Opened up my Linux box containing a 2-year old K7S5A today to fit a SCSI
card and noticed some swollen caps:

C425 (bottom of AGP slot - AGP voltage?) Luxon 1500uF 6.3v
C58 and C59 (CPU core voltage generator) Luxon 2200uF 6.3v

I'm rather fond of my 'S5A which has been running 24/7 for the last 2
years with almost zero problems, so will be taking the time out to
replace all the major caps. There are:

8 x 1500uF 6.3v
1 x 1500uF 10v
3 x 1800uF 6.3v (these are not Luxon, but marked OST I.Q)
7 x 2200uF 6.3v

All caps are 10mm diameter.

Will also replace the PSU as a precaution (it's a 250W.)

"Mike Tomlinson" <mike (AT) NOSPAM (DOT) jasper.org.uk> wrote

The eight 3300uF caps (6.3V, 105degC, 10mm diameter, 5mm lead spacing) that
failed on my ECS P4VMM2 also carried the mark of "OST IQ".
Al-U

In article <Ea%Lc.97635$ek5.7992@pd7tw2no>, alpha_uma
<none_such (AT) home (DOT) com> writes

I've ordered replacement caps from Farnell (here in the UK). I wasn't
able to find 1800uF 6.3v, so have ordered 2200uF 6.3v to replace those.

These are high-quality, low-impedance, 105C Rubycon caps. For anyone
who's interested, the Farnell (www.farnell.com/uk/) part numbers are:

767360 x8 1500uF 6.3v
769071 x1 1500uF 10v
768005 x10 2200uF 6.3v

Half an hour's work should get my 'S5A up and running again. I hope!

Mike Tomlinson wrote:

boards, I think you'll find it will take a lot longer than half an hour,
even ignoring the time it'll take to get it out of and back into the
case. I recently changed ONE capacitor on a motherboard, and I finally
had to drill out the old solder to avoid damaging nearby components with
excessive heat; I don't recall how long it took start to finish, but I
know it was a lot longer than half an hour.

You might consider snipping out the old cap from the top, leaving enough
wire to connect to the new one -- if I had it to do over, I think that
might be the way I'd go.

The best solution is probably to send it back to the manufacturer (if
they'll repair it at reasonable cost).

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Of course, YMMV.

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"CJT" <abujlehc (AT) prodigy (DOT) net> wrote

From what Mike has written in his message, I'd bet that he is an electronics
expert. I don't think your recommendation would apply to Mike.

It is NOT a good idea to send the motherboard back to the manufacturer for
repair unless the board is still under warranty. Personally, I don't trust
them anymore. If bad caps is the only problem with the motherboard, I can
fix the bad caps myself just as good as any decent technician.

If the board is already out of warranty, then fixing the bad caps yourself
is better than paying someone else to fix it for you provided that you have
the technical know-how because you can buy better quality caps yourself, and
spend as much time as you like to do the job well.

Fixing bad electrolytic caps is not rocket science. It only requires
moderately good soldering skills.
Al-U

On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 22:45:31 GMT, "alpha_uma" <none_such (AT) home (DOT) com> wrote:



I agree.....with caps, you can just heat the solder and "rock" the capacitor
to get the short wire out of the solder hole.

TX_Dude wrote:

Good luck with that.

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alpha_uma wrote:

Like I said, if he's got the right tools ...

I'm a degreed engineer; knowledge of what needs to be done isn't the
problem.

That's what I thought, too, and in fact I did accomplish it, but it took
a lot more effort than I expected.

I sent one in which had a bunch of bad caps and the manufacturer turned
it around in a couple of days for 20 bucks. I couldn't even see the
repairs. That's hard to beat.

YMMV.

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"CJT" <abujlehc (AT) prodigy (DOT) net> wrote

<snip>
It is hard to beat twenty dollars! Does that include shipping both ways?

BTW, did you send yours directly back to ECS? Where are they located? How
long is the official warranty for a typical ECS motherboard? One year, two
years, or less?

It costs me about 8 US$ to replace eight 3300uF electrolytics at DigiKey
prices, but, of course, I have to buy more than just the 8 caps from DigiKey
in order to meet their minimum order amount without "penalty". And, of
course, time is money too. But, as you know, the tremendous satisfaction
later that you diagnosed it and fixed it yourself--priceless!

I wonder if the repair of the bad caps on your motherboard was done by a
machine instead of a human hand. Are you sure they didn't just replace your
board with another (used) one?

Al-U

alpha_uma wrote:

No, one way shipping only, but I think it was only about 5 bucks to ship
it to them Fed Ex Ground (I wasn't counting that in the "couple of days
to turn it around." I was without the board for about a week and a
half, as I recall.).

Of course, new motherboards are pretty cheap nowadays, too. I chose to
stick with the one I had because otherwise I would have had to buy new
memory, too.

The particular motherboard involved was an EPOX; I imagine ECS might
have a similar program in place, but I don't know any details. You'd
have to contact them.

I suspect the MB manufacturers have struck a deal with the supplier
of the bad caps that lets them recoup some of the costs, given the
potential for law suits.

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY...eb03/ncap.html

I got back the same board (I marked it). I don't know what magic they
might have used to fix it, but the caps were definitely replaced (they
were leaking and bulging -- easy to identify).


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