec PSU in and tried it; nothing.
Weird. I know that PSU is in fine working condition cause it powers another folder 24/7 and have done so for years.
Disconnected it again, double-checked all connections, when I laid my eyes on something weird..
http://mng.frac.dk/caps.jpg
(largish pic to show the detail, hope the host don't break now)
They're not supposed to look like that, are they now?
It's the best picture I could take of them, but there's some brown stains on top, and it's noticeably bulging upwards.
I Google'd around a bit and it looked like a classic example of soon-to-be-dead capacitors, screwing up the system.
My dad also mentioned it had done random shutdowns earlier, and since I know every bit of hardware in that computer works fine together, I'm starting to believe the caps to be the culprit.
Has anyone else experienced something like this, and can agree with my conclusion so far?
The motherboard in question is an old el cheapo ASUS P4B266-SE, bought in 2001-2002 or so.
0
Comments
Time to shop the reburbs at Newegg and get another board for your Dad.
And yes, it's not uncommon for boards of that manufacturing timeframe to have bad caps. Some enterprising Chinese types stole the electrolyte formula from the Japanese, but they didn't quite get the formula right. The electrolyte gives off hydrogen gas (I believe) which swells and bursts the caps.
Though, some say it's just a warning sign when they look like that, others say they're dead now. Now I'm no electrical engineer, but if they swell up because of hydrogen gas build-up, I take it that's bad
Thanks for the reply, just wanted to be sure I wasn't being paranoid.
I was reading today though at the inquirer and Newegg is supposed to be opening up in the UK. The article says that they already have a presense in France, so you might check that out.