ASUS A7A266 - first signs of bad caps?

[Tom41]

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?

[Harvey]

Re: ASUS A7A266 - first signs of bad caps?

Checked the temperatures?

[Spacedye69]

Re: ASUS A7A266 - first signs of bad caps?

My Asus A7V333 started out doing that. A few weeks later, it would not post at all. It had some HMs that looked fine, but I ended up recapping them just to check. No luck, still dead. The HMs ESR was right at factory specs also.

[Phenos]

Re: ASUS A7A266 - first signs of bad caps?

It could be possible that the teapo's in the powersupply are aged and dried out without physical signs of a bulge, Are the voltages right?

[starfury1]

Re: ASUS A7A266 - first signs of bad caps?

although caps get the blame for a lot of problems, and rightly so
They are not always the problem.

Since you said you had to unplug the psu to totally power down and its been fine since.
it may well be the psu (especially if its of the cheap variety with teapos)

the other thing is how old and hard worked is the HDD, all will fail sooner or later is this a model thats on the more likely to fail sooner list.

I would at this point be wary and back up anything of importance you want.
(just to be safe)

Was it an unusual type day, very hot very humid etc...

The thing is to now try and narrow down the system block that is possibly failing is it the psu MB or HDD

As you know if windows isn't shut down properly it can become sluggish till it sorts its self out....also do you have it set to go to sleep mode of any kind our is it just on regardless.

Did you do any system changers either HW or SW before this happened?
(I suspect not but had to ask)

When was the last time you cleaned all the dust out of it, as Harvey said Temps.

My guess is possibly the psu if its a cheapie with Teapos and has been running for a few years
(Unless the fairies magically recapped your PSU I think it will still be full of Teapos and maybe some dud ones now )

As has been disgusted in other threads, the Standby 5 Volt circuit is constantly power while plugged in, so this can result in power up issues.

other possibilities do exist like connector contact becoming intermittent.

Knowing you post around here Tom41 I guess you have pulled the box down a few times, so less chance of that.

So I'll ask the question what Brand model of PSU and HDD

cheers

[starfury1]

Re: ASUS A7A266 - first signs of bad caps?

should add this doesn't clear the MB...its an old one so yeah cap failure or a fault developing on that is quite possible.
maybe they have a common type failure that appears over time and use