Re: Advice needed: Dell 5150 blown ceramic SMD decoupling cap

PSU was good so I tested and it boots! Thanks a ton for the comments which got me to remove it and try again. My dad's about to place an order from AllElectronics, should I just grab a 47nF cap to stick in there? In theory, would I want to undershoot on capacitance to make up for the inductance of adding leads (trying to keep the frequency similar), or overshoot (trying to prevent it from becoming overdamped)?

I also threw some TIM in the shopping cart, I hope theirs isn't garbage.

Re: Advice needed: Dell 5150 blown ceramic SMD decoupling cap

It definitely popped exactly when I touched the heat sink it but thanks; I did in fact quickly test the power supply before then. I initially guessed that the PSU was gone due to condensation but all the voltages were perfect.

I realized I couldn't actually test whether or not that cap had failed open or closed because of other devices between 12v and ground. Anyway I've pulled it now; still can't test the cap because it crumbled (I think more of the de-install was done by the tweezers than the soldering...

Re: Advice needed: Dell 5150 blown ceramic SMD decoupling cap

The system doesn't run now, so if it's non-essential would that mean either there's some detection that prevents booting (I think there was a beep code but I'm hesitant to check because of the ozone smell), or another component is bad? Or maybe do I need to remove it so it's not shorting to ground (I thought it had failed open and not closed but I'll check again)?

I also read these need to be SMDs to reduce inductance. Is that just theory and in practice can I just use short leads? I know this question is...

Re: Advice needed: Dell 5150 blown ceramic SMD decoupling cap

Thanks, are those pretty much always .1? I just read a paper saying the "bypass" is usually .01-.1 uF. I guess I misremembered the datasheets I somehow found a few months ago and somehow cannot find now.

I always thought a nice patina of dust gives electronics a nice Classic Look and Protection Against Longevity.

Hi, I blew this cap by touching the heatsink while I was running the machine with no case. Apparently, suddenly changing from ungrounded to grounded while running a cpu can cause ESD. Who knew? The funny thing is I was had it open to investigate why it wouldn't boot, but all it needed was a CMOS battery, so when it started booting I got worried and held my hand "near" it to make sure it wasn't hot enough to melt the table it was on. I bumped it and: "pop", ozone smell, no more booting, lesson learned, I hope. It would be nice to get this running, as with some very cheap upgrades...

Re: New Members - please post your introductions here

Hello, I'm a bit newer in terms of experience at electronics repair. However, I've got a couple decades of taking them a part and putting at least, like, 10% of them back together under my belt.

My current projects that might lead to questions here: Replacing a ceramic decoupling cap on a 10 year old Dell Dimension Mobo, Undiagnosed weird faults on a netbook, recently got a free 9 year old Celeron Vaio and have a $2 C2D in the mail for it, Messing around with with smartphone HMDs for VR or just reduced eye and neck...