5 Apr
2005
5 Apr
'05
3:58 p.m.
I don't know, but my solution to this has been to
replace the affected
motherboards. Those capacitors really are necessary for the board to
be reliable, as they are part of the power supply for the internal CPU
operating voltage. If some of them went bad, you can be pretty sure that
the rest will too, so they all need to be replaced. The local surplus
places have old motherboards for about $20; the cost of a set of new
capacitors is more than that. When I factor in my time to replace them,
it would even be cost-effective to buy a brand new motherboard.
This assumes, though, that the capacitors on that replacement motherboard
are of reasonable qulaity. Personally, I'd probably replace the
capacitors anyway on any second-hand motherboard before they caused any
problems. A handful of electrolytics are a lot cheaper than the time
wasted and hassle casued if the machien fails at the wrong moment.
-tony