Bad capacitor?

[batmanuel]

A little over three years ago I built a system for my wife's aunt and uncle, based around an Epox 8KTA3 KT133A motherboard and 800MHz Duron processor. Just recently it has gotten a bit flakey, and they sent it to me to take a look at. It turns out the cheap PSU that I used (because they were on a really tight budget) gave out. Now that I've slapped in a newer, better quality PSU and replaced Win98 with XP Home, it is running again. The responsiveness of the system is actually pretty decent, considering the porcessor speed and 256 MB of PC133 SDRAM it has, and it is 100% stable right now (tested with an overnight run of Prime 95).

Before I sent it back, I'm probably going to do some upgrades for them - upgrade the processor to a 1.33GHz TBird at the very least. And inspection of the motherboard, however, revealed a capacitor that seems a like it is bulging a bit. I'm pretty sure this board was made during the time that the bad capacitor fluid formula was making the rounds in Taiwan, so I'm worried that over time the capacitor may fail altogether (especially with a faster, slightly more power-hungry processor). If there is a chance that this could happen, I may just recommend to them that they upgrade the system with a new motherboard, processor and RAM (I've got a Fry's nearby, so I can easily hook them up with an Athlon XP/Sempron-NF2 or P4/i848P combo for not much more than $100). They are trying to keep the repair bill as low as possible, and the system being used mainly for web surfing, e-mail and office apps, so even the dinky Duron 800 is not getting a huge workout.

I've never encounted any of these bad caps personally, so I'm not sure if I should be worried about the amount of bulging. Just wondering if anyone here can give me an opinon on the suspect capacitor.

Pic of possible bad cap. Tried to angle the camera enough to show the degree of bulging.

 

[CraigRT]

Hey man, the CAP is definitely not normal, but thats not in danger at all yet.
I had a mobo with about 8 caps that were all 3x as worse as that, and I didn't even know until one day I opened the case to swap the memory.
they were ALL leaky at the tops, and the system was 100% rock stable still, no problems at all. I honestly doubt that CAP is the cause of the problems, BUT, it's also not normal, and eventually if the mobo stays in service, it will get worse.. probably take many months though.

 

[ty1er]

I agree with CraigRT reply.

I am also running a Epox 8kha+ with leaky caps. I noticed it a few months back.
Leaky Caps next to CPU

(and i just checked them while typing this post and they havent seemed to changed)

So far no problems. But with in the next few months i do plan on replacing them.

The ones on your wife's aunts mobo do not look bad at all. Judging from MY experience with my epox it will probably take a while before a problem occurs.
If they really dont want to spend the money now on a new mobo, they can probably hold out mobo for a couple of years before purchasing a new one.

-ty1er

 

[batmanuel]

Thanks for the feedback. The machine is doing fine so far running SETI@Home work units right now. I was thinking earlier that they may need a bigger upgrade, but if the cap doesn't look too bad, I may just slap in a T-bird 1.33 along with a quieter CPU fan (I'm thinking of maybe WhisperRock IV) and call it a day. All the other caps around the socket look normal.

 

[Peter]

With the 1.33 T-Bird being at the top end of power consumption and voltage regulator stress, I'd replace those capacitors (all of them!) better now than later. Remember, voltage regulation going haywire might fry expensive stuff.

Epox might even replace the board for free. Contact them.

 

[Mem]

I am also running a Epox 8kha+ with leaky caps

I had 11 leaking caps on my 8HKA+,anyway I replaced my board before it died,btw in that pic,that`s the very first signs of a capacitor going bad/leaking.

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: Peter
With the 1.33 T-Bird being at the top end of power consumption and voltage regulator stress, I'd replace those capacitors (all of them!) better now than later. Remember, voltage regulation going haywire might fry expensive stuff.

Epox might even replace the board for free. Contact them.

That was a big concern of mine, what might happen when I stick a T-bird on it.

I'm not sure about getting the board replaced, since it is over a year out of the warranty period. How easy is it to solder on a new set? I've got an iron the came with a CompUSA tool set I bought a while back, but I've never gotten a chance to use one before. Any good on line how-to guides for capacitor replacement anyone can recommend?

If it's too much trouble, I may steer them towards upgrading the whole shebang with a Fry's combo and some DDR and sell off the good parts like the processor and memory in FS/FT to cover part of the cost.

Thanks again for the input.

 

[Peter]

... or buy a board that still runs the old T-Bird, like the ECS K7VTA3 Fry's Favorite. You can even buy a combo and sell off the NEW processor - you won't get much money out of the old one.

 

[Zap]

That's a tiny bulge there. Definately present, but if it is stable... however as others mentioned the Athlon 1.33 may stress it too much. I've seen a motherboard with 2 caps that had COMPLETELY FALLEN OFF and was still running fine (ECS KT133 board with a Duron).

If stuff is working fine, they should just keep using it as it is for a while longer. I say slap that WhisperRock HSF on the Duron and OC the duron a hair by lowering multiplier and increasing FSB. Instead of 8x100, try 6.5x133. Remember, a pencil is your friend.