I have a nice Compaq Deskpro 386s / 20n with 2 blown tantalum caps and 13 leaky caps that I’m not familiar with.
Can anyone tell me what caps to order for replacement and how are they soldered?
Same for the tantalum caps, I can’t see what caps because the text is now unreadable.
By the way, the leaky ones are all the same, 10 16V
Tantalums are easy ... the other caps look like standard thru-hole electrolytics, in a plastic carrier (to hold them flat to the board)...soldered in surface mount fashion.
Yeah, those are what I call "capacitors in a box", they're regular electrolytics inside a plastic case. And they ALWAYS leak, absolutely awful things.
Just replace them with regular electrolytics, you may need to fiddle with the legs a bit to get in the proper position. Also, remember to clean the leakage and mind the polarity!
From what I've read, apparently this was done to facilitate board stuffing by pick'n'place machines ... looks like the lead forming could've compromised end seal, but it also looks like they also soldered the outer can on the cap to board at the top (non-lead end)... that's not a good idea for longevity =)
The 10uf's are Vishay 10V-25V, tantalum. ~5mm lead space, radial
So I removed the board but those caps are not thru-hole, they’re soldered onto pads.
I guess I’ll buy regualar electrolytics and bend the legs.
Look at the photos, front & back side.
By the way, the PC is really clean and looks like new! Well worth to save this machine 🙂
Update:
All caps are replaced, 17 incl the tantalums. The onboard VGA connector has an obscured pin 9 so I‘m using a Tseng ET4000 instead and also added a sound blaster CT1600.
The system runs very well, I only forgot to look into the hdd led - that‘s not working.
