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Thread ID: 110725 2010-06-29 14:05:00 Capacitor plague zqwerty (97) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1114556 2010-06-29 14:05:00 I know this issue has come up many times on PressF1 but not sure whether this Wikipedia entry has been posted. It seems very informative to me and not long-winded:

en.wikipedia.org
zqwerty (97)
1114557 2010-06-29 21:44:00 "which confirmed the presence of dissolved aluminum in the Taiwanese capacitors' electrolyte, but not in Japanese ones.

Major vendors such as Intel, Dell and HP were directly affected."


Quality is always a good idea.
pctek (84)
1114558 2010-06-29 21:48:00 Oh yeah, I know much about this. My old school had a big batch of emacs with the bad capacitors in them. nedkelly (9059)
1114559 2010-06-30 01:09:00 Something relevant.

arstechnica.com

the NY Times article
www.nytimes.com
KarameaDave (15222)
1114560 2010-06-30 01:18:00 The law firm that is defending Dell had 1000 PCs that were affected by the issue, and Dell didn't want to fix them. That's gold. :lol: wratterus (105)
1114561 2010-06-30 01:20:00 And Dell balked at fixing them!:lol::groan::lol:

And don't use their machines for complex mathematical calculations as
that will wear them out :D
KarameaDave (15222)
1114562 2010-06-30 01:31:00 Wow.
"A scientist steals a secret formula for an electrical product from his Japanese employer and takes it to China. Then it is stolen again and turns up in Taiwan. But something goes wrong - and thousands, perhaps millions, of computers and electrical goods in the West begin to burn out or explode.

"It sounds like the plot of a thriller, but it's reality. Thousands of computers have failed and nobody is sure how many more products might go wrong because their capacitors - essential components to control the power supply - were made with faulty materials."

www.guardian.co.uk
wratterus (105)
1114563 2010-06-30 01:52:00 I think the problem is far from resolved, there are many brands of capacitor which are cheap and do not last long.

I have repaired several LCD monitors which were only 2-3 years old and all had failed capacitors.

There seems to be some debate over if the capacitors are just old stock with the incomplete formula or new stock which are just cheap and nasty. I do not really know. All I know is if it's not Japanese made, I don't think I would trust it for use in any kind of SMPS or Motherboard\Graphics card etc.
Agent_24 (57)
1114564 2010-06-30 02:02:00 It's a pity really, stuff should be built to last, but with these poor capacitors, you get a cheap something or rather and voila, after 3 years or so it needs re-capping.

People should really demand reliability and buy based on how long it lasts and not how cheap it is in the first place

But then again with tech advancing the way it is, who cares if your 5 year old computer fails if it's only worth $50 on Trademe anyway
forrest44 (754)
1114565 2010-06-30 02:24:00 LCD Monitors and TVs will stay longer in my opinion because they don't go out of date very fast.

I would expect a motherboard to be out of date in 3 years but I would expect to keep my monitor a lot longer.

So when a 22" LCD Monitor dies in 3 years or less because of bad capacitors in the PSU that is pathetic
Agent_24 (57)
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