Replacing bad caps

My 8RDA+ just died presumably due to the bad caps (they are bulging,
leaking). After months of taking 2 or 3 tries to boot (good a "no video
signal" error message and never saw a boot screen), it finally would not
boot at all. I put in a spare 8KHA+ and am up and running again. Wondering
if anyone has successfully replaced the bad caps and got a dead mobo working
again?

Lee MacMillan wrote:
> My 8RDA+ just died presumably due to the bad caps (they are bulging,
> leaking). After months of taking 2 or 3 tries to boot (good a "no video
> signal" error message and never saw a boot screen), it finally would not
> boot at all. I put in a spare 8KHA+ and am up and running again. Wondering
> if anyone has successfully replaced the bad caps and got a dead mobo working
> again?

The idea is, to replace them, BEFORE some other components
get damaged. When a cap fails completely, there can be
collateral damage. (Do a visual inspection.)

Generally, if you're going to recap the board, you should
do it when you see the first cap bulging. You can do all
similar ones at the same time, because the others presumably
are not far behind. Sometimes you get lucky, and the board
is a mix of some good quality ones and some bad ones, and
you save a few bucks by only doing all the bad quality ones.

I wouldn't say, that pulling caps out of a board, is my
favorite task. The problem is, the cap may be soldered
to a solid copper plane, and those soak up the heat from
the soldering iron. Sometimes, it is hard to get enough
heat into the solder joint, to melt it.

One of my former employers had a good idea. In the design
tools, the holes for capacitors were made over sized (bordering
on sloppy). It made it dead simple, to remove and replace a
cap. Another place I worked, some genius set the hole size,
for a close to interference fit. That made working on PCBs
pure misery. Stuff was very hard to get out, even with
a vacuum desoldering station.

HTH,
Paul

"Paul" <> wrote in message news:fq4kff$i7j$...
> Lee MacMillan wrote:
> > My 8RDA+ just died presumably due to the bad caps (they are bulging,
> > leaking). After months of taking 2 or 3 tries to boot (good a "no video
> > signal" error message and never saw a boot screen), it finally would not
> > boot at all. I put in a spare 8KHA+ and am up and running again.
Wondering
> > if anyone has successfully replaced the bad caps and got a dead mobo
working
> > again?
>
> The idea is, to replace them, BEFORE some other components
> get damaged. When a cap fails completely, there can be
> collateral damage. (Do a visual inspection.)
>
> Generally, if you're going to recap the board, you should
> do it when you see the first cap bulging. You can do all
> similar ones at the same time, because the others presumably
> are not far behind. Sometimes you get lucky, and the board
> is a mix of some good quality ones and some bad ones, and
> you save a few bucks by only doing all the bad quality ones.
>
> I wouldn't say, that pulling caps out of a board, is my
> favorite task. The problem is, the cap may be soldered
> to a solid copper plane, and those soak up the heat from
> the soldering iron. Sometimes, it is hard to get enough
> heat into the solder joint, to melt it.
>
> One of my former employers had a good idea. In the design
> tools, the holes for capacitors were made over sized (bordering
> on sloppy). It made it dead simple, to remove and replace a
> cap. Another place I worked, some genius set the hole size,
> for a close to interference fit. That made working on PCBs
> pure misery. Stuff was very hard to get out, even with
> a vacuum desoldering station.
>
> HTH,
> Paul

There are only 5 caps that are bulging, the 4 tall ones in a row and one
other. I may give it a shot just as an academic exercise. If it doesn't
work, I've only out a few bucks for the caps.

Thanks.

Lee MacMillan wrote:
> "Paul" <> wrote in message
> news:fq4kff$i7j$...
>> Lee MacMillan wrote:
>>> My 8RDA+ just died presumably due to the bad caps (they are bulging,
>>> leaking). After months of taking 2 or 3 tries to boot (good a "no
>>> video signal" error message and never saw a boot screen), it
>>> finally would not boot at all. I put in a spare 8KHA+ and am up
>>> and running again. Wondering if anyone has successfully replaced
>>> the bad caps and got a dead mobo working again?
>>
>> The idea is, to replace them, BEFORE some other components
>> get damaged. When a cap fails completely, there can be
>> collateral damage. (Do a visual inspection.)
>>
>> Generally, if you're going to recap the board, you should
>> do it when you see the first cap bulging. You can do all
>> similar ones at the same time, because the others presumably
>> are not far behind. Sometimes you get lucky, and the board
>> is a mix of some good quality ones and some bad ones, and
>> you save a few bucks by only doing all the bad quality ones.
>>
>> I wouldn't say, that pulling caps out of a board, is my
>> favorite task. The problem is, the cap may be soldered
>> to a solid copper plane, and those soak up the heat from
>> the soldering iron. Sometimes, it is hard to get enough
>> heat into the solder joint, to melt it.
>>
>> One of my former employers had a good idea. In the design
>> tools, the holes for capacitors were made over sized (bordering
>> on sloppy). It made it dead simple, to remove and replace a
>> cap. Another place I worked, some genius set the hole size,
>> for a close to interference fit. That made working on PCBs
>> pure misery. Stuff was very hard to get out, even with
>> a vacuum desoldering station.
>>
>> HTH,
>> Paul
>
> There are only 5 caps that are bulging, the 4 tall ones in a row and
> one other. I may give it a shot just as an academic exercise. If it
> doesn't work, I've only out a few bucks for the caps.
>
> Thanks.

I replaced the failing caps on my 8k7a+. Still working. I removed the old
caps [easy], drilled the existing holes out with a pin vise [available at
most hardware stores - ] and used a #60 drill .. just the right size for
inserting the caps and soldering.

--
Zyp

"Zyp" <> wrote in message
news:0sqdnc5uOs8lTFTanZ2dnUVZ_qelnZ2d@championbroa dband.com...
> Lee MacMillan wrote:
> > "Paul" <> wrote in message
> > news:fq4kff$i7j$...
> >> Lee MacMillan wrote:
> >>> My 8RDA+ just died presumably due to the bad caps (they are bulging,
> >>> leaking). After months of taking 2 or 3 tries to boot (good a "no
> >>> video signal" error message and never saw a boot screen), it
> >>> finally would not boot at all. I put in a spare 8KHA+ and am up
> >>> and running again. Wondering if anyone has successfully replaced
> >>> the bad caps and got a dead mobo working again?
> >>
> >> The idea is, to replace them, BEFORE some other components
> >> get damaged. When a cap fails completely, there can be
> >> collateral damage. (Do a visual inspection.)
> >>
> >> Generally, if you're going to recap the board, you should
> >> do it when you see the first cap bulging. You can do all
> >> similar ones at the same time, because the others presumably
> >> are not far behind. Sometimes you get lucky, and the board
> >> is a mix of some good quality ones and some bad ones, and
> >> you save a few bucks by only doing all the bad quality ones.
> >>
> >> I wouldn't say, that pulling caps out of a board, is my
> >> favorite task. The problem is, the cap may be soldered
> >> to a solid copper plane, and those soak up the heat from
> >> the soldering iron. Sometimes, it is hard to get enough
> >> heat into the solder joint, to melt it.
> >>
> >> One of my former employers had a good idea. In the design
> >> tools, the holes for capacitors were made over sized (bordering
> >> on sloppy). It made it dead simple, to remove and replace a
> >> cap. Another place I worked, some genius set the hole size,
> >> for a close to interference fit. That made working on PCBs
> >> pure misery. Stuff was very hard to get out, even with
> >> a vacuum desoldering station.
> >>
> >> HTH,
> >> Paul
> >
> > There are only 5 caps that are bulging, the 4 tall ones in a row and
> > one other. I may give it a shot just as an academic exercise. If it
> > doesn't work, I've only out a few bucks for the caps.
> >
> > Thanks.
>
> I replaced the failing caps on my 8k7a+. Still working. I removed the
old
> caps [easy], drilled the existing holes out with a pin vise [available at
> most hardware stores - ] and used a #60 drill .. just the right size for
> inserting the caps and soldering.
>
> --
> Zyp
>
>

I removed the 4 worst ones yesterday without much problem. I can even see
light thru the holes but I don't think the are big enough for the leads on a
new cap. Upon closer examination, I see 5 or 6 more that are bulging a
little but not leaking yet. Haven't decided if I want to bother yet but
thanks for the tip.

Lee MacMillan wrote:
> "Zyp" <> wrote in message
> news:0sqdnc5uOs8lTFTanZ2dnUVZ_qelnZ2d@championbroa dband.com...
>> Lee MacMillan wrote:
>>> "Paul" <> wrote in message
>>> news:fq4kff$i7j$...
>>>> Lee MacMillan wrote:
>>>>> My 8RDA+ just died presumably due to the bad caps (they are
>>>>> bulging, leaking). After months of taking 2 or 3 tries to boot
>>>>> (good a "no video signal" error message and never saw a boot
>>>>> screen), it finally would not boot at all. I put in a spare
>>>>> 8KHA+ and am up and running again. Wondering if anyone has
>>>>> successfully replaced the bad caps and got a dead mobo working
>>>>> again?
>>>>
>>>> The idea is, to replace them, BEFORE some other components
>>>> get damaged. When a cap fails completely, there can be
>>>> collateral damage. (Do a visual inspection.)
>>>>
>>>> Generally, if you're going to recap the board, you should
>>>> do it when you see the first cap bulging. You can do all
>>>> similar ones at the same time, because the others presumably
>>>> are not far behind. Sometimes you get lucky, and the board
>>>> is a mix of some good quality ones and some bad ones, and
>>>> you save a few bucks by only doing all the bad quality ones.
>>>>
>>>> I wouldn't say, that pulling caps out of a board, is my
>>>> favorite task. The problem is, the cap may be soldered
>>>> to a solid copper plane, and those soak up the heat from
>>>> the soldering iron. Sometimes, it is hard to get enough
>>>> heat into the solder joint, to melt it.
>>>>
>>>> One of my former employers had a good idea. In the design
>>>> tools, the holes for capacitors were made over sized (bordering
>>>> on sloppy). It made it dead simple, to remove and replace a
>>>> cap. Another place I worked, some genius set the hole size,
>>>> for a close to interference fit. That made working on PCBs
>>>> pure misery. Stuff was very hard to get out, even with
>>>> a vacuum desoldering station.
>>>>
>>>> HTH,
>>>> Paul
>>>
>>> There are only 5 caps that are bulging, the 4 tall ones in a row and
>>> one other. I may give it a shot just as an academic exercise. If
>>> it doesn't work, I've only out a few bucks for the caps.
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>
>> I replaced the failing caps on my 8k7a+. Still working. I removed
>> the old caps [easy], drilled the existing holes out with a pin vise
>> [available at most hardware stores - ] and used a #60 drill .. just
>> the right size for inserting the caps and soldering.
>>
>> --
>> Zyp
>>
>>
>
> I removed the 4 worst ones yesterday without much problem. I can
> even see light thru the holes but I don't think the are big enough
> for the leads on a new cap. Upon closer examination, I see 5 or 6
> more that are bulging a little but not leaking yet. Haven't decided
> if I want to bother yet but thanks for the tip.

yw - Good luck

--
Zyp