6 Oct
2010
6 Oct
'10
2:15 p.m.
In article <AANLkTi=D6VV26U2YtTfJAYK3o09CAgcxnQ9gtSWEs9vK at mail.gmail.com>,
William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> writes:
To add some specifics to the claim: it was in reference to the power
supply on a Terak workstation. (PDP-11 with a monochrome frame
buffer, see pics here: <http://picasaweb.google.com/legalize.slc/Terak>
and docs here: <http://bitsavers.org/pdf/terak/>.
I believe this system has a simple linear power supply design, but
bitsavers doesn't have schematics online and I'm away from my unit to
inspect it right now.
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That is
certainly true of wet-electrolyte aluminum-foil capacitors,
but they can be brought back by "reforming". However, ESR is a big
problem with newer equipment, causing heating of the contents of an
electrolytic and once those go, they're gone.
So you're damned if you don't and damned if you do.
All in all, I'd think that age is the big enemy, causing things to
dry out, plastics to crack and conductors to corrode.
I suspect that most big old electrolytics found in older computers
mainly die from the seals breaking and moisture getting in, just as
capacitors of the 1940s (even micas) are fond of doing. No amount of
reforming will fix this problem.