This is a Small Form-Factor (about 10"(d)x9"(w)x3"(h)) machine with an all-in-one board made by FIC. It was working fine for a long time, then one day it started powering off within a minute of turning on. On opening it up i found a bunch of Choyo and I.Q. capacitors, none actually bulging. I took the chance and recapped it with a mix of Panasonic and Rubycon - it appears to have solved the problem for now; however, there are still a couple of 330/25 I.Q.s and whole lot of small (22-220uF) electrolytics which I didn't bother changing.
HP apparently replaces the board, even out-of-warranty, if there's a bulging capacitor - in my case, there was no bulging capacitor, so I recapped it myself. I wouldn't recommend recapping it unless there's no other alternative - it takes a long time, and some of the pins are near fine traces or on small isolated pads surrounded by traces or other power lands. You'll need a fine eye, a steady hand, good tools and a lot of patience to do this one. One thing that helps is that FIC used outlines that permit using either an 8mm or 10mm cap in some of the locations - this gives a wider range of capacitor choices, especially as there is height restriction due to the heat-sink and CDROM drive at 5 locations. All the 10v caps can be safely replaced by 6.3v; but the 6 x 1000/25 caps near the power section need to be 25v rated, since they filter the external power supply (19v, 3.16A).
I also flipped the fan so that it draws air into the case from the top, through a dust-filter, rather than expelling it - this should help in controlling the dust, and indirectly, the heat.
The (blurry) picture shows the unit after recapping:
HP apparently replaces the board, even out-of-warranty, if there's a bulging capacitor - in my case, there was no bulging capacitor, so I recapped it myself. I wouldn't recommend recapping it unless there's no other alternative - it takes a long time, and some of the pins are near fine traces or on small isolated pads surrounded by traces or other power lands. You'll need a fine eye, a steady hand, good tools and a lot of patience to do this one. One thing that helps is that FIC used outlines that permit using either an 8mm or 10mm cap in some of the locations - this gives a wider range of capacitor choices, especially as there is height restriction due to the heat-sink and CDROM drive at 5 locations. All the 10v caps can be safely replaced by 6.3v; but the 6 x 1000/25 caps near the power section need to be 25v rated, since they filter the external power supply (19v, 3.16A).
I also flipped the fan so that it draws air into the case from the top, through a dust-filter, rather than expelling it - this should help in controlling the dust, and indirectly, the heat.
The (blurry) picture shows the unit after recapping:
Attached Files
), but can't find anything like a 1000/25 at 10mm diameter - they're packed in very tightly in this small form factor case... I don't think I can shoehorn 12.5 or 15mm caps. What have you used for this bank of caps?
Comment