About capacitors for PC motherboards...

~misfit~ · 2006-08-27T21:56:23+00:00

Hi folks, new poster, electronically challenged....I hope you will be kind enough to help me, I face the following problem:I have a motherboard in one of my PCs that has gone all flakey. It has bad cap syndrome. The low ESR electrolytic aluminium can caps are bulging and leaking. I know that this problem was rife around 2000/2001 but thought it fixed by the time I bought this board, 2003. Sadly not true. The board itself has been, up until the caps failed, an excellent, stable and very useful bit of kit.I have replaced capacitors on motherboards before with success so am not worried about that side of things. My problem lies in the fact that I live in New Zealand. It seems that it's just about impossible to get a handful of caps the same specs as the ones on the board anywhere. I've found suppliers in the US but not any who will ship *outside* of the US. As I assemble computers for a hobby and used this same model mobo in a few different builds for friends I'm expecting to see others with the same problem soon too.Ok, so the main caps I need are low ESR, 3,300uF, 6.3v, 10mm can, 5mm lead-spacing (25mm high but that's unimportant, there's room to go higher) electrolytic caps. I can't seem to source these anywhere in this wonderful country of mine. I've been told I can get them in 15mm diameter cans which is unacceptable as there is a row of five tightly satcked together. I've tried for Nichcon and Rubycon first as I hear that these are good caps. The local Nichicon agent said they don't have them ex-stock but could order them in. A minimum order of 2K pieces and a 90-day turn-around! I need 5 for a start, maybe another 20 later. You wouldn't believe how difficult a seemingly easy thing like this has turned out to be.So, to the advice I'd like: A year or two back, when I first struck motherboards with bad caps a guy I met on a NZ newsgroup offered to get me some suitable caps as part of his next order (which lead me to assume he was "in the trade"). The caps needed...

Aug 27, 2006 41 Replies

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Dr.V 19 years ago

Hi Shaun,

Have you given consideration to moving to the USA? You seem like a very employable person who could carve out a lucrative career here.

Dr.Vido

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Homer J Simpson 19 years ago

There are so many Yanks who want to move to Kiwiland and so many Kiwis who want to move to the USA there ought to be an exchange plan.

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