Fixed my desoldering station, so finally recapped this board...
Symptoms:
4 vented caps, others swollen. still rock-solid though.
Board history:
Bought brand new in sealed antistatic bag. In late summer '04, put together my desktop system with it. Now, around 7-8 months later, half the caps are already toast... damn quick failure... Mild top-gunk was present after only a few months, along with buldging of the others, and has gotten progessively worse since.
Caps:
6 Chhsi 6.3v 2700uf. Four vented. Replaced with 2200uf 6.3v nichicons.
1 Tayeh 6.3v 1500uf. Looked OK. Replaced with 2200uf 6.3v nichicon.
4 Teapo 10v 1500uf. Looked OK. Replaced with 1500uf 10v nichicons.
8 Chhsi 6.3v 1000uf. Several buldging. Replaced with 1200uf 6.3v nichicons.
3 Chhsi 16v 470uf. Looked OK. Replaced with 1200uf 6.3v nichicons. See previous 694d recap for notes.
Notes:
Someone set the "snap in" machine from "keep caps in place during assembly" to "keep caps in place during a nuclear explosion." Had to work hard to get some of them out of the board, even once they were wiggling free with a perfectly clean hole. Leads stuck out of the board almost parallel and had to be straightened with needlenose to get them out.
C390 was installed backwards from the factory. Installed new C390 backwards, for the correct polarity.
I did a bit of creative reorganization of the board... I have some oversized fansinks on it, which I had to spend an hour filing notches into to make fit. Installed the new caps with a half inch offset to move them away from the fansinks.
I recapped this one with the cpus and fansinks still in place... I am NOT removing those. When the fans die I'm duct-taping a replacement to the top of them rather than replacing the fansink. They have some "Feature" along the lines of "Ultra pressure clip for better contact," which translates to "Having to get three people together to press with three pairs of pliers so bloody hard everyone's worrying about cracking the motherboard, cpu board, or quite possibly the cpu die itself". I'm not making that up. If you tried getting the clips on crooked, I'd bet it could easily crack the cpu die in half just from the strength of the clip. I'm amazed they didn't break the clips off the socket. In any case, they're there to stay.
Results:
Seems to still be rock solid... SCSI card still doesn't work in the last PCI slot. I gave up figuring out why when I first found it doesn't work there. Not going to spend any more time on it, since I doubt the caps were related...
Before photos: (Some good photos of failed chhsi caps... like all my photos and text, released under the GFDL, if they'd be good in the bad caps photo gallery)
Unfortunately, I'm rather tired, and really don't feel up to making nice thumbnails, cropping parts, etc... so I'm just going to link to them fresh off the digicam.
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010011.jpg vented large chhsi caps
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010016.jpg buldging small chhsi caps
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010024.jpg vented large chhsi caps with logo very clearly visible
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010025.jpg another vented chhsi cap. Yes, the clip on the fansink really is a flat disc you have to bed.
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010030.jpg more vented chhsi caps
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010033.jpg out-of-focus c390. note the difference between the stripe and the masked semicircle.
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010038.jpg another buldging chhsi cap
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010061.jpg different angle of buldging chhsi cap. it's neighbor has already been replaced.
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010066.jpg note fansink overlapping masking. clear goop is hot-melt glue. Also note filed flat fins where the cap was, and very filed fins where the atx connector is. That was a lot of work with a hand file! should have dug out the bench grinder...
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010067.jpg more re-engineering
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010089.jpg I stopped throwing my caps out when I found the forum. Some day I need to ship them back, one per envelope, to the motherboard manufacturers.
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010099.jpg back where she belongs! note that the SCSI card had to be moved up a slot to make it work. Some day I'll spend more time trying to figure out why that is.
If someone wants nice cropped images, feel free to ask, but you might not receive. I need sleep.
--Randy
Symptoms:
4 vented caps, others swollen. still rock-solid though.
Board history:
Bought brand new in sealed antistatic bag. In late summer '04, put together my desktop system with it. Now, around 7-8 months later, half the caps are already toast... damn quick failure... Mild top-gunk was present after only a few months, along with buldging of the others, and has gotten progessively worse since.
Caps:
6 Chhsi 6.3v 2700uf. Four vented. Replaced with 2200uf 6.3v nichicons.
1 Tayeh 6.3v 1500uf. Looked OK. Replaced with 2200uf 6.3v nichicon.
4 Teapo 10v 1500uf. Looked OK. Replaced with 1500uf 10v nichicons.
8 Chhsi 6.3v 1000uf. Several buldging. Replaced with 1200uf 6.3v nichicons.
3 Chhsi 16v 470uf. Looked OK. Replaced with 1200uf 6.3v nichicons. See previous 694d recap for notes.
Notes:
Someone set the "snap in" machine from "keep caps in place during assembly" to "keep caps in place during a nuclear explosion." Had to work hard to get some of them out of the board, even once they were wiggling free with a perfectly clean hole. Leads stuck out of the board almost parallel and had to be straightened with needlenose to get them out.
C390 was installed backwards from the factory. Installed new C390 backwards, for the correct polarity.
I did a bit of creative reorganization of the board... I have some oversized fansinks on it, which I had to spend an hour filing notches into to make fit. Installed the new caps with a half inch offset to move them away from the fansinks.
I recapped this one with the cpus and fansinks still in place... I am NOT removing those. When the fans die I'm duct-taping a replacement to the top of them rather than replacing the fansink. They have some "Feature" along the lines of "Ultra pressure clip for better contact," which translates to "Having to get three people together to press with three pairs of pliers so bloody hard everyone's worrying about cracking the motherboard, cpu board, or quite possibly the cpu die itself". I'm not making that up. If you tried getting the clips on crooked, I'd bet it could easily crack the cpu die in half just from the strength of the clip. I'm amazed they didn't break the clips off the socket. In any case, they're there to stay.
Results:
Seems to still be rock solid... SCSI card still doesn't work in the last PCI slot. I gave up figuring out why when I first found it doesn't work there. Not going to spend any more time on it, since I doubt the caps were related...
Before photos: (Some good photos of failed chhsi caps... like all my photos and text, released under the GFDL, if they'd be good in the bad caps photo gallery)
Unfortunately, I'm rather tired, and really don't feel up to making nice thumbnails, cropping parts, etc... so I'm just going to link to them fresh off the digicam.
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010011.jpg vented large chhsi caps
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010016.jpg buldging small chhsi caps
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010024.jpg vented large chhsi caps with logo very clearly visible
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010025.jpg another vented chhsi cap. Yes, the clip on the fansink really is a flat disc you have to bed.
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010030.jpg more vented chhsi caps
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010033.jpg out-of-focus c390. note the difference between the stripe and the masked semicircle.
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010038.jpg another buldging chhsi cap
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010061.jpg different angle of buldging chhsi cap. it's neighbor has already been replaced.
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010066.jpg note fansink overlapping masking. clear goop is hot-melt glue. Also note filed flat fins where the cap was, and very filed fins where the atx connector is. That was a lot of work with a hand file! should have dug out the bench grinder...
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010067.jpg more re-engineering
http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010089.jpg I stopped throwing my caps out when I found the forum. Some day I need to ship them back, one per envelope, to the motherboard manufacturers.

http://www.bushytails.net/~randyg/694d2/p1010099.jpg back where she belongs! note that the SCSI card had to be moved up a slot to make it work. Some day I'll spend more time trying to figure out why that is.
If someone wants nice cropped images, feel free to ask, but you might not receive. I need sleep.

--Randy
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