Asus P4B533-E bad caps

[archae86]

I built my current main PC in the summer of 2002. Recently I opened it to add a large hard drive, and noticed alarming "crud" on several capacitors next to the CPU.




I assume this is within the range of appearances of the problem to which this site is dedicated.

It may be relevant that a couple of years after I originally built the machine I upgraded the CPU from a 2.4 GHz Northwood to running a Gallatin at 3.2 GHz.

I apologize that my photos are not of the wonderful quality of so many on this site, but I think they suffice to document my situation.

[willawake]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

are those taicon caps?

[archae86]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

are those taicon caps?

Yes,

though it took me some trouble to answer your question. My wife loaned a dental mirror, and I used a headlamp to let me get light in.

The pics I posted first were actually taken November 16. While I was in there today I reshot the crud. To first order the appearance seems to have been stable. May I draw any comfort (and time to procure replacements)?

[willawake]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

funny its still stable, looks awful
what are the rest of the caps on the board, perhaps they are rubycon and ost rlp which should be fine.

time for a recap then, the green ones and the black ones are to go.

[archae86]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

what are the rest of the caps on the board, perhaps they are rubycon and ost rlp which should be fine.

I've been slow to respond because I wanted to do extensive backing up before getting back into the box and removing enough stuff to get some answers. The box is pretty crowded, with five hard drives totalling 1.25 Terabytes.

Anyway, here is a general view of the I/O bus portion of the board after card removal.

Here is a detail picture of one type of capacitor which appears to be a major use in that portion of the board.

This smaller cap is used perhaps three time--sorry for the picture quality.

Here is another cap used a few times.

Finally, here is more detail on a green cap you commented on ("to go") earlier--you probably recognized it as Taicon--also very near the CPU, though none of these green ones are visibly damaged to my eye.

As I'm now as well backed up as I'm likely to get (over a dozen burned DVD's, and over 100 Gigabytes copied over my net to another box), I'm very eager to get this one recapped.

[linuxguru]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

Interesting - not a single one of the green 16v Taicon HDs seems to have failed (maybe because they're at the VRM input, with lower ripple currents), while several of the black 6.3v Taicons at the VRM output have vented.

I wonder if there's some general benefit to using 16v low-ESR caps, instead of 6.3v, at the VRM output? The ones that come to mind are NCC LXZ/KZE, Nichicon/Taicon HD, Panasonic FJ/FM.
I don't recollect having seen even a single failure in 16v caps in these series.

[archae86]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

Interesting - not a single one of the green 16v Taicon HDs seems to have failed (maybe because they're at the VRM input, with lower ripple currents), while several of the black 6.3v Taicons at the VRM output have vented.

Agreed--my pictures were not well chosen to show all the green ones clearly, but my impression on looking at them was that they looked fine.

[archae86]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

funny its still stable, looks awful
what are the rest of the caps on the board, perhaps they are rubycon and ost rlp which should be fine.

time for a recap then, the green ones and the black ones are to go.

I fully took the system apart yesterday to pack the motherboard off to Rolla for a recap.

Lots and lots of Ost--but many seem to have RLS, not RLP mark. I even found three Rubycon. Nothing else I could recognize, though the black.bronze ones still eluded my camera capturing a useful logo.

OST and RLS markings



Rubycons-one near the 20-pin power input

and two more near the I/O panel

finally, some more pictures of the Taicon's near the CPU, both green 16V looking good,

and black 6V looking grim.

[kc8adu]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

those ost rls will also be gone when that mobo comes back from rolla.
they have a nasty habit of being open yet looking ok.

[Cubes]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

How old is the Antec PSU?

While your there crack that open and ensure there's no leaky caps.
I've recently recapped my Antec Truepower 380w that came with my Antec Sonata case bought many years ago.

Incase you haven't recapped before I've found the easiest and cheapest method is to use desolder wick, a flux pen and the usual soldering iron and flux core solder.

Remove the old cap, shove the desolder wick over the hole and poke the tip of the iron through the wick and in to the hole. It should suck all the solder out and leave you with a nice clean hole.

When replacing the caps coat everything with your flux pen. The flux makes the solder suck on really cleanly and leaving you with a super tidy solder.

[Galvanized]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

Why you should open the PSU for inspection / cleaning at this time. https://www.badcaps.net/faq/
Consider replacing it's fan with on of the same spec as preventive maintenance.

[archae86]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

How old is the Antec PSU?

While your there crack that open and ensure there's no leaky caps.

The Antec is probably about three to four years old. The (cheap) original supply in this case died in, literally, small flash of light plus a puff of smoke coming out the fan exhaust. I hit the power switch instantly, and was much relieved a week or two later when installing this Antec that the system survived intact.

The previous supply had one component that obviously had been the smoke source. There was not enough left for me even to tell what it had been, but was axial lead, mounted horizontally on the board, quite near the main heat sinks.

Anyway, your point about not trusting the supply is well taken. I, however, don't trust my recapping skills. Possibly I should just buy a new suppply. What would you think of a Seasonic S12 series--possibly the 380 or, to give more margin, the 430?

[Galvanized]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

Open a 3~4 year old Antec PSU and the vented, dreaded, Fuhjyyu caps will be found...Betcha.
If you do not run a power hungry graphics card the Seasonic 380 or 430 would be an excellent choice.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

Anyway, your point about not trusting the supply is well taken. I, however, don't trust my recapping skills. Possibly I should just buy a new suppply. What would you think of a Seasonic S12 series--possibly the 380 or, to give more margin, the 430?

The S12 range is excellent, if they have continued to stay with the United Chemicon capacitor brand, I have not bought one recently...

As to the recapping of your old PSU, it is much easier than a computer mainboard. PSU's are only single layer... However it is more dangerous, there can be high voltages stored in the bulk caps so care must be taken to discharge it first...

[archae86]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

Open a 3~4 year old Antec PSU and the vented, dreaded, Fuhjyyu caps will be found...Betcha.
If you do not run a power hungry graphics card the Seasonic 380 or 430 would be an excellent choice.

Your betting is good. I broke the warranty sticker and had a look. My pictures don't capture it too well, but:
1. lots of Fuhjyyu electrolytic capacitors
2. One really clear leaker, and one or two more slight trace probables
3. At least one bulge, probably one or two more
4. Perhaps more hidden under the mass of wire and other obstruction.

I've this afternoon ordered a Seasonic S12 430W supply. The 500 would perhaps have spared me a y-cable or two, and looks more future-proof, so it was a close call. My graphics card is a ti4200 with a very small fan--I don't think you'd call it power hungry on the modern scale.

My thanks to the forum participants--it would not have been good to have the power supply pop a couple of months of going to this trouble and expense to assure the system had a future.

Leakers
for sure

probable

Bulger

[Rainbow]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

The first one is covered with glue but the other two photos show bad caps.

[Tom41]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps



What's with that wire shorting two pins on the motherboard together, with another wire clipped onto it?

Those Taicon caps are definitely bad and need to be replaced ASAP. The Fuhjyyus, while not venting like the Taicons, do have a bulged top and also need to be replaced. I had a PSU that contained one very slightly bulged Fuhjyyu - such a small bulge it was hardly visible - and the PC it was in was constantly rebooting itself!

I also have an FSP PSU which is packed with Fuhjyyus - oddly, it's still running perfectly after many years of service; no bulging or venting! The Tayeh caps in the PC, that's another story

[kc8adu]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

those are anchors for the northbridge heatsink.

[Galvanized]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

Future proof? The S12 430 will carry any AGP grapics card you install in that motherboard. Not to worry.

[Topcat]

Re: Asus P4B533-E bad caps

I just pulled a bunch of toasted Taicons out of this same model board today.... I guess I need to peek in at my Intel SAI2 server board that pack with these nasty craps.....