[SOLVED] Capacitors swelled are causing the failure?

[brutzza]

Hi, I'm having a failure that I think it's the motherboard.
It's and old MB, with 80 GB IDE HDD and IDE ODD, 2 GB RAM DDR2.
It has a few Electrolytic capacitors and 4 or 5 are swelled. Maybe this is the reason it is failing?
The failure consists in after a few minutes of turning it on, the image goes off, like when unplugging the VGA (it shows on monitor the "not signal" sign) but the computer stays on, doesn't make any different noise than when the image is on. It can happen when you are in Windows, when you're signing in, when Windows is loading..... BUT never when the famous old letters screen of "press F1 to continue, F2 to setup, F8 to boot menu" after the logo appears. That's weird too (dont think so but maybe the IDE HDD is doing that?).
I tried switching the memory ram to the other slot but it doesn't turn on so maybe the slot is bad (bit weird tho but doesn't affect in my diagnosis of the main failure).
Any ideas?
I'm gonna put a sata hdd with another PSU because this one is such old that it doesn't have the power sata cable.
Don't have another DDR2 DIMM to try...

Thanks in advance.

 

[R_1]

"Maybe this is the reason it is failing? "
yes

whatever device the capacitor is connected to is not getting proper power.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Hi, I'm having a failure that I think it's the motherboard.
...
It has a few Electrolytic capacitors and 4 or 5 are swelled. Maybe this is the reason it is failing?
...

Blown electrolytics are certainly reason enough for any of a number of other imminent problems, even if not this one. It's really not worth trying to nail it down any more than you have. I'd suggest a new new motherboard and probably full-on upgrade as electrolytic caps and 80Gb HDD's suggest this one's hopelessly outdated.

Going to a SATA for this alone probably isn't worth it either; except it would also be useful in the new system.

 

[brutzza]

I thought so... thanks
Now I need to check if there are any weldings on the other side of the motherboard to remove the capactiros and replace them.
I think this board is not like a PSU's board that you can replace any component easily just by turning it over and do any weldings, you know what I mean?

It's a client of mine that is old and uses this computer to watch movies in Netflix, won't do any upgrade nor have the money I think. If I can do it, I'll replace the caps and hope the problem is solved. But I'm afraid I won't be able to remove them in the motherboard.

 

[kanewolf]

Hi, I'm having a failure that I think it's the motherboard.
It's and old MB, with 80 GB IDE HDD and IDE ODD, 2 GB RAM DDR2.
It has a few Electrolytic capacitors and 4 or 5 are swelled. Maybe this is the reason it is failing?
The failure consists in after a few minutes of turning it on, the image goes off, like when unplugging the VGA (it shows on monitor the "not signal" sign) but the computer stays on, doesn't make any different noise than when the image is on. It can happen when you are in Windows, when you're signing in, when Windows is loading..... BUT never when the famous old letters screen of "press F1 to continue, F2 to setup, F8 to boot menu" after the logo appears. That's weird too (dont think so but maybe the IDE HDD is doing that?).
I tried switching the memory ram to the other slot but it doesn't turn on so maybe the slot is bad (bit weird tho but doesn't affect in my diagnosis of the main failure).
Any ideas?
I'm gonna put a sata hdd with another PSU because this one is such old that it doesn't have the power sata cable.
Don't have another DDR2 DIMM to try...

Thanks in advance.

I would recommend posting some pictures. Swollen is a subjective term. Get a second opinion.

 

[drea.drechsler]

I thought so... thanks
Now I need to check if there are any weldings on the other side of the motherboard to remove the capactiros and replace them.
I think this board is not like a PSU's board that you can replace any component easily just by turning it over and do any weldings, you know what I mean?

It's a client of mine that is old and uses this computer to watch movies in Netflix, won't do any upgrade nor have the money I think. If I can do it, I'll replace the caps and hope the problem is solved. But I'm afraid I won't be able to remove them in the motherboard.

If you're going through trouble to repair, then replace every one of the electrolytics not just the ones that are swelling. They'll all be going soon enough. And being electrolytic cans they probably are leaded so you'll have solder pads on the motherboard bottom side.

Also be very suspicious of the PSU. As you noted it too has electrolytics and they too are probably close to the fail point if this thing is old enough.

I think you've done this before but do keep in mind that soldering on a motherboard is going to be a far cry different from a PSU's board with it's heavier copper thickness. Heat builds rapidly on lighter copper and you can easily lift a pad. A temperature controlled iron is a good idea. I try to cut away the old component by hacking at it with diagonal cutters until it's just a couple leads left on topside...that reduces the thermal mass considerably to reduce dwell time of the iron.

Some pictures would help.

 

[brutzza]

Thanks to everyone!
Really helpful!