Leaking caps on SL-75FRN2-L

[Thedamned]

I got this board about a year ago and i noticed the caps next to my cpu and ram slots leaking about 7 months ago. So far ive had some instability problems. And also my cpu is really unstable (bsod's or just freeze with 3dmark03) when run at its default speed of 2000 (AMD 2400+). So i have to run it at 1500 (1800+) to use any graphics intense applications.

Here are my voltages running my cpu at 1800:

CPU: 1.648-1.644
3.3: 3.184
5: 5.134
12: 11.612
-12: 12.13 - 12.21
-5: 4.89 - 4.94
5VSB: 4.839
battery: 1.488 - 1.504

I dont know if these numbers are good or bad, heck i dont even know what the negative and VSB is for. So could someone help me out please?

But other than that the caps havent blown up or anything for 7 months. So id like to know what are the chances of something extreme happening? i.e caps blowing up or motherboard dying.

Heres a pic. Sorry about the bad quality, youll probably have to save it and zoom in to get a better view.

http://img194.echo.cx/img194/3572/leakingcaps6tk.jpg

[willawake]

welcome to the forums. i am afraid that those caps have to be replaced. They are already failing bad. If the cap is bulging this is considered to be a fail. The panasonic with the T at the top of the caps are gonna be fine probably. What series are they anyway. Everything else which is 1000uf and above must be replaced then all your voltage probs and instability will be solved. If you run memtest86 or Doc Memory you will get errors. you must see no errors for stability and no data corruption. After replacing the caps you will run these tests and have zero errors. If you need assistance please ask, we will help you every step of the way in the cap replacement procedure. where are you from? show some more pics please of the other areas.

[Thedamned]

Thanks for the info Willawake. Again sorry about the bad quality of the picture. Im currently living in Australia and ill try to post some pics of the caps next to the RAM slots as soon as i get some new batteries for my camera. Im not sure what series the caps are, how can you tell?

Funny thing is ive run memtest86 already but it didnt come up with any errors. Ive also run Seagate diagnostics for my hdd and that came up empty as well. And swapped out the PSU also. So the most probable cause for my bsods and instabilities is the motherboard like you said.

The only reason i havent replaced the caps is because im not too handy with a solder and dont know anyone who is. And i dont trust the local computer shops. Since my previous motherboard (MSI K7T Pro 2-A) failed because of bad caps (i didint know the cause at the time). When i took it into the shop that i bought it from for repairs the head technichan claimed there was nothing wrong with it and charged me $70 AUS for his time.

The second shop i took it to, the guy said the instabilities were because of a overheating cpu and sold me a heatsink for $60 AUS. I ended up spending alot of money trying to find the problem. I bought a new PSU, 3 diffterent RAM sticks, and new graphics card.

Only after i had given up on the board and bought the Soltek board i took the K7T to a third comptuer shop and straight away the technichan pointed out the exploded capacitors (all this time i thought they were suppose to be like that, i was a complete novice back then (and still am ) and yes you can laugh at me now). He was amazed that the board lasted as long as it did. But unfortantely for me (and him) the third compter shop has since gone out of business and ive lost all my faith and trust in the computer hardware industry.

To cut a long story short, i feel there is nothing i can do about the capacitors. The two choices are spend $70 to get them repaired or buy a new motherboard for $80. The motherboard ive been looking at is the Gigabyte 7NF-RZ, i just hope i dont get three bad cap motherboards in a row.

[willawake]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience with the computer shops. We hope you have better luck next time.

capacitor problems are a shit and can be mistaken for any other problem if the technician is not familiar with them. the industry is full of inexperienced techs, especially in the shops, the good guys move up to a better paid position in a company or whatever.

for a new board with good caps, Gigabyte, Albatron, Abit (you might be lucky) are good choices. if you want to be sure check which caps are on the board when you see it in the shop and then post here and we can tell you if the caps are from good manufacturers.

there are a few of your countrymen on this board, maybe one will recap your board for you for a fair price, otherwise perhaps one will buy the board in its current condition.

[willawake]

Dont forget that several people got a free capacitor kit when they contacted Soltek with their problems. Send an email to Jessica :

jessica@soltek.com.tw

otherwise contact Lydia from Soltek in the PC Perspective forums :
Motherboards / AMD Motherboards - Represented / Soltek
http://forums.pcper.com

[MD Willington]

What do they replace the caps with brandwise?

MD

[Neo2_000]

the industry is full of inexperienced techs, especially in the shops, the good guys move up to a better paid position in a company or whatever

Now I'm confused. I can fix a board but I reckon I'm too old and too late to entertain corporate aspirations so I guess that puts me somewhere in the middle.

I am lucky to work in good shop with some real good people and that makes a big difference to the customer. Too bad I'm in Broome or maybe I could help you out but I can offer some advice.

The gigabyte boards are a mixed bag as far as caps are concerned. They typically have some Ost brand caps amongst them. While these are certainly not the worst offenders, there are better caps around.

Unless you're considering an AMD system, I would have a look at an Intel board. You might pay a little more but they typically make a genuine commitment to good quality.

Neo down under.

[willawake]

sorry Neo, i could have wrote that better. i wish your shop was near us, our suppliers suck....

What do they replace the caps with brandwise?

hmmm the million dollar question indeed. I didnt find data on that. I guess someone will have to ask in the PC Perspective forums.

Actually it is interesting to find the PC Perspective forums cos there you can actually talk to representatives from Abit, Chaintech and Soltek. Add to that the official OCZ forum at bleeding edge also
http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=45
there must be more forums like those.

[MD Willington]

"MD,
The replacement capacitors are made from Japanese manufacturers."

she did not name them directly...

[Neo2_000]

I might just have to eat my words. Just got the latest Gigabyte board in at work - socket 775. Sanyo's and Nichicons right across the board so to speak. Things are looking up for Gigabyte. Could this herald a change for the future?

[MD Willington]

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.p...&page=19&pp=15

Most are Panasonic.

Thanks and regards,

[willawake]

sounds good even if you get only some panasonic. if you look at Thedamned' board can see some panny there so it figures. anyway i know of no other company offering free cap kits. i guess their new boards must be all jap caps?

[MD Willington]

I received some caps from Soltek. Is there such as Panasonic as a FJ? series??

The cover is black with a gold stripe has a circle with an M character in it and says 105°CFJ, that is on a 3300uF @6.3V

The others are similar, with the exception of one oddball brown with white stripe KZG

So what's the scoop on them.

MD

[willawake]

i didnt find FJ series even in discontinued products...

markings sound common to panny caps. look also for red stamp (date code?) and see that bung is advanced shape



post a pic?

[MD Willington]

Yup that's the same thing as you posted, except they are FJ not FC

[AK0R]

Haven't found any specs on them, but I did find this:
http://www.d1.dion.ne.jp/~beth/pc/ca...1105711143.htm
In particular, item 5 would seem to indicate they're even better than FC, while item 84 lists the FJ & FC along with several notoriously bad performers.

[willawake]

i bet they are asian market editions thats why we cant google it.

[yanz]

i found also some FJ in some radeon card (ati radeon 9600 iirc), and some very new p4 motherboard. i search the data for the FJ for weeks and find nothing...

this is interesting if the FJ are as good as FC or better, coz i found the FJ 1500uF 16v 10mm in some local shop. perfect replacement for some 16v caps (all good rubycon YXF, FC, elna RJJ, and chemiconLXY are 12.5mm for 16v) in PSU...

[yanz]

they are look exactly like the FC except they're are in black sleeves...

[willawake]

FC are available in both navy and black sleeves. they may have changed at one point to one of the colours.