Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte (More info?)

I really don't know where to post this, because you will see it
applies to all mobos that use Taiwan caps, capacitors for short.

I have a Gigabyte GA-7VAXP Rev. 1 mobo, I usually do an inspection and
a 'dust down' at various intervals, this time I noticed one cap has a
swollen top, these are the weak point of the casing for if there were
no 'vent's the darn thing would explode like a firecraker, leaving
silver foil all over the mobo which could cause short circuiting and
complete damage, the gunge they leave behind is very corrosive and
will 'rot' the copper tracks on the mobo in no time.

Should I leave it or change it, well, I decided to change it - just to
be on the safe side and to save possibility of further damage, you do
really need good soldering practice and a little knowledge to do this
operation, the mobo was working fine but this time I felt "if it ain't
broke I had to fix it" or damage could easily have resulted at any
time.

The are two identical caps near the yellow socket, only one was
affected, they are green and are 1200uF 6.3 Vdc, whatever you do
computers must use capacitors with low ESR and 105 deg C temperature
rating or greater, standard components could literally explode at
'switch on'.

The type I used are Panasonic 1200uF 10V dc, these are low ESR and
rated at 105 deg C. Part # EEU-FCA122, if you can get better ones use
them.

Now I diverse:
I did say this applies to all mobos...indeed it does as you will se if
you follow the links given, all capacitors made in Taiwan are suspect
and this applies to all mobos, apparently the worst ones reading the
Web are Abit which appears to stick out like a sore thumb.

They type in question with the Gigabyte are the GSC green ones, note
this is not saying all GSC types are bad, in this board the two to
look for are the two green ones near the yellow socket and the two
near the ram chips and CPU, this is the version 1 mobo I refer to
here.

The reason for these Taiwan bad caps is purely company Espoinage..!

http://www.niccomp.com/taiwanlowesr.htm

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,939887,00.asp

http://home.earthlink.net/~doniteli/index27.htm

Enjoy reading.... If you want more do a Google, for motherboard and
bad capacitors.

Davy

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte (More info?)

Davy wrote:
> -----snip-------
>
> Now I diverse:
> I did say this applies to all mobos...indeed it does as you will se if
> you follow the links given, all capacitors made in Taiwan are suspect
> and this applies to all mobos, apparently the worst ones reading the
> Web are Abit which appears to stick out like a sore thumb.
>
> They type in question with the Gigabyte are the GSC green ones, note
> this is not saying all GSC types are bad, in this board the two to
> look for are the two green ones near the yellow socket and the two
> near the ram chips and CPU, this is the version 1 mobo I refer to
> here.
>
> The reason for these Taiwan bad caps is purely company Espoinage..!
>
> http://www.niccomp.com/taiwanlowesr.htm
>
> http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,939887,00.asp
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~doniteli/index27.htm
>
> Enjoy reading.... If you want more do a Google, for motherboard and
> bad capacitors.
>
> Davy
>

This problem is not limited to mobos. Its also been a problem with
certain budget vid card manufacturers...in my case PNY. I still have
older Geforce cards that have run fine for 5 years now but about 2 years
ago the cap problem started to appear on vid cards and mobos. This has
been going on for some time. Very annoying!

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte (More info?)

On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 11:02:17 -0600, Beowulf <edkchem@netscape.net>
wrote:

>> The reason for these Taiwan bad caps is purely company Espoinage..!
>>
>> http://www.niccomp.com/taiwanlowesr.htm
>>
>> http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,939887,00.asp
>>
>> http://home.earthlink.net/~doniteli/index27.htm
>>
>> Enjoy reading.... If you want more do a Google, for motherboard and
>> bad capacitors.
>>
>> Davy
>>
>
>This problem is not limited to mobos. Its also been a problem with
>certain budget vid card manufacturers...in my case PNY. I still have
>older Geforce cards that have run fine for 5 years now but about 2 years
>ago the cap problem started to appear on vid cards and mobos. This has
>been going on for some time. Very annoying!

Also some cheap power supplies are affected. I had one by Deer
(anything with animal name is bad anyway) and it had several caps on
DC side ready to burst like balloons. And the problem is not limited
to computer hardware, some customer electronics like video camera have
been bitten by these bad caps. Computer usually take the spotlight on
bad caps because they generally ran longer (often 24/7), ran hotter
and had more stress than other electronics.
--
When you hear the toilet flush, and hear the words "uh oh", it's already
too late. - by anonymous Mother in Austin, TX
To reply, replace digi.mon with phreaker.net

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte (More info?)

Thanks to Impmon & Beowulf.

Yes quite right I did say motherboards, I should have said 'ALL'
electronic devices and not only computers, not only power supplies as
mentioned but video recorders, TV's the list goes on.

It's not meant to cause panic and certainly don't apply to all
capacitors of one particular make, in my case (or should I say in my
computer case) on the Gigabyte 7VAXP rev 1.1 there are two green caps
on this mobo and are near the yellow socket, only one was affected and
they were the GSC types, in the later versions of the mobo they used
better caps (as I understand), on this mobo all the others are black
types.

The two in question are easy to replace with a reasonable amount of
soldering knowledge but you must use a temperature controlled
soldering iron with a fine tip.

Always pays to do a routine inspection with the power cord un-plugged
and a nice soft clean paintbrush.

Davy