blown capacitor?
 

While reworking a couple of my machines, I noticed what seems to be some damage to some capacitors on my mainboard. It is an EpoX 8KHA, and I have never tried to overclock anything in the machine. I did read a few articles about capacitor problems on boards purchased around 2001-2002, and I think that would match up here.
Do these look blown to you? Are they going to blow and cause problems?
http://web.syr.edu/~meminuti/cap.jpg

I would say so. If they're not then they could definately cause trouble later on. What you have are capacitors that pushed material out of the vent holes on top. Probably caused by over-voltage of the circuit.

gotcha...well i removed some of the garbage up there and the machine does power on normally so hopefully the board will last me a good while.

Yup definately blown. I've seen the same problem before. I fixed my friends by soldering some new and higher quality caps onto the mobo.

Yes I'd say that those are bad capacitors. this is the article that almost everybody has read about this issue http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY...eb03/ncap.html

and here is a link to a site that has some good info to look at if you think that you have bad capacitors http://www.badcaps.net/ident/

I'd say that you probably want to start looking out for a replacement mobo (or possibly checking with epox about an rma) because the capacitors that go first usually regulate the power and if they die, then you can lose a few components when it goes.

dood, the board's toast, toss it in the dumpster and move on.

I have seen people replace bad caps on motherboards...sometimes the boards are good as new, sometimes not, sometimes...*poof*.

If it hasn't failed yet, it will...what you don't know is whether it will simply die, or start corrupting your files making you think you have bad memory or a flaky hard disk.

there are thousands, perhaps millions, of motherboards out there with Taiwanese capacitors leaking electroytes.

This has been one of the biggest horror stories in the history of the industry... someone in Japan stole someone else's formula for mixing the chemicals to put in capacitors...but got it wrong...and the wrong formula spread like wildfire among Taiwanese OEMs...

Asus, Epox, Microstar, FIC, AOpen, even -Intel- motherboards made with the bad caps are out there...among others...this has cost computer and component manufacturers millions in rework and replacements...

If you're so inclined and know how to solder, I think you could replace those capacitors. The parts are probably $7-12 total. As other have alluded to, those capacitors are in the switching power supply circuits and are very important to maintaining the correct voltage levels and keeping the power 'clean.' Flaky power can cause corruption of data at the least and permanent damage to the components.

yea im going to have to do something before my board asplodes

well i dont have the time or the ability to replace the caps myself, and epox wants $35 to fix it, so i think im gonna buy a new board. How does this one look and does anyone know of bad caps on Gigabyte boards? http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...128-213&depa=1

most important thing to remember, capacitors have the ability to hold a strong charge even when the board is unplugged from the wall. a charge strong enough to kill you. careful with what you do. no sense killing yourself over $35

yeah i hear ya...which is why i'm going to replace the board asap

The caps on a motherboard don't even come close to having the voltage are the current to kill you. Those are tiny caps and they deal with low voltage dc.

Most of the bad caps that I have heard about came on Epox and Abit boards. My Abit KT7 blew a cap, wouldn't do a thing afterwards. I'm pretty much all Gigabyte, Tyan, and MSI now.

yea im gonna replace the epox with that gigabyte

I just read a report of bad capacitors from this forum thread (concerning a 5 month old Epox board)
http://www.techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20531

The above thread links to this thread
http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20520

which mentions that the blown capacitors (GSC branded) are also used a lot in gigabyte mobos.

between the 2 threads, they mention that the value boards from almost any brand is/can be affected by bad capacitors.

Right now I think that we got another round of bad capacitors going around.

doh! well for 50 bucks, i can hopefully get one with decent caps. if it lasts me until i can replace that machine in a year or so, i'll be happy.

the flux capacitator is a vital piece of your machine, do not attempt time travel until repairs are made

hmm it seems that the capacitors have something to do with the on board USB ports, as they keep turning off and on

I'd say that the capacitors are affecting the USB ports because they aren't supplying the correct amount of power to your USB ports. As to having the mobo last, it might, if it doesn't at least you will be under warranty for an RMA. since this seems to be recnt tho, it's hard to say if it's only a new batch of bad capacitors or if it's going to be a widespread problem.
(reminds me to check if the caps on my mobo are slowly going... old epox 8k7a)