EPoX EP-8KHA (not 56k friendly)

[tuppa]

Just pulled out one of my machines and have a routine look at it for any infamous bad capacitors, and lo and behold, I've found two towards the lower right hand side of the board (using the PCI slots as a reference as the top left hand corner).

Here's some photos of the capacitors, plus another two that's somewhere in the middle of the board that looked a bit dodgy, but not quite bloated:





I also had a look at the other electrolytic caps around the board, and it is a cocktail of bad capacitor brands:

Tayeh
Teapo
GSC

So far, only the GSC caps are bloated, the others seems fine.

I had this board for over 2 years now, and the board seemed stable. Although I'll be replacing those caps soon. Speaking of which, does anyone knows a good place to buy capacitors within Australia. (The local electronics chain doesn't seem to stock the caps I wanted.)

<EDIT>
By Administrator: I saved your pics to my server and resized them for easier viewing.
</EDIT>

[Topcat]

Welcome to the forums!

Teyah, Cheapo Teapo, and GSC are all VERY well known crappy caps! I would replace them all, even if they're not showing signs. Replace all the low-ESR's and anything 680uF and up. This will have your board in top shape again.

[Cep]

Hi

I also live in Australia, have a 8KHA+ and bad capacitors, and looking for somewhere to buy capacitors.

Additionally, my ATX plug has burnt out (see below) Has anyone seen this happen as a result of badcaps ? Or was it just my cheapo powersupply ? Any suggestions how I can fix that ?

[/img]

[Topcat]

Whew... I've never seen an ATX plug burn up like that! You might take a multimeter and check your VRM's, diodes, and regulators for shorts. The bad caps could have caused that, but that's awfully severe damage for bad caps.

If you need a cap outlet, try www.digikey.com. They're a bit pricey, but they will ship internationally.

[kc8adu]

some iwill and tyan duallies are burning up the atx socket.
it is easy to replace with one from a junk/obsolete board.
and check the vrms too.
some crappy psu's dont shut down when shorted and somethings gotta give.that smoke has to leak out somehow

[ironbyte]

Caps from an EPoX 8KHA+ bought dec 2001:



More images here: http://130.236.214.152/epox8kha+/

Funny thing is that the board worked without any stability issues at all, even overclocked! But I kind of figured it was a ticking bomb and had them replaced.. The AGP-bus was soaked in electrolyte

[tuppa]

From my experience it seems that EPoX are still using cheap caps with bad electrolytes in them. Every EPoX board I've seen has at least a bad cap or two, even with their latest boards.