Bulging caps

T

TrainTrackHack

VIP Member
I was about to set up an old P3 machine I had lying around as a wireless router, but the motherboards has 3 caps with a visible bulge on the top and one of them has rust-looking stuff running along the seams. I gather that's pretty bad (it POSTs just fine but I haven't put an OS on it), but just how bad is it? Are other components likely to be damaged if I use it and the caps end up completely failing (the wireless card is brand new, everything else is old crap that I'm not too fussed about), or would I be just left with a board that doesn't work?
 
You'd probably be left with a bad board, but I wouldn't take the risk so I wouldn't use the board.
 
Yeah,The board would most likely just not work eventually,You could replace the bulging caps yourself if you dare. :)
 
Gotta have a lot of sack to do that one. Very thin solder (as thin as a thread) and a high quality solder iron. My tip is as thin as a needle. Grounded and temp controlled. Not to mention having experience.
 
I used to have an old Asus A8N-SLI SE Mobo that got a bit trashed.

At least one of the caps around the CPU socket had been completely ripped off the board.

At the time I was tight for money, and my components were near end of life anyway so I decided to use the board.

Had no problems at all, it booted, was stable and ran well for at least another year before I upgraded :)
 
Thanks guys. My soldering iron isn't terribly good (and I only have 1mm thick thread at the moment), it's really only suited for bigger electronics with its massive tip (I've used it mostly to fix broken connections in audio hardware) and not something I'd dare touch a motherboard with, so replacing the caps is out of question at least for now. I'll probably run it for a bit and if it's stable, I'll keep using it.
 
overclocking can do it. A shorted resistor, power supply also. No don't do it. The solder will track across the traces. that will be a disaster. SMT is near impossible.
 
Overcloking can do what, blow the board? It doesn't actually uspport OCing, I'm actually planning to underclock it to half its stock speed.
 
I've successfully repaired caps on two motherboards without and issue. Just do your research and take your time. I'd also suggest checking out, www.badcaps.net Thier forum is full of nerds that repair stuff. I've repaired over 20+ monitors and 5+ LCD/Plasma TVs with their help.
 
Do they repair hand helds, Like Ipods? Because I repair handhelds, and I have this Ipod touch, where the screen cable is torn, and I need to put in a new screen. but this time I can't do it.
 
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