Surface mount capacitor on my desktop just exploded.

[lookimback]

I'm not sure who jumped higher, me or the cat, but it was loud as hell. I guess it's time to recap it.

Edit: It's through hole not surface mount.

[lookimback]

Probably a good thing I decided to change the other three which were parallel with the one that blew up. The worst was over 40 ohms esr. The other two were 10 and 6 ohms. Capacitance were around 190uf. I didn't have any 270uf caps, so I used two 220uf and two 330uf. I figured since they were all parallel, it should work if I just got the total capacitance close to what it originally was. I'll order caps from Digikey for the entire board later in the week. For now, I just need it to work, and so far it is.

[Clutchbox]

Fyi, the failed polymer caps are Elite RP series.

Polymer failures are rare, so i don't put much trust in Elite polymer caps if i see them in any device.

[lookimback]

Originally Posted by Clutchbox

Fyi, the failed polymer caps are Elite RP series.

Polymer failures are rare, so i don't put much trust in Elite polymer caps if i see them in any device.

Thank you. The machine is probably 10 years old. If I recall correct, the old HD had 46,000 hours on it. That was replaced a couple years ago with an SSD. It's a Digital Cafe IC780M-A v2.0 motherboard with an AMD Phenom 9850 Black Edition CPU. I bought it non-working for $100 a few years ago from a friend who garbage picked it. Replaced a couple bad caps in the PSU and that was fine for another two years, then I replaced it with a Corsair RM850X just because I got tired of it sounding like a jet engine in my office. The new PSU is rated about 35% higher than the system needs, and the fan never runs. I use it as a network server and it hosts my self-written business software and database. It serves it's purpose, and though it's probably slow by today's standards, it's more than sufficient for my needs. So, if I decide to recap the entire board, should I replace polymer caps with polymer caps? Or are regular aluminum electrolytics OK. For now, I just used some aluminum electrolytics which I had, and it's working. I may just buy a new motherboard and reuse everything else, but it works, so it doesn't make much sense at this point.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

depends on how long more do u wanna continue using the system for. if u still wanna use it till it drops then recap with japanese polymers like panasonic oscon sepc series or chemicon npcap psc series.

[lookimback]

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

depends on how long more do u wanna continue using the system for. if u still wanna use it till it drops then recap with japanese polymers like panasonic oscon sepc series or chemicon npcap psc series.

If I can get another year out of it I'll probably just replace it. I think since it's working, I'll just order the 4 polymers which went bad so I'll have them if the ones I used fail.

[momaka]

Wow, I've heard of polymer caps failing infrequently before, but never so dramatic like this. Looks like the common notion that polymer caps even from crap manufacturers are OK must not be true. So I guess back it is to the known good Japanese brands, even for polymers.

Then again, since you say the new PSU's fan never runs due to it not being loaded enough, I wonder if those polymer caps were running too hot. Those 1st gen quad-core Phenoms are known to push out a lot of heat - even sitting idle. Making sure the CPU VRM area (and whole motherboard in the PC) stay cool would be something to check for. As much as people praise PSUs that run passively cooled, I don't think they are suitable for every PC. Some cases simply rely on the PSU and rear exhaust fan to keep the system cool inside.

[lookimback]

Originally Posted by momaka

Wow, I've heard of polymer caps failing infrequently before, but never so dramatic like this. Looks like the common notion that polymer caps even from crap manufacturers are OK must not be true. So I guess back it is to the known good Japanese brands, even for polymers.

Then again, since you say the new PSU's fan never runs due to it not being loaded enough, I wonder if those polymer caps were running too hot. Those 1st gen quad-core Phenoms are known to push out a lot of heat - even sitting idle. Making sure the CPU VRM area (and whole motherboard in the PC) stay cool would be something to check for. As much as people praise PSUs that run passively cooled, I don't think they are suitable for every PC. Some cases simply rely on the PSU and rear exhaust fan to keep the system cool inside.

The temp virtually anywhere on the board is about 120°F. Directly under the CPU it's about 144°F. I don't actually have a rear case fan running either, but I keep the side panel off. That may be a contributing factor. The bearings began squealing about a year ago and I unplugged it and left the side off. Kind of forgot about it until just now. Can you or anyone else recommend a 92mm fan (bolt pattern is about 115mm diagonally). It has 3 wires. I don't care about cost, I just want it silent.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by lookimback

The temp virtually anywhere on the board is about 120°F. Directly under the CPU it's about 144°F.

Ouch!
That is very hot, especially the CPU VRM at 144°F (62.2°C)! That means the CPU could be running even hotter. If it's not, then your monitoring software might be reporting incorrectly (which IMO is often the case with AM2 and newer AMD CPUs - they seem to under-report temperatures for some reason, though it also seems motherboard-dependent.)

If you have fan control options in BIOS, you might want to turn up the CPU fan a bit. While polymer caps are supposed to be much tougher than electrolytic ones, those high CPU VRM temperatures still aren't good for them in the long run.

Originally Posted by lookimback

Can you or anyone else recommend a 92mm fan (bolt pattern is about 115mm diagonally). It has 3 wires. I don't care about cost, I just want it silent.

Hmm. Not sure, since 92 mm fans are a bit odd-ball, in a sense that most computers stores don't usually have many choices (if any) available, unlike 120 mm and 140 mm fans, which you can find plenty of high quality ones that are silent.

With that said, you could check Digikey or Mouser. I've bought name-brand replacement 80 mm ball bearing fans from there (San Ace, Panaflo, Nidec, etc.) and you can check their data sheets to see how loud they are and how much air they push. Ball bearing ones will give you longer life but are usually louder. Perhaps look for a good name-brand sleeve bearing fan.

[SluggerB]

Originally Posted by lookimback

Can you or anyone else recommend a 92mm fan (bolt pattern is about 115mm diagonally). It has 3 wires. I don't care about cost, I just want it silent.

I like SilenX fans. Amazon sells them

[diif]

Noctua made a 92mm fan. https://noctua.at/en/nf-a9-pwm

[Per Hansson]

Fan has already been bought
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=92525