If I have a motherboard with obviously failing capacitors ("they are just a little bit bulging compared to the other ones that are completely flat") I'll check to see if it will POST, and if it does I put it aside until I can replace them. Trying to troubleshoot a board that you know has faulty components will only waste your time and cause frustration, and possibly damage other components on the board.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-07-31, 19:45:

If I have a motherboard with obviously failing capacitors ("they are just a little bit bulging compared to the other ones that are completely flat") I'll check to see if it will POST, and if it does I put it aside until I can replace them. Trying to troubleshoot a board that you know has faulty components will only waste your time and cause frustration, and possibly damage other components on the board.

Okey i catch your message.

This is my "first" time changing capacitors so i dont know how to identify + o -
I have seen on the motherboard 2 circles drawn with + -, is it a reference for capacitors? (both same direction), some pics: ( marked bad capacitors & circles):

Thank you.

if one capacitor of same type is bad you need to replace all of them
if you have trouble with polarization you should seek someone to help you, otherwise you will end up with damaged motherbaord - capacitors are soldered to ground plane and very difficult to desolder without proper gear and experience

rasz_pl wrote on 2022-07-31, 20:45:

if one capacitor of same type is bad you need to replace all of them
if you have trouble with polarization you should seek someone to help you, otherwise you will end up with damaged motherbaord - capacitors are soldered to ground plane and very difficult to desolder without proper gear and experience

Thanks for your advice

Judging by those photos I don't see any capacitors that are obviously failing. Capacitors can pass visual inspection and still be bad, but when it comes to bulging caps here's an example of when you know you need to replace them by appearance alone:

Of one capacitor is failing, the 'good' looking ones may already be failing while it is not visible yet. Or they will fail sooner than later.

As for desoldering, you need to silly a great about of heat in a very short time while making sure nothing burns.
With a regular soldering iron (24-48W) you just may run short on energy. The base plane that's mentioned will absorb all heat and spread it over the whole motherboard, making it one big cooling sink. You may even want to preheat the board to 40/50'c with decent soldering equipment (heat gun may help?)

My advice would be to scroll back and begin by building a diagnostic foundation. Get Memtest 86 and see if that can run with no errors: https://www.oldergeeks.com/downloads/file.php?id=854

If it can run Memtest with no errors you can then move on to testing other components reasonably confident that your motherboard, memory, and CPU are functioning properly.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-07-31, 21:36:

Judging by those photos I don't see any capacitors that are obviously failing. Capacitors can pass visual inspection and still be bad, but when it comes to bulging caps here's an example of when you know you need to replace them by appearance alone:

Yes, i understand you, is difficult to see, they are very very slightly bulky. At the top they are divided into triangles so they are slightly bulky in the middle of the triangle (the lines are flat), very slightly but compared to the flat ones there is a little difference. So I'm not absolutely sure they're okay because i can see a difference, very small but there is.

EDIT: i have disassembled the mobo from the case inspecting them and definitely they are bad, maybe they just started to be bad so im going to take notes from all of them and replace them, 25 in total.

About memtest okey, i didnt thought that, the only thing the CPU was set to 2.4V instead of 2.2V, from what I've seen, these cpus people "seem to overclock them" so possibly nothing has happened to it.

Thanks for your help!

waterbeesje wrote on 2022-07-31, 21:40:

Of one capacitor is failing, the 'good' looking ones may already be failing while it is not visible yet. Or they will fail sooner than later.

As for desoldering, you need to silly a great about of heat in a very short time while making sure nothing burns.
With a regular soldering iron (24-48W) you just may run short on energy. The base plane that's mentioned will absorb all heat and spread it over the whole motherboard, making it one big cooling sink. You may even want to preheat the board to 40/50'c with decent soldering equipment (heat gun may help?)

I get what you mean.
First im going to be very gently to see if this is a lead solder or not. I have a good heat gun but is not like the soldering stations, this is more big and the air is not concentrated in one point like i assume solder stations does, but it has the ability to burn the entire motherboard if i want hahaha.
My solder is cheap.
What I don't know is those small components of the motherboard (transistors?), what is their maximum temperature, because if i apply heat to the board i dont know how much heat is too much. 40-50 degrees is not too much?.
Another thing i dont know, if this board has lead solder, the same type of tin is ok?, according to me tin is "multi purpose", I don't know if stores sell different types.

Thanks for your help!

My experience is different. You don't have to replace all capacitors. I agree with Necroware on youtube, he is also against it, to always at all costs to replace capacitors. If board is stable, you don't have to.
Replace only buldging ones. For two years, I didnt replace any capacitors on socket 7 board, never had problems. If board is stable, you don't have to. Bulding ones are not only bad, but they can leak after some days/weeks/months of use. You don't have to replace even bulding ones, if you use board only occasionally, or have it only for benchmarks (once per while, you run it for one-two hours, to make some benchmark and test). If you use retro comp for 2 hours per week (many people have it this way because of little free time to this "hobby") you don't have to replace them at all, if board is working and is stable. Even bulding ones. If you want to use only one comp and heavily (10 hours per weeks, for years), then yes... it is worth of time and cost, to even replace all capacitors, particulary, if board is good , and you know, you will not exchange it for some other.
Your board is very good, one of the top socket 7 boards (ATX super socket 7, good manufacturer), so in this case, if you plan to use it for years as only retro computer, and you are sure, you will not get bored after 3 weeks of usage, and it ends up in store for 15 years, then yes, in this case is worth to replace all capacitors. But I would give it a month, if it only keep you entertain you for at least month, and you play on it more than 10 hours. Otherwise, you are wasting your time and efford. I saw many people, that had "retro flashback", and it was over after month. They never used retro computer, or components again. They ended up in boxes and darkness for years. 😀

W.x. wrote on 2022-08-01, 10:27:

My experience is different. You don't have to replace all capacitors. I agree with Necroware on youtube, he is also against it, to always at all costs to replace capacitors. If board is stable, you don't have to.
Replace only buldging ones. For two years, I didnt replace any capacitors on socket 7 board, never had problems. If board is stable, you don't have to. Bulding ones are not only bad, but they can leak after some days/weeks/months of use. You don't have to replace even bulding ones, if you use board only occasionally, or have it only for benchmarks (once per while, you run it for one-two hours, to make some benchmark and test). If you use retro comp for 2 hours per week (many people have it this way because of little free time to this "hobby") you don't have to replace them at all, if board is working and is stable. Even bulding ones. If you want to use only one comp and heavily (10 hours per weeks, for years), then yes... it is worth of time and cost, to even replace all capacitors, particulary, if board is good , and you know, you will not exchange it for some other.
Your board is very good, one of the top socket 7 boards (ATX super socket 7, good manufacturer), so in this case, if you plan to use it for years as only retro computer, and you are sure, you will not get bored after 3 weeks of usage, and it ends up in store for 15 years, then yes, in this case is worth to replace all capacitors. But I would give it a month, if it only keep you entertain you for at least month, and you play on it more than 10 hours. Otherwise, you are wasting your time and efford. I saw many people, that had "retro flashback", and it was over after month. They never used retro computer, or components again. They ended up in boxes and darkness for years. 😀

In this case i invest some money here, the case, motherboard, voodoo 3 etc, i really want to keep this PC.
My first PC when i had around 7-8 years old was a 386 and then, the next one i had was a pentium 200mmx with a matrox mystique (around 12 years old), this era is to me one of the best i had in PC (i have now a top end one, 3080TI and all the stuff), this pc means the time of Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Broken Sword, Earthworm Jim etc etc (MS-DOS too), the era of video game rental stores, this pc means a lot to me. I even remember that to buy that computer my parents gave me a choice that summer, go for vacations or buy that mmx.

So in this case i want to give this PC (in case is okey, we will see it) the best treatment to keep it for many years, even buy replacement hardware at some point in case this failure.

Thank you for your advice.