Hi!, I already reported this at the AMDMB forums, but a site devoted to the bad capacitor problem like this one bears the extra effort.
During a recent clean up of my computer I spotted on my trusty (2+ year old) Shuttle AK31 (v3.1) mainboard 4 capacitors that were bulged at their tops. Luckily none of them were leaking, and as of now they still aren't, but having witnessed the sudden death of some of my friends' motherboards due to failing capacitors and having read some other horror stories on the Internet, I knew those caps wouldn't last much longer, so I decided to replace them before it's too late.
The offending caps are located near the MOSFET area, they are turquoise with silver colored stripes on its sides and are labeled as follows:
G-LUXON
1500 uF
10 V
1087(M) LZ 105 C
The four caps will be replaced soon with same specification Nichicon brand caps, model "HE".
Other popular models considered for this task were the Nichicon "PW" series and the Panasonic "FC" series. If you decide going the DIY route, any of these can be ordered from Digi-Key, although they charge some extra US$ 5.00 for handling if the order subtotals less than US$ 25.00.
I chose the HE's above the other two for its low price and also because of its specs (after comparing the datasheets), but don't take my word for it as I'm not expert, one thing I'm quite certain though, is that any of those three models will exceed in quality and performance the faulty G-Luxon currently sitting on my board.
Hope this info comes handy to other Shuttle AK31 users (if any). And sorry I didn't post any pictures, perhaps I'll try later when I get to replace the failing caps.
During a recent clean up of my computer I spotted on my trusty (2+ year old) Shuttle AK31 (v3.1) mainboard 4 capacitors that were bulged at their tops. Luckily none of them were leaking, and as of now they still aren't, but having witnessed the sudden death of some of my friends' motherboards due to failing capacitors and having read some other horror stories on the Internet, I knew those caps wouldn't last much longer, so I decided to replace them before it's too late.
The offending caps are located near the MOSFET area, they are turquoise with silver colored stripes on its sides and are labeled as follows:
G-LUXON
1500 uF
10 V
1087(M) LZ 105 C
The four caps will be replaced soon with same specification Nichicon brand caps, model "HE".
Other popular models considered for this task were the Nichicon "PW" series and the Panasonic "FC" series. If you decide going the DIY route, any of these can be ordered from Digi-Key, although they charge some extra US$ 5.00 for handling if the order subtotals less than US$ 25.00.
I chose the HE's above the other two for its low price and also because of its specs (after comparing the datasheets), but don't take my word for it as I'm not expert, one thing I'm quite certain though, is that any of those three models will exceed in quality and performance the faulty G-Luxon currently sitting on my board.
Hope this info comes handy to other Shuttle AK31 users (if any). And sorry I didn't post any pictures, perhaps I'll try later when I get to replace the failing caps.