- Apr 20, 2003
- 32,236
- 53
- 91
I've had TWO ABIT boards do that to me.
There are some cheap counterfeit capacitors floating around.
Do a GOOGLE search, and you should be able to get the full story.
There are some cheap counterfeit capacitors floating around.
Do a GOOGLE search, and you should be able to get the full story.
You'd have to take an inventory of the leaking caps and go to a distributor like digi-key or mouser. If you're lucky, you're not the first to have the problem with the board and there may be someone that's already done the research for you (and maybe even put together a kit of all the necessary caps).
Check the Abit RMA policy. If this was one of the original nForce boards it's probably old enough that your dad could pick up an older motherboard in FS/FT or one of the specials on sites like newegg or mwave and be just fine.
I doubt they'll replace it. Depending on how many caps you gotta replace it would be a cheaper solution. You wouldn't have much to lose.
If its your dads computer, why would you have to pay? Tell him its broke and have him buy a new one.
boomerang
Lifer
- Jun 19, 2000
- 18,883
- 641
- 126
Maybe I missed it, but I can't find where you tell us the manufacturer of the board.
Contact the manufacturer either through their website or directly. Many boards are waranteed for two years and some for three.
For example, Abit will cover it if you have the purchase receipt for free. You will have to pay for shipping to them. If you've lost your receipt, there is a $25 charge. You give them the serial number of the board. They can determine the date of manufacture from that and will know if it is still covered under warranty.
They do not repair your board, they ship a new (if it's still available) or repaired board. The replacement board however, will have only a one year warranty. Also, be aware that if you do receive a new board, that it may have caps that will fail also. I have been stung by this before. You have to weigh your options.
You have nothing to lose by contacting them. It's either covered, or it isn't.
Don't contact Newegg, it's been too long for them to help you. Contact the manufacturer.
Contact the manufacturer either through their website or directly. Many boards are waranteed for two years and some for three.
For example, Abit will cover it if you have the purchase receipt for free. You will have to pay for shipping to them. If you've lost your receipt, there is a $25 charge. You give them the serial number of the board. They can determine the date of manufacture from that and will know if it is still covered under warranty.
They do not repair your board, they ship a new (if it's still available) or repaired board. The replacement board however, will have only a one year warranty. Also, be aware that if you do receive a new board, that it may have caps that will fail also. I have been stung by this before. You have to weigh your options.
You have nothing to lose by contacting them. It's either covered, or it isn't.
Don't contact Newegg, it's been too long for them to help you. Contact the manufacturer.
More info on the CAP problem here Motherboard Repair and the guy has fixed many of these problem boards for people on the Abit ng
Mike G
Mike G
What is wrong with you people??? When you quote a message, why don't you try removing some of the nested quotes now and then so you're not always making ridiculously large posts just to type one sentence at the bottom.
There's no reason for half the posts in this thread to have 4X nested quotes. Half of you "lifers" are brilliantly helpful, and the other half spam the forum to death.
There's no reason for half the posts in this thread to have 4X nested quotes. Half of you "lifers" are brilliantly helpful, and the other half spam the forum to death.
First off, Radio Shack sucks. They charge too much and they have crappy parts. I don't think they even carry high-temp caps. Use them as a last resort. Check Parts Express.
As myocardia said, all the important info is on the capacitors themselves. Look at all the caps that are puffed up or leaking. You should see a capacitance (Farads), voltage and temperature rating on each one.
The caps you see on the board are called high temperature radial mini electrolytic capacitors.
For example, a lot of the blown caps I've seen are 1000 micro-Farad 6.3V with a 105C temp rating. I've seen these on 1999 Shuttle and ABit boards. First you want to match the capacitance. Capacitance is how much of a charge it can store, so you have to get the same or higher capacitance. Match it if you can, but you can go up to double the capacitance if you can't find a match. The voltage doesn't matter, you just have to make sure you get the same or higher voltage. Capacitors are usually rated +/- 20%. So, that's why you see all those 6.3V caps on motherboards because they're handling 5.0V. You could use a 50V cap if you wanted to, but it's not really going to help anything.
So, if you have 1000uf 6.3V 105C caps that are blown, you want to replace them with these:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=020-1714
For $3.30 you can get 10 caps that can handle almost 3X the voltage.
Defective caps seem to come in batches, so if your board has six 1000uf caps and four of them are puffed up, you'd better just replace all six while you're at it.
Soldering a mobo isn't as hard as you'd think. I suck at soldering, but all you have to do is heat up the contacts enough to pull the old cap out, then push the new cap in and clip the contacts at the bottom. I always thought of motherboards as disposable. I was truly amazed the first time I got one running stable after attacking it with a soldering iron.
Here's a little guide:
http://overclockers.com/tips1081/
BTW, when you pull out a capacitor, there's a circle underneath on the board. The negative side is the shaded side.
None of those are appropriate. The voltage regulator capacitors on the mobo operate under very high stresses, and are specially designed for this type of circuit.
The mobo caps should ideally be replaced only with power-supply grade, very-high-ripple current, ultra-low ESR, high-temperature rated capacitors. If you use standard grade capacitors, you will get low-quality power (if any power at all), and they may only last a few weeks or months before they too start bursting.
By all means get capacitors with a higher capacitance rating (higher number of uF) or get ones with a higher voltage. Improving either of those 2 factors will, upto a point, improve ESR (which is of critical importance) but at greater cost and larger size.
Jeff7
Lifer
- Jan 4, 2001
- 41,596
- 20
- 81
Badcaps.net sells low-ESR caps - look for their Kits. Just let the admin there know that you don't want substitutions without being notified first. Diameter can be important, as can the height - I was sent 16V 1000uF caps, but I sent for 6.3V. They were fine, all except for at the AGP slot - the 16V capacitors are taller than the 6.3V caps. This extra height prevented me from installing the AGP card all the way, as its heatsink hit the cap. That cap will need to be mounted sideways I guess.
The admin at Badcaps recommended replacing all capacitors 680uF and up - so check the other capacitors on the board. If they're the same brand as the dying ones, they might go soon too.
Parts Express specifically lists their high-temp caps are for power supplies, but you guys feel free to pay $30 instead of $3 for your capacitors!
It makes me wonder how anybody can sell a reliable motherboard for under $100, if they need to spend $30 on just the capacitors for them to be good enough.
I'd RMA the board or just play it safe and buy a new one before I'd spend $30 to try and fix it myself.
It makes me wonder how anybody can sell a reliable motherboard for under $100, if they need to spend $30 on just the capacitors for them to be good enough.
I'd RMA the board or just play it safe and buy a new one before I'd spend $30 to try and fix it myself.
Jeff7
Lifer
- Jan 4, 2001
- 41,596
- 20
- 81
Originally posted by: Tostada
Parts Express specifically lists their high-temp caps are for power supplies, but you guys feel free to pay $30 instead of $3 for your capacitors!
It makes me wonder how anybody can sell a reliable motherboard for under $100, if they need to spend $30 on just the capacitors for them to be good enough.
I'd RMA the board or just play it safe and buy a new one before I'd spend $30 to try and fix it myself.
Because we buy 10 or less at a time. The manufacturers buy 10 or more cases of full reels of parts at a time.
I worked for a School District where we had to replace around 500 mobo's because of the Known capacitor problem. It was a known defect, so they were all recalled and replaced for free.
viivo
Diamond Member
- May 4, 2002
- 3,345
- 32
- 91
Is this sarcasm or is the fact that you posted three times in a row part of a hilarious bout of coincidence?
Anyway, back to the topic. Would it really be worth it to spend all this time trying to replace the caps? I'm sure you could find a replacement board much cheaper and less time consuming than all this.
2 out of 3 mobos in my house have leaky caps... still working fine, and don't plan on swapping them out just yet.
it's been this long already! (a few months at least!)
it's been this long already! (a few months at least!)
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