Leaking capacitors

My computer has been crashing (BSOD) a lot recently but only when I'm playing sound or playing games. It sometimes reboots automatically as well.

I only noticed I had leaking capacitors about an hour ago and I've read some people's computer symptoms and how their computers get worse over time or reboot on start-up or crash after 15 minutes. Mine seems to be okay. I can have it on all day without it crashing. Do leaking capacitors mean that I have to replace the capacitors/motherboard or could their be something else that is causing my computer to crash randomly?

 

The issue gets progressively worse.

Have you Googled this?
There is a ton of information, including illustrated do-it-yourself replacement guides for the brave.

See: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...ult&cd=1&q=bad+capacitors+motherboard&spell=1

 

That's not really a question we can answer until you have a mainboard that does not have leaking capacitors. Think of leaking caps as your motherboard having cancer. It can be cured but you'll probably have to replace all of the caps on the board - even the non-leaking ones.

With the cost of a decent mainboard being around $70-$75 (Socket 939 anyways), unless you are a good solderer (word?), you might want to consider replacing your mainboard.

I recently had a Socket A mainboard with leaking caps. I was not having any performance problems at all - I simply noticed the leak one day. And other caps were bulging at the top. You probably want to look for those on your board as well. The tops of "good" caps should be perfectly flat. If you notice even the slightest bulge, it's got a problem.

I pushed my mainboard very hard using the L12 wire trick shorting two sets of pins in the cpu socket to achieve a higher stable FSB. But undoubtedly, my caps had the bad "recipe" anyway - I just probably brought on their demise sooner.

Gary

 

Thanks for the replies

My board has a lot of leaking capacitors. I noticed a few more today - the tops have burst and the electrolyte has formed a yellow crust on top of them. I guess I'll be replacing my board then...

 

This may be something you want to pursue.

 

Unfortunately, at that site (badcaps.net) the price for the repair of one mainboard comes to $45 plus $10 return shipping plus the cost of getting it there. Guess it depends on how much your mainboard cost you.

Then again, I think the problem occurred mostly on Socket A boards which are very hard to find these days. On the flipside, you could use this as an opportunity to upgrade. You most likely could upgrade a Socket A system to a Socket 939 system simply by purchasing a mainboard, cpu and video card. It might even be less of a hit if you went Socket 754 that had an AGP slot. S939 cpus are now dirt-cheap. I just purchased a AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego 2.4GHz OEM cpu for $82. I'd love to know what the street price of this cpu was when it first hit the street!

 

Funnily enough my mobo is a Socket A one...
Thanks for the advice - it's much appreciated.

 

Sounds and games, the problem may only be limited to the sound controller at the moment. You may find extended life by disabling the onboard sound controller and using an add in soundcard. It depends on if you need to buy one or maybe be able to pull an older PCI soundcard from a mothballed computer ....or even just borrow one to see if it will overcome the crashing.

Matt

 

Leaking capacitors can occur after time and cause very erratic hard to diagnose symptoms or sometimes no symptoms at all.
All depends on your luck on the draw.
I have heard two explanations.

1) The engineers specify one type of capacitor and manufacturing uses what is on hand - smaller ones that are necessary

2) a fellow left a major firm that made capacitors to move to another .
Somehow he did not know of one vital ingredient in the mix.

I do not know that area of the industry so it is anyone's guess.

If you can find someone locally with the skill capacitors can be replaced if it is worth the cost of the labour . All depends on the amount of damage and the costs and charges of labor.

You can often spot the capacitors beginning or are the stages of "mushrooming ".