Re: [tlug] Buy a computer with a potentially faulty condensor?

[Godwin Stewart <godwin.stewart@example.com>]

On Sun, 25 Dec 2005 18:43:46 +0900, Dave Gutteridge <dave@example.com>
wrote:

> 	Is buying a PC with a condensor that could fail in the future a
> poor risk to take?
> 	And/or... how bad is it really to fix? Could I get a guy to do
> it? Do it myself?

Unfortunately, it's not just one capacitor, it's a whole buttload of them
on the mobo.

They are *relatively* large components used for filtering DC. One
manufacturer shipped a boatload (literally) of them to mobo manufacturers
that was defective. They would work normally for a period of time and then,
inexplicably, degenerate and explode. This meant that several mobo
manufacturers - some well-known and reputable like Asus, Abit and GigaByte -
were shipping mobos with these not-yet-faulty-but-defective-anyway
capacitors. Some of them must have made their way to this assembler in
Akihabara.

If you're at ease with a low-power soldering iron on multilayer PCBs, *and*
if you're willing to spend the time and money replacing the capacitors,
then why not. Personally I wouldn't bother. I'd either buy the PC elsewhere
or buy it at your place and purchase another mobo separately. They're not
exactly expensive nowadays.

> 	What do you think? A deal, or a disaster waiting to happen?

Just untrustworthy. It might work long enough to work out as a deal. You
might also have capacitors popping within days of purchasing the machine.

I wouldn't buy it, but that's just me.

-- 
G. Stewart - godwin.stewart@example.com

A conclusion is simply the place where someone got tired of thinking.

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