Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

[Shocker]

I have a few Gigabyte motherboards that appear to have counterfeit Rubycons and Nichicons (from the factory, not recapped).

One of those boards had two types of Nichicon HM (1000uF 6.3V 8x11.5) with poor labelling. One has the name Nichicon printed unclearly, and on the other the fonts are wrong. In the VRM there are four OS-CON SEPC 560uF 4V 8x9 with flat, rubber bungs (I thought OS-CONs had epoxy bungs ) and also four Nichicon HN 680uF 4V 8x9 (with shiny green sleeves and black print) with bullseye bungs . It also had Rubycon MBZ 1500uF 16V with the series letters "MBZ" printed right next to each other instead of spaced further apart and the name Rubycon a bit small. I'm even more suspicious after seeing that the small 100uF 10V caps were SWCON and that when I removed the northbridge heatsink there was NOTHING to fill the gap.

Another board had MBZ with the same tightly grouped "MBZ" and small "Rubycon" in 1500uF 6.3V 8x20. The 3 in 6.3V is also a bit large. It also had 1000uF 6.3V 8x11.5 MBZ that looked real.

The Chemi-cons (KY, KZE and KZG) I saw on some of the boards looked fine. Still, Gigabyte

[Uranium-235]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

sounds like older boards. If they had MBZ's in them they probably are. MBZ is a discontinued series.

[Shocker]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

They are older models. Fake caps being used for only a short time could be reasonably blamed on stupidity. But the two boards I mentioned were made in 2006 and 2003 (if I'm correct, and respective to the order I mentioned them in the original post). And penny pinching is the ONLY reason why a manufacturer would want to leave out thermal material.

[kc8adu]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

the sepc i have on hand have flat bungs.
no bullseye.
green hn/hm sound fishy to me.
time for pics!
wonder if the whole board is a fake.

[lti]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...p?t=588&page=3

Look at the discussion starting at post 51. I am guessing that these are the same green caps.

[Shocker]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

Yep, they're the ones.

Even ASUS didn't stoop this low. Did they...

Can anyone suggest a motherboard manufacturer that doesn't use fake caps and isn't ASUS, AsRock, ECS, or PC Chips .

[Uranium-235]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

msi, gigabyte. really, they don't anymore. it was a my bad at the time but they usually use polymers now anyways,

[lti]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

Even ASUS didn't stoop this low. Did they...

They got close when they decided to sometimes use I.Q caps on their PII and earlier boards. I have seen Asus use either all Rubycon or all I.Q caps on the same model of board.

It seemed like everyone used I.Q caps back then. My old Compaq uses those caps, and they haven't needed to be replaced yet. That may be a record.

[c_hegge]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

Even ASUS didn't stoop this low. Did they...

They don't need to. Nobody bothers faking Apaq caps, since even the real ones aren't that good.

[Shocker]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

Why do people even buy cheap crap???

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

Smells like a motherboard from eBay.

[Shocker]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

Just got an old PC to take apart.

It has a Gigabyte motherboard (didn't check which model) and TWO Sanyo caps are bloated.
I checked in the PSU. No bloating.

Gigabyte

[c_hegge]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

^
Could it be a cooling problem?

[Shocker]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

I don't know.

The PSU caps are some mixed general purpose crap, including a Fuhjyyu . And I think the PSU would get hotter than the motherboard. The PSU fan is okay.

Neither of the bloated caps are around the CPU so I don't have any other conclusion.

By the way, the hard drive seems okay. It's a Samsung SP0411N (yes, I know you hate them) and has 0 bad sectors.

[Wester547]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

I don't like Samsung either, for my hapless experience with their disc drives and TVs, and I imagine their hard drives (and maybe even floppy drives?) aren't much better, though I admit they make decent headphones/earphones and RAM. While the PSU does get hotter than the motherboard (potentially, unless the PSU is exceptionally well cooled) capacitors are still stressed far more on a motherboard so they're more likely to fail there. Sad to know Gigabyte suck at motherboards as much as they do PSUs. I thought outside of the northbridge, nVidia, and capacitor problems, that the K8NGM2 series was half decent, along with some others (if I'm not mistaken that's by Gigabyte though I also see it entitled as MSI-7207).

Samsung hard drives also may not be fantastic but at least they run cool and quiet. And those Sanyos could be fake.

[Shocker]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

And those Sanyos could be fake.

DUH!!!!!

The Samsung drive I mentioned has a strange ultra-thin form factor, like Seagate U Series X (I have an ST310014ACE)/Barracuda 5400.1, all recent single-platter Seagate drives, and those infamous slimline Maxtors (Fireball 541DX/Fireball 3/DiamondMax Plus 8). Speaking of Maxtor, I have a 31536H2 (DiamondMax VL30). It actually supports AAM, but what's the point - this is "What drives you crazy." (A play on the Maxtor slogan)

As for that Samsung - cool? Actually seems warmer than some of my other drives (such as Barracuda 7200.7 40GB and 80GB). Quiet? Sure, but again I have drives that compare (ST340014A, WD800JD-00LSA0). So the key feature is the form factor.

[Wester547]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

In my experience, Samsungs run cool. Not cold (hard drives shouldn't run cold), but cool, or moderately warm at best. I've found the 7200.7s to run rather hot, but older 7200RPM drives (especially multiplatter ones) are just that - hot without decent cooling (unless it's near a vent). The older Seagates are indeed very quiet, especially with AAM enabled, though even they become noisy over time, at least for me (not in terms of bearings but the read/write heads becoming more unruly, especially with many power cycles). I'm surprised the KZGs on that Gigabyte were fine, along with the KZJs, but then heat is a huge factor in their eventual and indelible failure.

[Shocker]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

I'm surprised the KZGs on that Gigabyte were fine, along with the KZJs, but then heat is a huge factor in their eventual and indelible failure.

You mean in the first post??? I meant "fine" as in "not fake", not as in working properly. That said, from my experience they look OK much of the time. But then again, you know how KZGs are. Just because they look fine doesn't mean they are fine.

As for 7200.7 heat output, when I used a USB enclosure with ST380011A the temperature did fluctuate a lot. Sometimes barely warmer than the room, sometimes scorching. But that could have been caused by the enclosure too. You never know for sure. (And by the way the enclosure's dead and I don't have it anymore. I'm willing to bet the problem was bad caps. ) I don't have a complete comparison as I don't have an ST3160021A or any other 2-platter 7200.7, but the only drives I remember really getting toasty are 3/4 platter 7200.11s.

Also, I got a Maxtor 84320D4 recently. I didn't actually use it for anything. It gave out when I was performance testing it . And I think I know why. Stupid bastard is much lighter than ST380011A. I dismantled it. Yes, it did have two platters. And it's still so light??? No wonder it died .

[ben7]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

Got some pics?

I did see one board with sanyo WG on the VRM. ALL were bloated
They seemed as legit as can be! The board did have some heat discoloration, so that may have been the culprit.

[Wester547]

Re: Ouch!!! Gigabyte using FAKE CAPS?!

(And by the way the enclosure's dead and I don't have it anymore. I'm willing to bet the problem was bad caps. )

That's usually why controller boards on external hard drives die - cheap capacitors that get scant airflow if any atop that.

Also, I got a Maxtor 84320D4 recently. I didn't actually use it for anything. It gave out when I was performance testing it . And I think I know why. Stupid bastard is much lighter than ST380011A. I dismantled it. Yes, it did have two platters. And it's still so light??? No wonder it died .

Well, I've had notebook drives last longer than that and they're much, much lighter.. I'm willing to bet that it's because A) Maxtor drives ran hot and B) Maxtor drives are trash. And yes, heat could be the cause of that board's failure.