HOW TO: bad capacitors, deal with it

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davd_bob
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HOW TO: bad capacitors, deal with it

Post by davd_bob »

HOW TO: deal with a BP6 or other board that has bad capacitors.
Does your BP6 freeze up? Does it re-boot often, unexpectedly and for no reason? Does it lock up tight while you are looking at the BOIS screen then wont let you make changes? Maybe your board is running software acceptably, but do the temps seem WAY out of spec?

Or maybe you have looked at the board and noticed your soldiers(the round cans with black or green plastic around them) are bulging at the top...or have a blackish goo comming out...or standing at an angle instead of straight up?

There are several ways to establish the caps are bad.
The best way is mostly to just lurk about BP6.com and see what problems other people have had. If you are suspicious its your caps...then it probably is. Here are some links to pictures and other resources. You have to forgive me but I haven't had the gumption to get my own pics, but you can click on the links to see if your caps look like bad caps.

This first link has lots of pics and other links(some of which are copied in this article)
http://www.burtonsys.com/bad_BP6/

These are listed in NO specific order and not all are BP6 boards.
http://members.arstechnica.com/x/headseed/bp6_caps.jpg
http://pcstats.com/articleimages/200302/capblown_5.jpg
http://pcstats.com/articleimages/200302/capblown_8.jpg
http://pcstats.com/articleimages/200302/capblown_3.jpg

http://pcstats.com/articleimages/200302/capblown_1.jpg
http://pcstats.com/articleimages/200302/capblown_2.jpg
http://pcstats.com/articleimages/200302/capblown_4.jpg
http://pcstats.com/articleimages/200302/capblown_7.jpg


Heres what happened.
http://theinquirer.net/?article=13962



I hope most of you have good boards, but if not here are some options.

1) Use Abit RMA. 8)
cost: usually free :D
If your board has P-III mods do NOT use Abit-RMA.
http://rma.abit-usa.com/
instructions are farther down.
Abit recaps(free of charge to you) the boards but they do it after they finish the work the actually get paid for first. They were offering alternate
replacement boards if you wanted instead. If they are out of stock they will eventually get them out but it takes time. See the authors note at the bottom of this post.

2) Let Jackson send you replacement caps and do it yourself. :)
cost: free :D
(ONLY do this if you are experienced soldering on multilayer boards)
It takes about 10 days from first emailing them until you have caps in hand.
http://www.jackcon.com.tw/indexen.htm
While at Jackson.com choose the CONTACT US tab.
Oh heck. They will give some phone numbers and an email address. If you email them here is the address.
jackcon@ms14.hinet.net


3) Pay for a capkit and do it yourself. :shock:
cost=$14-$50 :roll: it depends on your source(try above before you pay for caps)
http://www.Motherboardrepair.com
http://www.badcaps.com
They will guide you through the process.
(ONLY do this if you are experienced soldering on multilayer boards)

4) Pay someone else by taking it or sending to a shop that charges. :( :shock:
cost: expect at least $50 or more :(
http://www.badcaps.com
http://www.Motherboardrepair.com
Or you can check in with a TV repair shop. If you go this route make sure to ask them to check out BP6.com on caps. They need to use LOW ESR caps. If they don't know what that means don't let them do the work.
(only if no other options are available then this is ok)

5) Just use it till it dies then throw it away. :evil: :roll: :screwy: :sly: :grr: :umm:
cost: no one will like you ever again
this is a BAAAAAAD choice so I made it small and hard to read :twisted:
(if you sell it on eBay make sure to mention the bad caps)


Abit RMA
this is the BEST choice in most cases
remember to REMOVE your CPUS, RAM, ETC FROM THE BOARD, or you won't get them back.
Click the link,
http://rma.abit-usa.com/
Register,(maybe you can use your BP6.com username)
READ and Follow the instructions.
READ and Follow the instructions.
Did i mention to READ and Follow the instructions.
Abit will issue a REQUEST number. If you followed the instructions you will get that number via e-mail, which you need before they will let you go any farther. I used my BP6.com user name and password so I wouldn't forget it.
Once you have the RQ number login to
http://rma.abit-usa.com/
and you can proceed. Follow the instructions.
They will issue an RMA number via e-mail, which you need before they will let you go anyfarther. In some cases they may request you ship the board(you pay shipping) to them, in other cases they may issue a call tag which means they pay for UPS or some shipping company pick up the board. If they say they will send a call tag GET IT READY RIGHT AWAY.
Once they receive it Abit will evaluate the board. If they establish failure is due to capacitors they will send a replacement to you free of charge about 10 days(see authors note at the bottom of this post) after they receive it end of story.
If Abit feels failure is NOT due to capacitors, they will most likely contact you by e-mail to let you know whats going on. They may swap your board for $25 OR they may repair your board at whatever they want to charge or they may just send your board back un-repaired. If you have done YOUR part diagnosing a capacitor problem don't worry...Abit is not going to mess you around.
DO NOT CALL this number (510)492-0882 unless you have exhausted all other means. Their line may be flooded with calls and you will do both them and you a service by trying to do everything online. They are going to ask you to do it online anyway if you DO call. However if you can't get online(then how are you reading this FAQ) or if you don't have e-mail, then they will help you via phone.

Author's note added April 25 2005: In Feb. 2005 Abit stock of BP6 replacements ran low. They still met all RMAs but sometimes it took several weeks before the customer recieved a board back. Abit offered a store credit instead of a replacement board when that occured. If you use Abit RMA and they need extra time to send a replacement please be patient. Remember no other MB manufacturer is even supporting customers old "bad cap" boards.
Good Luck
Last edited by davd_bob on Wed Dec 27, 2006 1:16 pm, edited 6 times in total.
MD_Willington
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Post by MD_Willington »

Do NOT use Jackon Caps in a recap, they are junk, do not replace junk with junk.

Use the following:
Panasonic FC series --> www.digikey.com
Nichicon PW(M) series. --> www.radarinc.com
Rubycon XYG series.

MD
davd_bob
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Location: Houston, TX

Post by davd_bob »

MD_Willington wrote:Do NOT use Jackon Caps in a recap, they are junk, do not replace junk with junk.
MD, will you supply facts to back this statement up?

Many BP6 users, for whatever reason, will choose to do the replacement work themselves and would use free caps from Jackson as opposed to paying for replacements. If you can give reason not to trust Jackson caps produced in the last year we NEED to know.

At this point in time it is a well known fact that yes indeed Jackson did produce junk for a time but in that way of thinking so did Abit. However both companies are standing behind their products providing free replacement, unlike anyone else in either industry.

Does anyone have any horror stories from Abit RMA or Jackson's replacement caps?
Does anyone have any horrer stories from any other sources of getting their BP6 or VP6 repaired?
There are *almost* no bad BP6s. There are mostly bad caps.

No BP6s remaining
Athlon 2800
Sempron 2000
ViaCPU laptop with Vista.(Works great after bumping ram to 2Gig)
P-III 850@100
Tim_K
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Post by Tim_K »

I tried emailing jackcon, and they will send me replacement caps, but they want me to PAY for them! I've tried sending a few messages, and they always include a $25 EMS mailing fee, along with some extra money for the caps. I think the messages are going to Taiwan or somewhere far away.

eric@jackcon.com.tw

This is the email address I was using.

I'll try the one listed earlier in this topic.
See "Online Video" the internets comedy / opinion webshow, at www.loudmouthtim.com !
Tim_K
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Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 1:44 am
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Post by Tim_K »

I tried emailing jackcon, and they will send me replacement caps, but they want me to PAY for them! I've tried sending a few messages, and they always include a $25 EMS mailing fee, along with some extra money for the caps. I think the messages are going to Taiwan or somewhere far away.

eric@jackcon.com.tw

This is the email address I was using.

I'll try the one listed earlier in this topic.
See "Online Video" the internets comedy / opinion webshow, at www.loudmouthtim.com !
Merlin55
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free caps

Post by Merlin55 »

I emailed jackson and they mailed me back asking for a cap list. I got it off here including the ec10 mod I think it is and sent it back. Today my caps came in the mail for free. Just mention that you saw they were replacing the caps free here on www.bp6.com, give them your mailing list & the cap list and they will send it I know I got mine :D.

Now if I can just find the article with pics on the replacement and ec10 mod for my tech It'll be done by tomorrow!!


Merlin
BP6 2x500 Mendicino cores
Radeon 7500
640 Megs PC133
Benq Dual Layer DVD Burner
CD burner
Mirconet gigabit Nic
10 gig main hd
80 gig mp3 and program stores
InactiveX
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Post by InactiveX »

That's great Merlin55. Thanks for giving us the info.
Like BP6.com? Not a member?
Then why the hell not? It's great!
-> BP6.com Membership <-
qmice
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2005 1:14 am

Bad Capacitors...

Post by qmice »

Dear all,

Say hi here to everyone from HK. I am planning to change all capacitors tonight but I can't get 2200uF @6.3V.

What I have purchased today is:-
12 x 2200uF @10V &
12 x 1000uF @16V....

as I'm not very familiar with electronic, if I change them all with my mb, will it cost any problems ? Thanks for advise.
InactiveX
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Post by InactiveX »

Hello qmice! Hello Hong Kong!

I would advise that you try to find the correctly rated capacitors before you replace anything. I'm afraid I don't know where you could purchase them in your part of the world. Maybe you could try contacting Abit.
Like BP6.com? Not a member?
Then why the hell not? It's great!
-> BP6.com Membership <-
davd_bob
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Post by davd_bob »

bumb
(I had to pat myself on the back.)
Dave Rave
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Post by Dave Rave »

/me smax davd_bob

I recently re-capped a Soltek board
23 caps from memory
cost about $12-15 for caps
from a local sort of supplier who can buy in bulk so you can buy 2 and 3 caps at a time

apart from correct voltages
the darn things come in different sizes
which can be a pain ....

I had three caps neatly in a row, like ooo
but the replacements were like OOO
ones in
one's about 30 degrees and the third is pretty much lying on its side
lucky there was room
board is happy
yeehaa

might be doing two more soon
uncle has a nice Abit BX133 raid board
KliK
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Post by KliK »

i had replaced my caps on the BE6 bo4ard, which i wanted to use with Tualatin...but the board doesn't work anymore...

do you know anybody that can help?! prferably in Europe...
KliK
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Post by KliK »

i had replaced my caps on the BE6 bo4ard, which i wanted to use with Tualatin...but the board doesn't work anymore...

do you know anybody that can help?! prferably in Europe...
g0fvt
Posts: 110
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2002 3:32 pm
Location: Hertfordshire UK

Capacitors

Post by g0fvt »

I know this thread has not moved for ages, however my BP6s are still running strong with their replacement capacitors. I know a lot of disbelievers slated me for using such relatively large value capacitors.

FWIW ALL of the 1000uF and 1500uF caps were replaced with 4700uF, as was the infamous EC10. The BP6 beside me is still running as a server, 24/7 (OpenBsd) and I expect will continue to do so for a time to come.
I dread to think how many extra overclocked cycles it has sneaked in over the years.... (I found the Highpoint more reliable with a small overclock) now retired to server duty not a watercooled racing computer any more!

I need to do the maths!

Good to see a few posts in living memory!
g0fvt
Posts: 110
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2002 3:32 pm
Location: Hertfordshire UK

Capacitors

Post by g0fvt »

oops
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