On this
page we are going to show you an example of bad capacitors on a
computer motherboard. We will discuss the motherboard specification,
the symptoms of this problematic board and the final repair outcome of
this motherboard.
We
were recently given a computer which would give occasional BSOD (Blue
screen of death) and
always provided grainy poor quality video. The computer would also when
shutting down not completely switch off. Although the computer was
switched off the power LED would remain on and you could then not
switch the computer back on. The only way to switch the PC back on was
to un-plug the PC from the wall socket and plug the supply back on. The
PC would then boot up again until the next shutdown. Any good graphic
applications would always cause a BSOD (Blue screen of death) using
either the internal graphics GPU or the use of any add on graphics card.
On opening the computer casing we noted that the motherboard was a
Biostar GeForce 6100-M9 with an AMD Athlon 3000+ 64 bit socket 939 CPU.
The main memory ram installed was 1GB with a Western Digital 80GB IDE
hard disk drive. Apart from the above symptoms the computer ran fine.
Straight away we noticed when looking at the main motherboard that
quite a
few of the electrolytic capacitors looked bad. Actual component testing
on todays modern circuit boards can be quite difficult without test
instruments. The use of specialist test meters and equipment is the
only way to satisfactorily test components.
Not everyone will have access to the specialist test equipment. We can
however sometimes assume failure of some components by visually looking
at these components.
Visual checking of a capacitor to determine failure is one example
where an electrolytic capacitor will look different to a good
electrolytic capacitor on a circuit board.
Below the image on the left shows what a good capacitor should look
like. On the right image we show an example of a bad capacitor. You
will notice that the bad capacitor casing on top is bloated where as
the good capacitor on the top is completely flat..
Image on the left shows a Good Capacitor ---- Image on the right shows a Bad Capacitor
You
may also notice that a bad capacitor has leaked from the top or bottom
with its electrolytic content. Capacitors can also go bad and show no
visible signs. The only way to test a capacitor which shows no visible
signs of failure is to measure the capacitors ESR and capacitance value
using an ESR meter. You can read our review on a great budget meter
called an ESR Micro which can be used for the correct method for
testing capacitors on http://www.punj.co.uk/punjwebfiles/electronics/microesr.html
On our motherboard we had five 3300uf 6.3V capacitors located near to
the CPU and two 1000uf 6.3V capacitors elsewhere on the board showing
the bulging effect of a bad capacitor.
As you can see on the image above the five capacitors which are next to
the CPU heat sink are bulging with some signs of electrolytic leakage.
It is advisable prior to removing the capacitors to make a sketch or
take photographs of where the capacitors are located on the
motherboard. The last thing you would want is to forget which capacitor
came from which location on the motherboard. You certainly don't want
to be putting in the wrong capacitors in the wrong location of the
motherboard. You must also take your time and double check each task
when carrying thiese procedures.
Removing capacitors on modern motherboards can be quite tricky. Most
modern motherboards are made of multiple layers interconnecting each
layer. Care must taken that the layers not visible on a motherboard are
not damaged when soldering or de-soldering. When removing these
components the soldering iron must be clean and hot enough to melt the
solder but not to hot that it will cause heat damage to the circuit
board tracks which may be visible or located within the un-visible
layers of the board. A good tip is to heat the lead of the capacitor
and wiggle and pull on one side then heat the other lead and do the
same to that. Eventually the capacitor will come out. The other problem
you may encounter is once the capacitor has been removed the component
hole is completely blocked with solder. Our tip to unblock these holes
is to apply some more solder on the blocked hole and then use a solder
sucker tool to suck the solder out of the hole. If you find that the
solder sucker is not totally unblocking the component hole then pushing
a stainless steel needle into the hole while holding the hot soldering
iron on to the blocked hole sometimes helps. The hot solder should not
stick to the stainless steel needle and therefore this tip should work.
Below we provide an image of the motherboard with the capacitors
removed.
Once the capacitors have been removed you should inspect the
motherboard with a magnifying glass to ensure that no solder that
should have been removed is shorting the board. If all looks well then
you are ready for the next procedure.
If you look at the image above, of the motherboard with the removed
capacitors you will notice where the capacitors came out there is a
symbol of a circle with one side coloured white. This white coloured
area shows us the polarity of the capacitor to be negative on this
white coloured side. The polarity of the capacitor is very important for
the correct function of the capacitor.
On our motherboard we chose our replacement of capacitors manufactured
by Panasonic and Nichicon. We wanted to ensure our replacement
capacitors were sourced from reputable manufactures. We chose the same
value capacitance and voltage for our replacement capacitors. You can
use higher voltage capacitors but you should ensure that the capacitor
leads are not to thick to put back into the motherboard component hole.
Once the new capacitors have been put into the motherboard always
double check before soldering that the correct values have been used.
It is quite easy to confuse and mistakenly use a 100uf capacitor
instead of the correct value 1000uf. Also check that you have inserted
correctly the polarity of the capacitor.
When soldering the new capacitors make sure that your soldering iron
tip is clean and tinned. Then solder your new replacement capacitors
ensuring that you obtain a good clean shiny soldered joint.
Above you will see an image of the motherboard with the new replaced
capacitors.
On completion of the soldering task you may want to clean the excess
flux deposits left behind by the soldering. We normally use a cotton
bud dipped into alcohol which works fine for us. Now is also a good
time to re-check the new capacitors to ensure that the correct values
have been used and that the motherboard is clean and ready for
re-installation.
On re-installation of the motherboard into the PC tower case we ensured
that all the add on cards and memory went back into the same slots as
originally found prior to stripping out the motherboard. If you do end
up using a different slot for your add on card or memory you may find
that the PC will not re-boot until you have cleared the CMOS and loaded
the default factory settings. Your motherboard manual should help to
locate the correct jumper on the motherboard to clear CMOS if you find
you have a blank screen.
For us the motherboard switched on straight away and booted straight in
to the XP operating system with out any problems. We used Everest to
stress test our repaired motherboard for two hours without encountering
any problems.
On completion we decided to test the faulty removed capacitors using
the ESR Micro V4 for measuring the capacitance and ESR
readings.
A good 3300uf capacitor should give us a measured capacitance reading
of the same value subject to the manufactures tolerance of about 10%
either side of the tolerance value. We would also expect the ESR
measured reading to be approximately 0.02 ohms. Testing the
removed bulging capacitors gave us typical measured readings of 138uf
capacitance and an ESR measurement of 36 ohms for the 3300uf capacitor.
This clearly showed that these capacitors were faulty and if left in
their current state they could have caused more severe problems to
other components on the motherboard.
In our final conclusion we can say that replacing the bad capacitors on
this motherboard completely resolved our previous problematic issues.
Our motherboard seems also quicker in load times and faster over all.
The whole cost of the five 3300uf 6.3V and two 1000uf 6.3V capacitors was
under £6.00 GBP including shipping. The whole task of replacing the
capacitors took approximately forty five minutes.
We hope our readers have enjoyed this
article on replacement of faulty bad capacitors on computer
motherboards and will come back to
www.punj.co.uk for our views on more technological
products.
Watch the video below and see bad capacitors on other motherboards
The second video shows capacitor being replaced on a imac G5