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Bad capacitors are everywhere PDF Print E-mail
* E$ v1 b- @! H V6 z. h, Z& `Written by SHINOBI
$ z5 X J/ @9 L! L$ Y4 c e. {' W% ZWednesday, 07 June 20062 g! H; x- C6 q9 S$ f) }
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Here is a little info on what to do when your capacitors go bad.. N* w8 {8 o. U* s# |
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Not that long ago I built a little custom configured computer, it was an E-Cube, and I really liked it. It was small, had an Nvidia 6800 card in it, played all my games great. That was almost 2 years ago. Well, something bad happened to it. One day, I was getting up to go to the kitchen, and I walked past the computer, and smelled something weird. I have never smelled anything quite like it, and realized it was coming from the computer. Seconds later the computer shut down. , w! [* U$ t8 s# w2 F
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These capacitors are cracked and blown,
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Capacitors. They look like miniature beer cans, and come in varying sizes and are placed in varying amounts around the mother board. When I opened my box up, I realized that several of my larger capacitors were swollen on top, and/or cracked open. ;-( right away I knew this was bad. I did alot of investigating and found out some crazy stories about capacitors. They normally don't all start blowing up like that for no good reason, especially on a mobo thats not even 2 years old. But for some reason, mobos all over the world were having their capacitors blowing up in crazy large numbers. So many mobos were be returned in fact, that some smaller companies were claiming bankruptcy. So why were the capacitors exploding?8 u4 c% s$ t6 n1 n; J* I
Taiwanese Terrorists. These guys suck. As far as capacitors go, there used to be a few good companies making them. Rubycon, for example, still makes totally sweet capacitors that can be identified by their unique cap brand. It looks like the letter K.
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Rubycons are the chrons.$ P) } S5 W' Y5 c/ s& R! U2 R+ c
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Anyway, a couple guys were working for a Japanese capacitor company, and decided to steal the formula. The capacitor juice formula. They stole it, went to Taiwan, and opened up their own capacitor company, with the stolen formula. They also sold their capacitors for pennies less that the well known established companies. This was awesome for computer/mobo makers, cause they are all pennie pinchers. Well, everything was pretty sweet for awhile, there were several offshoot companies all using the stolen formula. All was good untill a year or 2 later. So jump forward to now.1 [( O3 h4 }0 | h$ y0 K4 [4 A
A capacitor is kinda like a twinkie. They both have something in the center that you shouldn't eat, and if all goes well, it will never go bad either. A twinkie can stay on the shelf for years because it has some hardcore preservative chemical in it. So do good capacitors. When the thieves stole the formula, apparently they didn't get the entire recipe. They didn't have the "preservative" part. Without it, the electrolyte fluid inside started expiring prematurely, which = blown, ruptured or crappy capacitors. So every company who was looking to save some chump change, ended up building thousands of shitty mobos, well karma came back hard when everyone started sending the boards back. Bad capacitors are used in power supplies too, and have been plaguing them as well.
5 ? I- X. d t! g If you're computer is acting funny, like turning off for no reason, or acting strange, check the capacitors. Check them anyway actually, just to be safe. If they looked bulged on the caps, they are about to rupture. Once they rupture it can be too late, as I found out after doing a complete capacitor replacement. When shopping for capacitors, it can be frustrating figuring out what is a good replacement, and who is a good company. I found that alot of suppliers only sell in bundles of 100 at a time, or some outrageous number like that. But, finally I came across a capacitor company that carries sweet caps, at low prices, in ANY amount, with fast delivery. here is the site http://digi-key.com/
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. V" t5 o! g0 f3 U- Y This site is sweet. They have all the caps you need. Computer caps are also known as "Electrolytic Capacitors" so in the main search bar just type in capacitors, then from the following submenus, click electrolytic. From there they have a totally sweet step by step selection process, where you can actually just punch in the data thats printed on the capacitors into the nav windows on the sight. Every selection, or piece of capacitor info you give it, the more likely you will get the exact replacement parts.+ U! W2 m3 V$ X7 z2 S) C- y4 J) `
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3 l: a! [7 D0 U ~Low ESR, and Low Impedance are good in a capacitor." C# I' D* _8 x, T5 F( ?
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6 j" [% L" w' @) {0 g1 h. C& b- AHere is a list of good and bad capacitor companies., w/ Z6 z {0 w. h" v: k3 M
5 m q: H q) }% v% B) H$ _% jBrands and specs # C1 Q" P2 b" B" z c
Bad 3 @6 v# I$ h4 Z& Q
• Canicon (found on PNY video cards (at least the GeForce4 based models), among other components)); Q* n+ ?! }% e ?& b1 o) Q
• Chhsi
# C# c! _+ V! U$ Z* Y • Choyo, |9 q8 l- z/ W5 T: r' Q
• CTC) {3 |2 g, x2 `2 D& A: M
• Fuhjyyu (found in Antec and FSP (and so many others licensed from FSP, for example Zalman), Tagan and so many other power supplies to this day)2 `: e [, V G, E( y* c& }
• Gloria
+ k" P, m) ~/ ^8 T$ S( q8 | • GSC
8 d4 C" L& _. Z4 a: x • (G) Luxon (also G-Luxon) (Found in some older ECS motherboards)1 y& z0 v5 r% F& K" \; R) d8 M
• Hermei
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• Jamicon& H1 ]6 o5 q. I
• JDEC
2 A* ?# N, t& o/ o X • JPCON
$ \# j& m" j9 e' U Z+ o • Jun Fu (found in some Deer power supplies)1 a$ p) h- H& ~
• OST (found on some PCCHIPS, ECS, ASUS, and EPoX motherboards to this day)5 p- U( z8 K: L. _ F
• Raycon
, U& X" q6 b$ T2 Q$ L • Lelon
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• Taicon (found on ASRock motherboards and BFG video cards, part owned by Nichicon or so their website claims)
- p2 s8 I* X* |" t% M8 l* B • Jen Pan TUR/TUL (known as "PCE-TUR" or "PCE-TUL", owned by CEC) (found in Enermax power supplies and in Seasonic power supplies (300W, prod. 2002)). Mostly good, but they had a series of the TUR wich was also bad.$ y) g F4 G6 A+ e; Q
• FUH YIN (found on the memory board of a hp workstation x4000). ^# t; S1 D+ E: o
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Suspicious brands
2 z% g/ s1 l6 c. d ~9 T • Tayeh — This brand appears to not actually exist, indicating the actual manufacturers were wary of putting their name on their product; and probably a fake of "Ta-Keh", a genuine maker of high-end capacitors for audio equipment, used by Denon and Technics (Panasonic).' g( ]3 v. M& c% \
• Rulycon — A clone of "Rubycon", a well-known manufacturer of high-quality capacitors, right down to the style of the cases and the fonts used for lettering.8 l( M& i4 J1 a7 n4 k
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Admitted- ~; \5 X7 b# `" t) v
• Jackcon — The only capacitor manufacturer to own up to their mistake; they are also the only one to issue free replacement capacitors to people who had theirs fail. Their new products appear to be of greater quality but still not as good as known-good brands.! F- M% S4 ` K0 G1 W# j, l x7 S
6 O! t: w0 }$ M/ l7 EPossibly reformed; h/ t E6 H$ Y, {1 W; l
• Teapo — Teapo has denied these claims, but evidence suggests their new capacitors are sound. However their older ones appear to suffer from the same problems other brands do.
2 F- M- m1 T, E& E • NRSY — with X-shaped vents are suspect (counterfeits); the new NRSY capacitors with K vents are genuinely high-quality.) S; @& c- ~% ]$ x: H7 c
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Good/ i* Q4 i. u5 N9 |
• Rubycon
4 V0 p% i2 J0 |- e • Nichicon
. K& x' Y5 ~/ w • Panasonic, c! y1 ~7 z) N: l* o
• Sanyo4 W! h ?' e5 w' b& \$ d
• Nippon Chemi-con P/ a2 s( _# F0 B7 ?9 J& L
• United Chemi-Con$ y5 H A, v0 L. Y
& j; x; A& J; z8 c4 t7 o Also, there is a guy who has devoted an entire site to bad caps. This guy personally emailed me when I told him my situation. He can make personalized custom cap replacement kits, for those who arent too sure exactly which ones to buy as replacements. He also has some nice tips on replacement. http://www.badcaps.net
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good luck.
" P+ R6 [) v& }9 A8 l# t' g2 FLast Updated ( Thursday, 08 June 2006 ) |
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