oh, man... WAS: Re:is my power supply failing?

[Madison Kelly]

phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org wrote:
>>> I would now suspect that there are bubbling capacitors on your mainboard
>>> (it's a common problem these days). Look at some of the bigger
>>> capacitors
>>> and see if their tops are flat our round/bubbled (often you will see a
>>> little yellowish hardened 'goop' on the tops, too). If so, you need a
>>> new
>>> mainboard. .
>> nicely done!  in fact this is precisely my situation.
> 
> Actually, if you are handy with a soldering iron and solder sucker (or
> solder braid), you can identify the value of the defective capacitors,
> pick up a bunch of replacements at one of the electronic supply stores,
> desolder the defective ones, and replace them with new ones. I do know the
> tech folks at Ryerson EE department did this for some motherboards they
> needed to keep running. The replacement caps will cost pennies, so it's a
> cost-effective approach, but it is time consuming.
> 
> There is an interesting story around those capacitors, involving
> industrial intrigue and betrayals in the capacitor manufacturers. It was a
> scandal of major proportions in the EE world.
> 
> Peter

With long-reaching, high-level consequences... IBM, Intel and many other 
tier-1 brands and companies got burned over one SOB looking for a cheap 
buck. I bet the guys who kept the real recipe were laughing themselves 
to sleep each night knowing what was coming. Stuff movies are made of, 
frankly.

Madison
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