newbee question testing capps

[_bluedog_]

ive got a asrock 939dual-vsta mobo that would post when it felt like it
got fed up with it in the end and swapped it out with different 939 socket board (cant remember what).
ive been playing with it today testing the capps with an ohms meter
would i be correct in thinking the capps that sent the meter reading to the max and stayed there were good and the ones that maxed out and then dropped to the three quarter mark where bad
?bad? ones marked kze 16v 1200uf and ost 16v 470uf
thanks for your attention

[yyonline]

Re: newbee question testing capps

KZE is reliable and unlikely to fail. OST can be unreliable. Not the worst out there, but they do go bad occasionally.

You can't reliably test caps unless you first remove them from the board. The other components in the circuit can be affecting your reading. Furthermore, a standard multimeter isn't really useful for testing caps. You need something which can measure ESR, which is the critical attribute for computer grade capacitors.

[_bluedog_]

Re: newbee question testing capps

thanks for your reply just thought id have a play with multimeter i dont have an esr meter or access to one
but thank for your attention

[kaniki]

Re: newbee question testing capps

if you want to try something that is more accurate at testing caps, but not as expensive as a ESR meter.. try a meter that does just uf capacitance. that is mainly what i use. I had a friend that told me what he did and how he used a regular multi-meter and when he tested a couple bad caps that i had here, all with blown or expanding tops, and all tested bad on the uf meter, he said that 3 or the 5 caps tested bad on the regular multi-meter when he tested them.. but to the uf meter all 5 tested bad.. it is not as accurate or as good as an esr meter, but the uf capacitance meters are the next best thing and do a much much better job then a regular multimeter, and is much more reliable doing in circuit testing too.

[_bluedog_]

Re: newbee question testing capps

thanks Kaniki i can afford one of those ill pick one up tomorrow and give that a try
people are really helpful on this forum im glad i found it.

[MXM]

Re: newbee question testing capps

i cant get an esr meter as of today, and i rely on testing as kaniki advised, so i suggest you to get urself a decent dmm while trying to get the esr meter, and yeah remember the caps must be desoldered for more reliable results as for the caps you asked i dont know how reliable they are but if they arent giving the value as it should then i guess is best to replace.

peace.