[Tfug] More on caps...

[Bexley Hall]

Apparntly the "crappy capacitors" aren't confined to
PC motherboards (I had thought that it was just somthing
associated with certain vendors... all of whom were
PC motherboard manufacturers!)

On the contrary, I have now seen the problem in computer
*power* supplies as well as in consumer audio/video gear
(I just repaired a DVR with bad caps -- though it appears
to have been an actual design flaw; 10V caps on a 12V line!)

The *good* news is that these are almost always simple
fixes -- replace bad caps with "good" ones and you're
off and running!  Unfortunately, it is time consuming.  :<

I'm not sure I would trust this sort of "fix" on a high end
motherboard, though.  Too easy for the problem to have been
present "for a considerable amount of time" before the user
noticed it.  And, in that timespan, too easy for some
DC operating condition to have been exceeded -- even if
momentarily!

<frown>

Just FYI...
--don