p4t-533 leaking capacitors?

H

highband678

I have a p4t533 running the legacy 3.06 GHz 533MHz FSB, 1 gig of 1066 RDRAM.
I have the system currently running at 3.19 GHz, memory stable passes OCA
memory diagnostics with no failures. My vcore runs at 1.68 near the top.

What I notice however is that all of the seven large capacitors by the CPU
in between the wire wraps have what appear to be "dried crude" on thier
tops. Like something is leaking out.

Should this be cleaned off or pushed back in?
 
S

Stephan Grossklass

highband678 said:
I have a p4t533 running the legacy 3.06 GHz 533MHz FSB, 1 gig of 1066 RDRAM.
I have the system currently running at 3.19 GHz, memory stable passes OCA
memory diagnostics with no failures. My vcore runs at 1.68 near the top.
Click to expand...

Hmm, that's about the very maximum voltage I'd use in the long run.
What I notice however is that all of the seven large capacitors by the CPU
in between the wire wraps have what appear to be "dried crude" on thier
tops. Like something is leaking out.
Click to expand...

Not good.
Should this be cleaned off or pushed back in?
Click to expand...

Neither. Looks like the board is a case for in-warranty repair.

Stephan
 
P

Paul

Stephan Grossklass said:
Hmm, that's about the very maximum voltage I'd use in the long run.


Not good.


Neither. Looks like the board is a case for in-warranty repair.

Stephan
Click to expand...

The capacitors are toast. You will eventually fail to POST, in the
very near future. If the warranty is still in effect, use it, or
visit the Abit newsgroup and look for "Homey" or "Bigbadger", as
they replace capacitors on boards. Homey charges somewhere around
$50.

Aluminum electrolytic capacitors use a liquid (electrolyte) between
the plates of the capacitor. Even at the best of times, these
have a lifetime of about 10 years. Lifetime is shortened if the
temperature around them is high - so if a HSF blows hot air on
them, that isn't good for them.

Also, the more current that flows through them, the warmer they will
get. The current that flows is from their filtering effect. The
reason there are so many capacitors, is Asus figures out the maximum
current a Pentium requires, then they share the current load over
multiple capacitors. If you overclock, this causes extra current
to flow, which doesn't help matters. When one capacitor fails, it
means the other capacitors have to carry the extra current of their
mate, which means there will be a runaway effect until all caps are
dead (i.e. reduced bypass effect).

There are capacitors, like "OSCONs", intended specifically for
switching power supplies. It generally takes fewer of these to do
the job. Motherboards are usually constructed with the cheaper
variety, and that is why there are so many.

I would look for the board to be out of commission for a month or
so, no matter what you do.

HTH,
Paul
 
H

highband678

Paul said:
The capacitors are toast. You will eventually fail to POST, in the
very near future. If the warranty is still in effect, use it, or
visit the Abit newsgroup and look for "Homey" or "Bigbadger", as
they replace capacitors on boards. Homey charges somewhere around
$50.

Aluminum electrolytic capacitors use a liquid (electrolyte) between
the plates of the capacitor. Even at the best of times, these
have a lifetime of about 10 years. Lifetime is shortened if the
temperature around them is high - so if a HSF blows hot air on
them, that isn't good for them.
Click to expand...

This machine is water cooled and does not have a HSF but I wonder if a fan
would help to keep the capaicitors cool?
Also, the more current that flows through them, the warmer they will
get. The current that flows is from their filtering effect. The
reason there are so many capacitors, is Asus figures out the maximum
current a Pentium requires, then they share the current load over
multiple capacitors. If you overclock, this causes extra current
to flow, which doesn't help matters. When one capacitor fails, it
means the other capacitors have to carry the extra current of their
mate, which means there will be a runaway effect until all caps are
dead (i.e. reduced bypass effect).
Click to expand...

If I run at vcore of 1.7, the audio reporter says "vcore out of range"
repeatedly. 1.7 is the upper range value allowed, but its displayed in red
and I apparentedly cant use that value now.

I noticed this leakage on November 11, 2003 through the case window. I dont
know if its getting worse but all the voltage levels from asus probe look
normal. This system has an Antec tru power 431 power supply which is right
on the published levels it is supposed to work at according to the
voltmeter.

It sounds like I better find my purchase papers and prepare for a warranty
call.

Thanks for the information.
 
J

Jeff Labute

too late now...
I would say if the caps have already been breached... you should
RMA the board before the caps short out and take out something with them.
I've had friends with powersupply filtering caps that have died..and it
starts to
destroy other parts in the computer...slowly but surely.

Jeff

best be safe
 
A

Arnie Berger

highband678 said:
I have a p4t533 running the legacy 3.06 GHz 533MHz FSB, 1 gig of 1066 RDRAM.
I have the system currently running at 3.19 GHz, memory stable passes OCA
memory diagnostics with no failures. My vcore runs at 1.68 near the top.

What I notice however is that all of the seven large capacitors by the CPU
in between the wire wraps have what appear to be "dried crude" on thier
tops. Like something is leaking out.

Should this be cleaned off or pushed back in?
Click to expand...

This s a known problem with many of the Taiwan motherboards. It really
hit ABIT hard. Lots of warranty returns. A very large batch of bad
capacitors was used by several of the big mobo manufacturers. There is
a guy on the ABIT forum (Homie) who started a repair business. He'll
do the fix or sell you the parts. He gets rave reviews.

Arnie
 
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