BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

[ldd7814]

Hello,

I built a PC around 2005 for music recording and have used it extensively since then. It has never been connected to the internet and I rarely install new software on it. I configured it for music back on 2005 and left it be! (if it aint broke..)

So this past Saturday, it started BSOD (Windows XP, SP3) at random times. It would boot up fine and then suddenly blue screen. So I assumed a hardware failure given the information above. I went through the standard troubleshooting steps (replaced/moved around RAM, swapped video cards, disconnected all IDE except for main sata HDD, removed soundcard) all to no avail.

Finally, I inspected my mobo and found 7 bulging, leaky caps. Motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939. Does this sound like it could be the problem? Worth trying to replace the caps?

Thanks!

[Hemingray]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

Yep, bulging caps = bad caps.

Pics would be good here. If some are bulging, all the others like it are likely also bad, best to replace them all at once. Some of the others can suggest a good capacitor type to replace em all with.

[Rulycat]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

Some sources suggest they're Sanyo:
http://ee.gigabyte.com/products/page/mb/ga-k8nsc-939/

Others suggest perhaps they switched to KZG or similar:
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813128286

[ldd7814]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

Thank you for the replies Hemingray and Rulycat.

I was able to read the numbers off the capacitors and was hoping to get recommendations on replacements:

• 3300 uF
• KZG
• 6.3V
• (M)105C
• 4(T)
• DD

Some of them actually had slightly different info:

• Some had 5(T) instead of 4(T)
• Some had 2D, DE, or 20 instead of DD

What is 4(T) vs. 5(T)? and the different two letter codes?

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

[Hemingray]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

You can use Rubycon MBZ/MCZ, Panasonic FC, or Nichicon HM/HN.

[mariushm]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

Rubycon MBZ would be kind of hard to find.

Panasonic FC might be a bit too low spec to replace those KZG.
The FM series from Panasonic is better but the capacitors are of larger diameter.
The FR series is meant to be a replacement for FM and it's thinner but taller than FM, which works great in your case. For anything under 1200-1500uF, the FR specs are worse than FM but for anything over they're much better. So again, it works great in your case.

Nichicon HM/HN are ok but you might be lucky to find HZ which is even better.

kzg: 3300uF 10x25 0.012 ohm 2800mA

hm: 3300uF 10x25 0.012 ohm 2800mA
hn: 3300uF 10x25 0.009 ohm 3190mA
hz: 3300uF 10x25 0.0065 ohm 4690mA

rubycon zlg: 3300uF @10v 12.5x25 0.013 2900mA https://cdn.badcaps-static.com/pdfs/...3bb75aa682.pdf

fc: 3300uF 12.5x20 0.038 ohm 1655mA (too low)
fm: 3300uF 12.5x20 0.018 ohm 2600mA (getting closer)

fr: 3300 @ 10v 12.5x20 0.018ohm 2600mA still not quite there
fr: 3300 @ 16v 12.5x30 0.013ohm 3630mA just right

The impedance must be lower or equal than what you initially had, the mA value should be equal or higher.

So as you can see from the values, HM, HN, HZ are direct replacement... diameter fits, impedance and ripple are almost if not identical.

If you can fit 12.5mm diameter caps in there, Rubycon ZLG also works, even though it's rated for 10v. Voltage doesn't matter as long as it's higher or equal than 6.3v

Panasonic FC as you can see is not really good enough, FM is close enough to say you can safely use it if you can fit it there.
But if you can fit 12.5mm diameter caps and the cpu fan doesn't block 30mm tall capacitors, you can safely go with FR 3300@16v which has better specs than KZG 3300uF 6.3v and furthermore, it's rated for 10.000 hours @ 105c - the Nichicon caps are only rated for about 4-6k hours.

You can get the Nichicon and Panasonic capacitors from Digikey.com or maybe from this site's store. Rubycon you can find on newark.com (besides the nichicon and panasonic)

[ldd7814]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

Thank you so much, mariushm.

I ended up finding the Nichicon HZ on digikey. 3300uF, 6.3v.

Thanks again all!

[mach03]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

I have a Gigabyte ga-k8nsc-939 motherboard that I use for video editing.
Overtime this system became more and more unstable ("safely removing" USB stick was a guaranteed freeze).
Thanks to this post I did identify 7 bad caps, ordered replacement on DigiKey (Nichicon HZ) and after replacement the system is very stable again.

Thank you again all contributors

[Per Hansson]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

Great work and welcome to Badcaps!
P.S: We love pics of stuff that has been repaired

[nsb_]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

Hello,
I have a Gigabyte k8nsc-939 mainboard too with some kind of unstability problems.

The Gigabyte k8nsc-939 has some bulging capacitors:

Chemi-con KZG 3300uF 6.3V 12mOhm 2800mA (10mm diameter)

and also a Gigabyte 8PE667 with:

Sanyo WG 1500uF 16V 13mOhm 2550mA (10mm diameter)

Could I safely switch from the Chemi-con KZG to :

Panasonic FR 3300uF 16v 13mOhm 3630mA (12.5mm diameter) ?

or from the Sanyo WG 1500uF 16V to :

Panasonic FM 1500uF 16V 18mOhm 2600mA (12.5mm diameter) or

Panasonic FM 1500uF 25V 15mOhm 3190mA (12.5mm diameter) ? Which would be better choice of this last?

Thanks..

[Uranium-235]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

bulging sanyos? thats rare. A little tight depending on how close they are together (increase from 10mm to 12.5)

the 16v is fine, as long as the impedance is lower and mA s higher. rest looks good

[stj]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

always check inside your psu when the mobo caps fail.

[Topcat]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

bulging sanyos? thats rare.

I know, right? Got a MSI K9MM-V in today with a few bulging WF-series Sanyo's. Rare indeed.

[Uranium-235]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

I know, right? Got a MSI K9MM-V in today with a few bulging WF-series Sanyo's. Rare indeed.

and the ones beyond the regs are fine. might be PSU related in this case as mentioned above

god who would want to fix such an old mobo. most the CPU's it can take are beaten by $59 haswell chips

scratch that, make it a skylake (for W7 compatibility), $42, double power. Most boards with decent polymer caps (and yeah cheap ones with apaq polys)

[Topcat]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

^
Corporate client with software married to the MAC address. These boards are irreplaceable to them.

[Uranium-235]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

windows software? is he aware most drivers can override the mac address of the onboard mac

[stj]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

not if the software protection is written properly,
it will pull the mac from the bios or internal serial bus.

[Agent24]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

^
Corporate client with software married to the MAC address. These boards are irreplaceable to them.

Well, they're not going to live forever... then what?

[stj]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

copy the mac over or hack the software?
i'm assuming the software is obsolete or the company that wrote it is toast.

[Topcat]

Re: BSOD and Gigabyte Capacitors

windows software? is he aware most drivers can override the mac address of the onboard mac

I really don't know. I was just told there's specific software bound to MAC addresses...and since I don't service anything beyond the motherboard, I asked no more.

Well, they're not going to live forever... then what?

Not really my problem....but as long as I can recap them, I'm glad to take their money!