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Illicit Leaky Capacitors Killing Motherboards
mcd7756 writes "The IEEE Spectrum magazine has an article about how capacitors made with a stolen formula for the electrolyte are leaking and causing motherboards to fail. Some computer manufacturers are admitting to the problem; others are hiding it."
That was fun, all Abit. The caps develop a bulge
:-)
on top and after a while they leak the stuff out.
Spontaneous reboots, blue screens and all sorts of fun.
I'm just glad it wasn't me doing the replacing
To quote: "The large volumes of passive content in any electronic device means that you have that many more chances for a product to fail". I can see that motherboards that pop are going to be a major pain in the backside, particularly for us small system builders, but what other devices use these suspect capacitors? aircraft? cars? lifts? phones? routers? Anyone care to speculate?
From the article:
"Zogbi cites tests by Japanese manufacturers that indicate the capacitor's lifetimes are half or less of the 4000 hours of continuous ripple current they are rated for."
4000 hours for the good capacitors? That's like 6 months of continuous usage. Surely shome mistake?
The batch of SunRay 1 terminals (first generation?) that Sun recalled due to a power supply problem have the faulty capacitors. They were the same brand of capacitors as some dual-CPU MSI motherboards we had that died.
At the time, I also wondered what other devices may have these faulty aluminium electrolytic capacitors, but it appears the answer is not many; probably due to their cost, they seem to be restricted to high frequency switched mode power supplies.
This is old news! (Sep. 2002) I submitted this to /. some time ago, but it was rejected...WTF?
Links to original (and informative) articles are Faulty capacitors and Passive Component Industry report.
In fairness most of the products affected carry a "Made in Tiawan" warning!
My older ABit board suffered the same fate a few days ago. I took a pic here.
I've got replacment capacators here now, gonna attempt a repair later today. I've never tried to fix a motherboard before, so should be fun!
Coca-cola's formula still hasn't been figured out last I checked. Its protected solely as a trade secret, which means anyone who could figure it out by reverse-engineering a can of soda could legally sell an identical soda. I think that would be a little more popular target for a chemical analysis.
Even if you can both figure out what's in Coke and get the proportions right, you still have to figure out a cost-effective manufacturing process which produces that result.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
Coca-cola's formula still hasn't been figured out last I checked.
...or, instead of reverse engineering Coke, you could just drink a soda that tastes better.
Coke's real secret formula has nothing to do with any chemistry or anything that goes into the can. It has everything to do with what goes on the can, on the billboards, on the TV commercials, in the product placement, and in the minds of consumers. Coke's success is all about marketing, not about the product.
-Rob
My old EP-8KTA+ suffered from this problem. I gave it to a friend who's an electronics freak and he checked out out.. said he's gonna try and replace the capacitors. I wonder if he'll get it to work again.
The effects were that first, I couldn't get it to run with my old power supply. Somehow the mainboard failed to switch it on. I had to use one that would switch on when u switched the power button on the backside. Then it just failed to work alltogether...Ah well.
If a train station is a place where a train stops, what's a workstation?
I had a simalar experience with Compaq. It was on an older system (PII/300mhz) a few years back. I was on my computer one night, about to call it quits and I hear a loud POP! About 20 seconds later the computer crashed and went black. It did that often though, so I didn't think anything oddly of it. I assumed the pop was a tree branch or something.
So I come back the next day to turn on the computer. Nothing. It's dead Jim. So of course I open it up to see what's wrong. When I open it up, I saw the outside casing of a capacitor laying on the floor of the case, and noticed an odd indention in the case. Aparently a capcitor near the CPU on the MOBO just blew itself off the night before and put a dent in the case! I found on the MOBO where the capacitor was, and it had greatly expanded.
Now it get funny. So I call compaq, thinking that I can ask for a new capacitor, because it seemed to be an odd one that I didn't have a spare of. I call up and I say, I need to get a new part for my motherboard. He asks me what the problem is, not listening to my question. I said the computer won't turn on because of a problem with the MOBO. He took that as a cue to run me through making sure all the cables were plugged in, etc... At one point he thought I had it in sleep mode. Moron.
Anyway, he is like, well I want you to do this- and I said "well I can't really do that I know the problem is a capacitor on the motherboard gone bad". He tells me to hit the sleep button again, making sure everything is plugged in. I say I can't do that because the computer is taken apart on my desk. (to get to anything on those you had to take half of the Chasis apart to get to the mobo, which was now laying on the desk). He seemed rather taken back by the fact that I had even opened up the case, let alone taken out the mobo.
So he says to me "didn't you see the warrentee stickers" I said yea, but how else was I supposed to put in a Voodoo 2 instead of your crappy Rage card, and more memory. He seemed to think I was supposed to send it in for that. Anyway, he wouldn't send me a capacitor. And told me to get my warrenty stuff in order and then call them.
Morons at compaq. When I build systems for people, I expect them to take them apart. It's not like I overclocked it or anything.
Tibbon
tibbon.com
The early graphite-colored AirPort Base Stations had a very widespread nasty problem of failing because of two capacitors failing - two Lelon capacitors. Apple acknowledged the problem within a certain serial number range (PW940XXXXXXX through PW952XXXXXX), and fixed the problem for customers out of warranty. However, Apple continued using the same apparently-faulty Lelon caps, and graphite base stations continute to fail. All that's needed is to replace these two capacitors; see this site for background information, and a picture of the Lelon capacitor compared to others. It's significantly smaller, considering the voltage and capacitance ratings, than other similar capacitors. Since it's a Lelon (one of the brands mentioned in the article), and because one of the supposed benefits of the secret electrolyte was to be able to make the caps smaller, it now seems clear what went on here. Apple hasn't made the graphite base stations for some time now, but they kept using the same faulty Lelon caps until the very end.
For anyone who wants to repair their base station - the symptom is all red lights, continuing to power cycle, and perhaps even a faint hissing noise coming from the failed capacitors - I recommend Radio Shack 35V 220uF electrolytics (272-1029). They're small enough that the base station doesn't have to be modified (the hardest part of some of the suggested replacements), and seem to work fine. I've replaced a few with these now, and they've all been working like a charm.
A couple of years ago when i used to work on tech support for Packard Bell machines, we started getting people phoning up saying "my computer smells of fish" - most of them also complained that their computer was no longer working. Turned out the capacitors on the power supply were leaking - and for some reason the electrolyte smelled of fish.
I think maybe they just used cod liver oil or something.
--
cHris
In an editorial I read lately an interesting statistic was mentioned - A survey of Americans showed that 19% thought that they were in the top 1% income bracket. Not only that but a further 15% thought they would be in the next year.
Another fun quote (so that none of this comment is original material) is from Alexis de Tocqueville:
"The American Republic will endure until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money."
Now the Bush crew are doing one better: bribing the people with visions of their own money while giving the majority of it to that almost-mythical richest 1%!
Or at least that's how I feel about it.
Wah!