Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on Today, 08:04

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

16th subject: ATI Radeon 9600. A history of multiple leaked surface-mount wet alus, covering the board in residue and artefacting the output. All removed and replaced with surface-mount tantalums. The four Nover 470 uF 16 V through-hole wets were replaced with Nichicon UPW. Filename 1.png File size …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on Yesterday, 23:52

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tantalums harvested from a 486 laptop. Not all of them, but most. Copy code to clipboard 1 1 uF: 2 2 2.2 uF: 2 3 4.7 uF: 4 4 6.8 uF: 1 5 10 uF: 19 6 22 uF: 1 7 47 uF: 5 8 100 uF: 1 All measure within 10% of spec in capacitance, ESR in the 0.5-2.5 range.

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on Yesterday, 06:50

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

15th subject: PC Chips M577. Various wet through-hole alus, 10 uF, 47 uF, 100 uF, 470 uF, 1000 uF, 1500 uF. G-LUXON. A random selection measured ok for capacitance and ESR. All <= 47 uF replaced with through-hole 25 V tantalums, others with Panasonic and Nichicon wets. 1.png Works. Some molten …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on 2025-04-24, 05:40

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

14th subject: Nvidia Quadro4 980 XGL. One example of a high-end card not using tantalums, and being worse off for it. Three presumably polymers, 150 uF 16 V, and a bunch of wet surface-mount alus. Some have 12 volts across them. 1.png One of the wet alus had obviously leaked, and there was a fishy …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on 2025-04-23, 04:06

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

13th subject: Nvidia Vanta-16. Two wet surface-mount alus: 470 uF 6 V and 330 uF 6 V. Measured ok, ESR in the 0.2 range. Didn't bother measuring voltage across them. 1.png Replaced with 10 V surface-mount tantalums of the same capacitance. The pads are on the thin side for these. There's also pads …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on 2025-04-22, 04:56

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

12th subject: Matrox G450, LP version. About a dozen surface-mount wet alus, 10 uF 16 V. Measured one of them, capacitance ok and ESR 11. No obvious signs of leakage, so a good time to get rid of them. A few tantalums on there as well, 10 V or less. I know on the G550 no capacitor has more than five …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on 2025-04-18, 00:53

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm personally not too worried about reusing tantalums in non-critical areas, and not that bothered even in relatively critical retro use if new parts aren't available. The extra heating cycles won't help them, but they've survived infant mortality and to the extent the failure rate decreases with …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on 2025-04-17, 04:56

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

11th subject: S3 Trio 3D/2X. Three wet through-holes, 47 uF 16 V. Capacitance about 53, ESR 1.4. None had more than five volts across. Filename 1.png File size 58.31 KiB Views 279 views File license Public domain Replaced with 47 uF 16 V through-hole tantalums. Filename 2.png File size 59.24 KiB …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on 2025-04-15, 23:44

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Statistically it's more likely that a wet capacitor or the like had failed and destabilized the system, and this is probably what happens when people report exploding tantalums on first power-on in old machines. In any case you'd want to examine the rest of the system to find out what actually …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on 2025-04-14, 17:54

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Since none of this is likely to change your opinion, I will now leave you be. My apologies for hijacking your thread. Don't hold it against me if your argument doesn't convince me. Every capacitor can fail, the question is which type is least likely to fail, and you'd agree the answer is tantalum. …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on 2025-04-14, 02:16

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tenth subject: Datapath VisionRGB-PRO2 capture card, from the 2000s. Lots of tantalums but also four wet SMD cans, 2 22 uF 6 V and 2 47 uF 16 V. The bigger ones have 5 volts across them and 3 for the smaller ones, at least when idling. Capacitance was ok, ESR 3 for the bigger ones and 11 for the …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on 2025-04-13, 03:35

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ninth subject: Edimax EN-9130 (Realtek RTL8139) network adapter, from 2000. Three wet through-hole alus, 22 uF 16 V. Capacitance measured ok, ESR in the 5-12 range. One had 5 volts across it, the rest I didn't measure but I don't see them getting 12 volts. 1.png Replaced with 22 uF 16 V SMD …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on 2025-04-11, 07:31

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Eighth subject: Diamond Fire GL 1000 Pro (Permedia 2). About ten wet SMD alus, 10 uF 16 V. Measured two of them after twisting off the board, capacitance was ok and ESR about 12. Slightly crusty on the bottom. Don't know what voltages they see in use, probably 5 or less. There's also one tantalum, …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on 2025-04-10, 21:16

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you have data about your repairs then that would be interesting, like which type of component failed where in what board under what circumstances and whether the rest of the system was measured to operate normally so that you could estimate the probability that the component failed while …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on 2025-04-10, 05:56

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Seventh subject: Matrox G100. Seven SMD wet alus, 10 uF 16 V. Matrox typically used tantalums for their graphics cards, but accidentally put wet caps on some of the G100. These particular ones showed signs of either crustied leakage or glue remnants, capacitance was normal but ESR in the 20-30 range …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on 2025-04-10, 05:49

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have had hundreds of tantalums fail short over the years. It is a big enough problem that anything over 30 years old I automatically replace them. Examples from the 1970's and earlier are especially failure prone. The failure mode is well known and its causes. https://www.kyocera-avx.com/docs/ …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on 2025-04-10, 03:13

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Using non polymer SMT tantalums is ill advised. When they fail and explode, they ruin the pcb. Any blackened fiberglass will become conductive. At least with leaked electrolyte, there is a chance you can repair damaged traces. If you insist on using tantalums, ALWAYS derate the voltage …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on 2025-04-09, 04:18

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in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sixth subject: SiS 315L-128. Ten wet alus: 6 47 uF (Tocon), 2 10 uF (Tocon), 1 470 uF (Tocon), 1 1000 uF (Sanyo). I didn't measure voltages across them, but the 12-volt rail looked to only go into an unpopulated fan header and maybe some other unpopulated parts. ESR on the bigger cans was about 0.3, …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on 2025-04-08, 03:35

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Fifth subject: ATI Rage Pro Turbo. Five SMD wet alus, 22 uF 16 V. Capacitance measured per spec, ESR of 5 Ohms. Some have 3 volts across them, some have 5, one has 12. 1.jpg Replaced with four 22 uF 16 V tantalums and a 22 uF 35 V tantalum. Two of them were donated by a kind Voodoo Banshee, the rest …

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Re: Tantalum recapping project

Posted on 2025-04-06, 22:41

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Revisit of the noname S3 ViRGE/DX to get rid of the two remaining wet alus that wouldn't work with tantalums. The 1 uF cap was replaced with a through-hole 1 uF 35 V tantalum, and the 22 uF one with an SMD 22 uF 16 V tantalum. 1.jpg A pad was lifted and rerouted. I doubt this PCB can take many …

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