Bad Capacitors - Oh My

Just opened up my son's computer to figure out why it's crashing. Found a bunch of busted caps on the video card.

I have had replace dozens of Caps over the last several years.
WTF , Can electronic manufacturers make a decent electrolytic capacitor any more?

I've replaced caps on everything from motherboards to lcds.

So if anyone here every here has a nice piece of electronic equipment die on them. Crack it open and look for bad capacitors. they are fairly easy to spot.

Bad Caps on a LCD

You sir, may have just helped me fix my laptop.

Now, how do I open this thing? O.o

(My Dell Inspiron 1721 bricked a few months ago, I've no clue what caused it.)

You sir, may have just helped me fix my laptop.

Now, how do I open this thing? O.o

(My Dell Inspiron 1721 bricked a few months ago, I've no clue what caused it.)

Dell 1720 disassemble

There is not many of those type capacitors in laptops.

What are the symptoms? Is it totally dead? What kind of graphics does it have?

Okay, thank you.

Symtoms: No POST, no responsiveness/usefulness but power.
I was playing WoW, but I noticed the graphics were a bit flaky in some places. A bit later... POW!! The screen went black, and the sound stuttered for about 5 seconds before stopping.

I then hard reset the unresponsive box, and played for about 45 minutes before it happened again. Did this cycle a few times, providing about 10-45 minutes between each try, because I feared my laptop was overheated, but the uptime just got shorter each try.

Eventully, the graphics just got twisted, scrambled, and discolored instead of blacking out, and I didn't even get a POST screen when I tried to reboot, and the laptop doesn't make its normal booting noises.
You can hear the cooling fan working when you turn it on, but that's it. The DVD drive doesn't open either.

I talked to hardware-savvy geeks (I'm more software-savvy), they said it sounds like my motherboard is defective. Has an integrated ATi Radeon X1270 Gfx Chip (It got the job done, usually.) on it too.

Symtoms: No POST, no responsiveness/usefulness but power.
I was playing WoW, but I noticed the graphics were a bit flaky in some places. A bit later... POW!! The screen went black, and the sound stuttered for about 5 seconds before stopping.

I was playing WoW, but I noticed the graphics were a bit flaky in some places.

I was playing WoW

:O :O :O

That does sound like a mobo, Some places will repair laptop motherboards.
I sent a laptop video card to a gentleman in Greece and he fixed it for about $80.

Okay. Thanks, Silica.

Vaan, is there some stigma towards WoW players I should know about? It's because I'm Alliance, ISN'T IT?! xD

Okay. Thanks, Silica.

Vaan, is there some stigma towards WoW players I should know about? It's because I'm Alliance, ISN'T IT?! xD

Diablo II > EVE > Guild Wars > Perfect World > World of Warcraft

Played them all, but can't stand WoW. Diablo II and Guild Wars are my favorite two, EVE is a bit complicated. Out of the loot and grind fests I think Diablo and Diablo II were the only ones that didn't get old even though you were doing essentially the same thing over and over. Guild Wars has a really low level cap which forces you to use strategy in building your character.

Guild wars was pretty fun. Want Guild Wars 2!

As to capacitors I've never actually had any fail on me. I'd probably just buy a whole new component rather than fiddling about trying to replace just the capacitor.

Guild wars was pretty fun. Want Guild Wars 2!

As to capacitors I've never actually had any fail on me. I'd probably just buy a whole new component rather than fiddling about trying to replace just the capacitor.

I enjoy it, The last thing I recapped was a 22" LCD it took $4 in parts and about an hour of my time.

It's also good to know that way you could identify a faulty motherboard or video card just by inspecting the capacitors.

When I was about ten at grandparents house with a bunch of relatives the 25" crt tv in huge wooden console went out. I took the cardboard/pressboard back cover off and saw a cap that had become a confetti popper. Got a new one and soldered it in and everyone thought I was a genius

When I was about ten at grandparents house with a bunch of relatives the 25" crt tv in huge wooden console went out. I took the cardboard/pressboard back cover off and saw a cap that had become a confetti popper. Got a new one and soldered it in and everyone thought I was a genius

That's Awesome! Your lucky you didn't zap yourself, TVs can give you a good zap even after they are unplugged.