here is an article on BAD CHINESE CAPICATORS... >>LINK>> nice photos

[sam sarrha]

http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_30328/article.html
"snip...Early in 2002, stories began appearing in on-line news services and news groups about the high failure rates of electrolytic capacitors used on PC motherboards. Technicians were reporting that the capacitors were rupturing, leaking and even exploding like never before...."

[IDemo]

1. I'm familiar with that story

The bad caps were from Nichicon, a Japanese company which normally has an excellent reputation. They produced quite a stir when some Macintosh computers began failing because of them, but they were also used by other PC motherboard manufacturers. Dell may have suffered as well, if I recall. A bad manufacturing decision to save a few pennies wound up costing Nichicon in the long run.

"Nichicon" has become a code word for a poor vendor part where I work, probably unfairly.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

2. Interesting- just yesterday I RMA'd a failed mobo

The cause of the failure? A swelled capacitor. It was positioned next to one of the memory chip slots.

[Deja Q]

3. Dell used them big-time.

These days, most computers, mobos, video cards, etc, use solid state capacitors in solid metal cases. Sweetness...

[sodium]

4. This is a serious problem

I have discovered bad electrolytic caps in several motherboards and power supplies. Re-capping is not that difficult if you have basic soldering skills. Usually the tops of the electolytics start getting rounded first. http://www.badcaps.net is a good resource to find more info and technical assistance if you want to do it yourself. This site primarily deals with motherboards but in the forums section other consumer devices are covered.