mainboard worth being recapped?

[kai]

I am using a mainboard (MSI 7411-001 'Media Live Diva') which has a history of sudden failures but also has some unique features. The caps seem to be of lower quality but there are also reports of failures related to diodes. Regarding the overall qualitiy of the components - is it possible to evaluate by the attached pictures if it is worth trying to have the caps replaced by better ones?

[severach]

Re: mainboard worth being recapped?

The brown X vent caps look like TK ATWY 1000uf 6.3v. Caps C781, EC79, and the one below EC74 look bulged. EC64 may be bulged too and there could be others outside the pictures. EC79 is not in a high heat position so the entire batch must be defective. Boards with bad caps have a high success rate. Keep an eye on those UCC KZG 470uf 16v too. They aren't in high heat posititions but KZG doesn't need much to go bad.

The next problem is finding replacement heat sinks.

[Evil Lurker]

Re: mainboard worth being recapped?

The brown X vent caps look like TK ATWY 1000uf 6.3v. Caps C781, EC79, and the one below EC74 look bulged. EC64 may be bulged too and there could be others outside the pictures. EC79 is not in a high heat position so the entire batch must be defective. Boards with bad caps have a high success rate. Keep an eye on those UCC KZG 470uf 16v too. They aren't in high heat posititions but KZG doesn't need much to go bad.

The next problem is finding replacement heat sinks.

Pretty much what he said, but I'd like to add be VERY careful not to chip the edges of the dies on the north/south bridge. It don't take much at all to fubar those.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: mainboard worth being recapped?

If it at least runs and you don't have any cracked silicon [IC's, MOSFETs, etc.] then a recap should fix it right up.

Worth it or not is up to you to decide.
.

[kai]

Re: mainboard worth being recapped?

Thank you all for your answers. However I would also like to know if other components of this mainboard (like diodes, transistors etc.) might be the root cause of this issue. Could you have another look into this, please. It would help a lot in the decision making whether to replace the caps or not.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: mainboard worth being recapped?

Can be, but usually not. - That's not something that can guessed.

Visually Inspect them.
Look for cracks, pits, shinny spots. - Anything that indicates melting or arcing inside.
That can't tell you 100% they are okay but it can tell you 100% they are bad.
.
Short of that you need to actually test each of them which [since some need removed to test] can eat up FAR FAR more time [whole days] than just replacing the caps to see if it works.
I haven't seen a motherboard yet were a set of caps was worth a whole day of my time.
-
Also there is no practical way to test some IC chips [like the chipset] without the board running so actually testing all the other ICs STILL won't -guarantee- a working board after the recap.

Do the visual inspection.
If you don't see any that are obviously blown then try the recap.
.
.
.
For me the only exception to that is boards with the known defective nVidia chips.
If those don't actually run before a recap I won't even bother with them. - Trash bin.

I don't see those often enough to know which is which.
Have to ask someone else for that.
.

[kai]

Re: mainboard worth being recapped?

Ok, thank you once again. So I guess I'll give it a shot.