Legit Reviews

I picked up a used, and rather old (P4 @ 2.66GHz), computer for my father-in-law, to replace a pile of crap that he was using. I made the mistake of not checking it out inside before buying. It wasn't expensive, but I still have worries of possible problems. I noticed multiple capacitors were ruptured on the motherboard. What are the consequences of this? The machine is running fine as is right now, but I've never had a ruptured one before.

I'll try to upload a picture... though I'm on my phone and have no idea how well it'll work with the forum software..

Thanks for your input!

-Brian

Darn forum won't let me upload with my phone... I'll attach a picture later I suppose.

e-mail them to me and I'll post them

Usually you need to solder on some new ones to replace the faulty ones. It's inexpensive, but can be a pain to do.

I'm sure I'm capable of soldering stuff on. I don't have a soldering iron, but I'm sure I could pick one up. Do you know if there is anything involved in removing the old ones? I don't want to get zapped! LOL! Also, do you know where I may pick new ones up at? This is territory that I've never explored.

It depends... I have a few older motherboards with a few bulging/bad capacitors and the computers run fine. If too many are bad then it flat won't work. But a lot of those regulate the power to the motherboard/CPU/RAM/etc... so you might hit some stability issues. There's only one way to find out if it will work or not and that is try it. If you get it up and running throw some specific benchmarks/stability tests at it to test components.

*EDIT*
I see you already have it running. Should've read the whole post instead of skimming it.
CPU Test
LinX
I've found this beats the hell out of the CPU more than Prime95 and even OCCT.

RAM Test
Go with the old fashioned Super Pi Mod. Run a long iteration (16M or 32M) test. Generally if Super Pi Mod crashes or locks up it's a RAM issue.
Super Pi Mod v1.5

Motherboard Test
This one is a bit more tricky. You need specialized loop cables to really stress the system. But PassMark makes a suite that will run certain tests without those cables.
PassMark BurnInTest - Trialware

I have a stack of 10+ dead motherboards that I use for parts...

If you post pictures I can see if I can get some off the boards I have and just mail them to you.

Major, I will keep those tests in mind for testing it out and being rough with the hardware. Thank you for your input!! I'll definitely put the hardware through the torture test.


Nate, I finally got a chance to upload my image.... this came from my cell phone, so I hope it shows what you're needing to see. I think there may be a couple other blown ones, but I could be wrong. Otherwise I can grab my DSLR and snap some pics on Sunday, when I'm over there next. Let me know! Also, do you still have my cell #?

-Brian

*** CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE!!! ***

Those all look like they are associated with the PWM of the CPU. So who knows if the CPU is getting the correct voltage it needs. Too little can be just as bad as too much.

If you need capacitors then your best bet locally is a Radio Shack.


Maybe this guide/write-up will be helpful.
http://www.capacitorlab.com/replacing-m ... /index.htm

Well, I went to do some hopeful upgrades on this beast, but I didn't realize this was a completely different socket than the CPU I got from work. So, now I have a 2.8GHz P4 and 2GB of RAM... lol.

Since I had my DSLR with me today, I snapped a pic. Maybe these pics will better show what these capacitors control? I'm not an electronics expert.



*** CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE!!! ***

Full Image = 6.31 MB @ 8 MP

So you grabbed a Socket 775 from work? Basically the CPU doesn't have any pins?

Those caps look like s**t. I'm actually surprised the computer still works.

Major_A wrote:So you grabbed a Socket 775 from work? Basically the CPU doesn't have any pins?

Those caps look like s**t. I'm actually surprised the computer still works.

Yep, no pins. I swear when I took a quick glance at Intel's charts, it said there was a hyperthreaded CPU in the same socket. Maybe there is, and I just didn't realize that these old machines at work used the different socket. Oh well. If this machine ever dies, all I need is a new motherboard.

Yep, they do look like crapola. The computer does work great, though I haven't had the time to run through the torture tests to see what happens. I'll be buying a soldering iron for a photography project soon, so I will be able to replace the capacitors soon after. I took out a daughter board / riser board from the machine (whatever you want to call it), which has 3 smaller capacitors on it, so I'll be able to practice with it.

Looks like a 2000-3000 series dell, may have a board here you can have. What model PC is it?

I'm pretty sure it's an HP, but I'll double check when I get a chance.

I've seen boards die from cap failure.

Good luck with the replacement.