MSI K9A Platinum: small 100uF Teapo bulged!

[Behemot]

This thing usually does not happen, but found two slightly bulged 100uF Teapos on a MSI K9A Platinum near southbridge. Board does not do anything, POST card indicates it is totally dead.

There are also Chemi-cons KZG so overall one cannot be sure with his own life, but still the two Teapso are my first guess. So just confirminn that small caps can be reason for board failure too sometimes.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: MSI K9A Platinum: small 100uF Teapo bulged!

Yes.
.
Is uncommon but bad small caps can louse up small but critical voltages like Vtt to chipset/ram/cpu.
.

[Behemot]

Re: MSI K9A Platinum: small 100uF Teapo bulged!

Well unfortunatelly this time it didn't help. Will also try the Chemi-Cons KZG, but it may even be a BGA problem since the board starts but cannot be shut down even by holding pwr-on for 5 secs.

According to a guy who makes reballs, BGA problems may be even as common as capacitor problems. I always said this fucking BGA is one of the worst craps which ever came to electronics. Good ol' PGA…

[severach]

Re: MSI K9A Platinum: small 100uF Teapo bulged!

BGA allows a large number of pins in a small low cost package easily applied with pick and place. BGA has the best noise resistance and the worst heat tolerance of any package. BGA and other leadless packages have no flex points for heat strain relief so the solder, board, or package becomes the strain relief. PGA has the pins but purchase and placement cost more. QFP includes large sizes 256 304 376 408 456. QFP 376 is 40mm x 40mm or 1.6 inches square. Designers won't select QFP when BGA uses much less board space. With chips heading beyond 1000 pins BGA is the only choice.

BGA is an engineering disaster but big functionality at small prices can't be done any other way. All you can do is keep them cool. Don't belive the datasheets when they claim that this BGA chips can run at 175*C. A BGA chip that is undercooled by a passive heat sink will become overcooled by the addition of a small fan spinning slowly.

[kaboom]

Re: MSI K9A Platinum: small 100uF Teapo bulged!

leadless packages have no flex points for heat strain relief

And yet the datasheets specify 'redundant' pins such as multiple Vcc, GND, etc, essentially 'permitting' and expecting a certain number to break! And the accelerated tests allow for it!!

What a crock. And the heatsink-phobes are pushing the least heat tolerant devices as the ones able to run the hottest!

Again, what a crock...

Sure, low board space per device/more features per unit area, but microscopic solder balls and no relief points???

Come on...

Keep it cool baby.
-Paul