VP6 Boards are dying! Damn caps!!!! But we have 2 different VP6's here, one with the detachable "Greenie" chipset heatsink and ones with the black epoxied heatsinks. The ones with the black epoxied ones are blowing all thier caps (Maybe because they are 2+ years old and never turn off.) But why would this one kick the bucket before the ones with the greenie? They were all bought the same time long ago. Doh @ Abit
Hi again, my VP is dying at the moment, will post results when I fit new caps to it and to the BP. Both have been crashy for a few weeks and both show physical signs that the caps are dying. Also a friends BPs are dying will do them all plus another pc (non Abit)
A lot of boards suffer from the same problems as the BP6 and VP6; you're not alone. Though some motherboards (with the cap. problems) seem to be better off than others.
Would one of you with cap problems describe the physical appearance of the failing components, eg. packaging colour, and branding, or whatever? Thanks.
the direct signs of a failing capacitor
1: a loud pop and a god-awful smell of burnt electolyte (you will know when one pops)
2: a bulging capacitor, mainly the top will buldge out, look at a new capacitor and notice how it's very flat at the top, then look for some that aren't flat...
those are the 2 most assuredly ways i know of by just looking at a cap to see if it's bad
Big electrolytics dying smell disturbingly like babies nappies/diapers!
On the top of the capacitors you will see some stamped in marking in a Y shape or similar, these are engineered to rupture before dangerous pressure build up takes place. I have been hit by the flying can of a suddenly failed electrolytic in the past and it stings!
As described above if the tops of the capacitors are not flat the chances are that they are on the way to failure, on my VP if you look at all of the capacitors some are noticeably flatter than others, on the BP some are decidely pointy and they are beginning to rupture....
In my case I am going to replace them with larger value capacitors with especially low esr rating and high ripple current rating, I have found some capacitors stocked by Maplin in the UK and intend to replace the larger value capacitors with 4700uF 10v capacitors. I am not short of clearance in either of these computers so can stand slightly taller than standard capacitors. I am sticking with 10mm diameter capacitors so they will fit ok in the places where they stand in line.... I will post an update when I have done one, Xmas was expensive so roll on pay day!
there was no real smell or popping, maybe happened over time, machines @ work never turned off, did notice buldging caps, were black ones, and over 3/4 of em were blown, only noticed freezing when trying to move files
Kunn, I believe abit would even fix an abit BP6 if it had failing caps for the same price, has anyoen tried? Do they just pop of the caps and feed it back thru the machine or hand do it?
I will try to take some pics of the duff capacitors, looking again I see two of them in the BP6 associated with the front CPU are actually growing white fur on top. Since I am off work today while my car is being serviced I am sorely tempted to fix it with whatever capcitors I can find around the house.
I was really asking about the appearance of the caps before they go bad, to see if there is any sort of pattern emerging as to which motherboards are likely to fail. For example, my BP6 which has no sign of failing, has dark green caps with gold markings.
gabumon wrote:did notice buldging caps, were black ones,
Do you mean the caps had turned black, or they had black packaging to start with?
No. I just want to try this fix on my BP6 that is O/C'd to 110Mhz. It locks up randomly. EC10 is 100uF. If it works, it may be a good thing to do for any BP6 that will O/C'd.
Just an upddate, my BP6 and VP6 both had capacitors die, within a month of each other. I took the unusual step of changing to larger value capacitors at every location. Both running happily with loads of 4,700uF capacitors (including ec10 on the BP) will update my crappy website soon.
That's great news, g0fvt! I got an email back from the capman indicating that he is repairing more mainboards than ever. BP6 mainboard repair is $55 (US). I'm saving my pennies and will be sending one of my BP6's to him.
InactiveX wrote:I was really asking about the appearance of the caps before they go bad, to see if there is any sort of pattern emerging as to which motherboards are likely to fail. For example, my BP6 which has no sign of failing, has dark green caps with gold markings.
gabumon wrote:did notice buldging caps, were black ones,
Do you mean the caps had turned black, or they had black packaging to start with?
The caps were black to begin with, seems the newer replaced ones are green, we havent had any problems with the green ones (even older ones that have not been fixed) I got my vp6 board in the mail 2 days ago, and im glad to say its once again working 100%
