Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

[RileyRR]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

Yes, the board was quite a few of the 85C caps. I was hoping not to have to touch them.... I'll reconsider those after I go over my re-cap. Is it okay to remove the caps I just put in and re-solder them in?

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

In theory no, but heating them up many times over isn't a grand idea.

I wouldn't completely remove them.
I would suck out the solder with some solder braid and resolder them without pulling them off the board.
.

[ajcox1234]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

Didn't look for any 80C caps, I just took the motherboard out, removed the battery, RAM, and CPU. Than I recapped it and put it back together and powered it up to see what goes boom, nothing did, I am trying this on the 3000. I'll only replace the blown caps.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

Only some bad caps bloat.

That's why if you don't have the test equipment it's best to replace any with known problems.
.
That's also why if you find one bloated you replace all of the same kind that boated.
.

[ajcox1234]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

There were no more HN's only one, There are some UCC SMG's and some Nichicon's that I think are VR's and there is one HM series. The rest are Rubycon and Sanyo (the Sanyo's are by the VRM and are polymer.)

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

If there is a bad date code on the HM it should go.
[I'm not reading back 65 posts to check if you said.]

The VR are 85C and known to go bad -> occasionally.
If any look bloated even slightly then replace them all.
[They don't bloat much because they are small to start with.]

The SMG are also 85C and could have the same problem as VR.
I haven't seen any bad SMG but that's probably because I just don't see them very often.
[For me] SMG don't show up anywhere near as often as VR.

~~~
The Lifespan of Electrolytics doubles for each 10C reduction in temp.
So taking a 105C and an 85C both rated for the same life [X-hrs] at their rated temp.

105C cap
@ 105C = X-hrs
@ 95C = 2X-hrs
@ 85C = 4X-hrs
@ 75C = 8X-hrs
@ 65C = 16X-hrs
@ 55C = 32X-hrs

85C cap
@ 85C = X-hrs
@ 75C = 2X-hrs
@ 65C = 4X-hrs
@ 55C = 8X-hrs

Look at both for each temp.
- At every actual temp the 85C caps last 25% as long as the 105C caps.
-
It's not like super common but it's also not too unusual to see 85C caps start failing at about 5 years old.
- Especially if the system is left on 24/7 or poorly cooled.
.
Most boards with HM/HN or KZG/KZJ problems died before 5 years old so the 85C caps weren't an issue [yet] at the time repairs were discussed.
- Now people don't know or think to look for it. - It gets missed completely.
.

[ajcox1234]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

Not one of them are bulging/bloated.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

Okay maybe the third time will be the charm.
Real slow so you can follow...

NOT

ALL

BAD

CAPS

BLOAT

or the alternate

CAPS

CAN

BE

BAD

WITHOUT

BLOATING

.

[ajcox1234]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

I know that, Teapo are known to do that, I was just saying that none of them are bloated. I've heard of caps just drying up and dying.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

Okay. - Sorry. - I took your comment out of context.
Happens sometimes when I'm bouncing between several mobo and PSU threads.
.

[ajcox1234]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

What is this mess?

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/16v-220...ece-pack-91279

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

Those are fakes.
They have the cheap generic bung.
Nichicon doesn't use a K shaped vent.
.

[larrymoencurly]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

What is this mess?

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/16v-220...ece-pack-91279

Why are they labelled "nichicon" but have tops stamped like Teapos (3 cuts with an oval dot between them)? I can't trust counterfeiters who don't care enough to commit fraud right.

[RileyRR]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

So I rechecked my soldering and ended up removing and resoldering about half of them. That seemed to take care of the immediate reboots that I was getting, but I still had the failed loading (to Session5 Windows error) that I had prior to the recapping.

I was guessing that the blown caps may have corrupted critical XP files so I decided to try and wipe and install Windows 7. I was able to boot into the Windows 7 Setup DVD, but it was SLOW (we're talking about 45 minutes just to get to the "Choose your language" screen!). So obviously something wasn't correct.

I bailed out of that and started going through checking each of the components (hard drive, memory) to see if anything else might be causing it. Nothing obvious came up there, so I decided to check through the BIOS and to verify settings. Since I didn't have any BIOS documentation, I just went through and changed some values that seemed innocuous, including one that said CPU SPEED (choices of NORMAL or COMPATIBLE). It was set to COMPATIBLE so I changed it to NORMAL. Low and behold, when I booted into the Windows 7 setup, it was lightning fast! Later I found the following about the CPU SPEED:

Compatibility Mode allows the system to run older operating systems such as MS-DOS. If compatibility mode is used with Windows, the system will be as slow as molasses in the way it functions.

I have no idea how that BIOS option changed (since I did not do it, nor did my Dad), but now the computer is running fine!

So another successful re-cap (after a little hiccup)!

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

Congrats!

[ajcox1234]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

New update (not PC related):

My internet connection went to shit, I should be getting 27.00MBPS, I was getting less than 1.0MBPS, I rebooted the cable modem, didn't boot past two LED's, took it apart to find a bulging Teapo staring me right in the face, put the cable modem back together, took it to the cable company, now I have a Scientific Atlanta (Cisco) cable modem.

Another cheapo Teapo kills a cable modem, there were also two or three OST's but didn't show any physical signs of failure.

It is an RCA cable modem, didn't bother trying a recap, crap caps, crap modem... It's going back.

[ajcox1234]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

When I soldered down the cap to the Dimension 3000's board, the solder didn't go into the holes, I started removing the solder, than the solder went into the holes.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Bad Nichicon HM(M) on Dell Dimension 3000 motherboard.

It will get easier, and congrats!