Capacitors with white crud on top

[Bartender]

Hi, guys -
Visiting this website has been a real eye-opener. I try to keep up on computer issues via magazines, websites, etc. but never realized that failing capacitors can create such trouble. A few months ago a surplus Gateway I had quit. It appeared to have no power, so I swapped a known good psu and immediately got a weird whine coming out of the PSU and saw smoke coming from the RAM. Unplugged it real quick, but the RAM got hot enuf to bubble the labels, just like the pictures I saw at Badcaps. I had no idea what had happened, but now I'll go back and take a close look at the caps on the MB.
O.K., back to the reason for writing in the first place....
I went over to a co-worker's house to help him install a DVD burner. I noticed that all the capacitors mounted near the CPU socket (P4, OEM HSF, sorry don't remember the speed but it's a coupla years old) had a small crust of white crud on the tops of the caps. The caps further from the CPU didn't appear to have the same damage. I didn't notice bulging, but hadn't visited this website so didn't know what to look for.
Does this mean that the caps are bad, and failure could be imminent?

[Chris1992]

Re: Capacitors with white crud on top

Yup, the caps are bad and failure can be imminent.

[einhverfr]

Re: Capacitors with white crud on top

This might indicate a leak of an electrolyte mixture on the top. I assume that different brands use different mixtures. So it would be worthwhile getting this replaced.