Mallory?
I have a bag full of Mallory SEK series caps in 4.7uF and 10uF, both 50v rated. Would these be ok to repopulate a pair of currently non-functional soundcards? Are these of low enough ESR?
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Re: Mallory?
ESR doesn't matter much in soundcards, except perhaps for the bypass caps of the output power amp, if there's one on the soundcard. But those caps are probably anywhere from 100-1000uF.
Every other small cap can be safely replaced by just about any brand/series - you can use the Mallory caps that you have without problems. Historically, Elna is the most reputed for linear, small-signal audio reproduction in pre-amps, mixers, and small-signal stages. -
Re: Mallory?
Thanks, I'll break out my soldering iron now!
Sort of related - I have an old POS Albatron motherboard I've been using as a test piece for recapping. If some of the caps aren't low ESR types, what kind of problems might I expect? Just general flakiness?Comment
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Re: Mallory?
you could have similar symptoms to having badcaps.
really depends on their specs.
some possibility to use them ok in the lower half of the board. depends again on their specs
albatron not pos though
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1749
after recapping i like
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Re: Mallory?
Well, the Albatron board I have *is* a POS.
It's a KX400-8x which has given me no end of grief. Try downloading a BIOS for this board from Albatron's website. The version numbers are so screwed up I have no idea which one is correct. I've tried them all, the board rejects all of them.
Being the first board I've recapped I'm bound to have done something wrong. The 3 large caps are now United Chemi-Con LXY series. The rest I replaced with Illinois Capacitor KXM series low-ESR though I *may* have used a couple which weren't of a low-ESR series. Maybe that's the problem.
When I bought the board new it worked for about 2 weeks before developing a bizarre problem at POST. What annoys me most is the "innovative" feature where it tries to tell you over the PC speaker what the error is - in a garbled computer voice that sounds like the teacher from Charlie Brown. Wa wo wa waaa wa wo. Huh? Just give me some beeps dammit.
The board was originally loaded with craptastic GSC's. All of the 1000uF 6.3v caps had popped. I'd relegated it to junk status until recently when it became my recap practice board. And whaddaya know? It posted! Of course it sporadically complains that there is no CPU fan. Sometimes it resets the BIOS to defaults. Other times it either has a blank screen when accessing the BIOS and other times it just locks up at the config screen. But it will boot to a floppy and run HDD diagnostics without any trouble. I've tried clearing the CMOS and even replaced the battery - no luck. Reflashing the BIOS has proved impossible because of the reason I outlined above. It just won't take it.
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Re: Mallory?
There are probably some small bad caps left near the Southbridge/CMOS section. Try recapping those if you have the patience to debug further. If there's any cap that bypasses the +3V CMOS battery, it should be a low-leakage type. Check all the 1N4148-type diodes near the CMOS section.Comment
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Re: Mallory?
I'm going to recap it *again* with Nichicon HE's when my order from Mouser comes through. They're backordered on the 1000uF 10v and 100uF 25v until the end of January! Ugh. I just have to be patient and just recap with the pieces that I have right now. I'll have to wait on the rest of the caps when they come in. I think the problem is that I used some IC CKE series caps where I shouldn't have. I don't think they're low-esr, or at least not low enough.
Is UCC LXY series ok for the large 3300uF caps near the processor? Any experience with the IC KXM's?Comment
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