My Athlon 1GHz machine, which has been running perfectly well for years, today had what I believe could be the first sign of cap problems. I came into the room, the PC was switched on but there was nothing on the monitor. Pressing keys on the keyboard didn't help, and the HDD LED was on dimly. I thought it could either be on or off at any given time, not in between!
Anyway, I pressed the Reset button on the front and nothing happened. Pressed it again, it still wouldn't POST. I had to take out the mains lead from the back, wait 10 seconds then plug it in again (hard reset) before it would POST.
Since then, it seems to have been running properly with no abnormal reboots or freezes, though it does seem to be running very slowly. I would probably attribute that to the fact it's running Windows XP Pro on a 1GHz single-core CPU
I do know that the 'failing to POST after crashing' can be a sign of bad caps. All the caps on the board are either Rubycon or Nichicon (not the HN/HM series though), except for three near the USB port - which are Fujitsu polymer. I believe I've posted about these caps before, and how there is an extremely slight bulge on them - could even be manufacturing defect; it's so small. Last time I checked, the PSU was full of Teapo caps - but they've held up well for a long time already!
Could some of the caps on the motherboard or PSU be starting to fail? Or do you think it was just an isolated crash, failed 'suspend' mode or similar?
Anyway, I pressed the Reset button on the front and nothing happened. Pressed it again, it still wouldn't POST. I had to take out the mains lead from the back, wait 10 seconds then plug it in again (hard reset) before it would POST.
Since then, it seems to have been running properly with no abnormal reboots or freezes, though it does seem to be running very slowly. I would probably attribute that to the fact it's running Windows XP Pro on a 1GHz single-core CPU

I do know that the 'failing to POST after crashing' can be a sign of bad caps. All the caps on the board are either Rubycon or Nichicon (not the HN/HM series though), except for three near the USB port - which are Fujitsu polymer. I believe I've posted about these caps before, and how there is an extremely slight bulge on them - could even be manufacturing defect; it's so small. Last time I checked, the PSU was full of Teapo caps - but they've held up well for a long time already!
Could some of the caps on the motherboard or PSU be starting to fail? Or do you think it was just an isolated crash, failed 'suspend' mode or similar?
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