If the tantalum capacitors are not defective, don´t replace them.
Since tantalum capacitors have nearly no inductivity they are perfect for filtering high frequencies and thats what they have to do on mainboards. Sometimes they even have a ceramic capacitor in parallel to reach even better values.
They got replaced by standard electrolytics in the industry because they are cheaper.

Had a few Tantalum caps blown up over the years... usually on 286 and 386 motherboards. Yesterday one blew up on my precious Terrarec Profimedia SOWT-24 2.0 wavetable board and it made a huge bang and smoke 🙁 I really wasn't expecting this as all was fine the previous day.

Aren't there two types of tantal caps? Solid and "wet" ? 🤔

Tantalum caps on Socket7 mobo? Can we get a photo? I don't think I've seen them used past 486 mobos, except SMD but these are not round. Are you sure these are not electrolytics, maybe polymer ones?

And yes, there are wet tantalum caps, these are quite different from the typical sintered powder (or whatever method they were using) "teardrops". Wet tantalums are very stable - both temperature and age wise. Expensive though (most are aerospace rated), sill made by KEMET for example.

Deunan wrote on 2023-07-06, 22:16:

Tantalum caps on Socket7 mobo? Can we get a photo? I don't think I've seen them used past 486 mobos, except SMD but these are not round. Are you sure these are not electrolytics, maybe polymer ones?

I have one, but they were all replaced with electrolytic. EP-58MVP3C-M. (Non "M," also.)

Also, the DFI P2XBL (Slot 1) has them. I had one, but I wrecked it during an experiment.

Can Tantal 10 16g be replaced with 10 16B?

I can't find any info about the differences but 16g is a little larger.

as long as value and voltage is met or exceeded.

Cheers,

Replacement done. Works as before the blow up 😁

(ALL) Tantalum capacitors are derated
- by voltage
- by current
- by temperature.
Tons of datasheets with graphs have been released on this topic.

If you don’t want to return to this issue, polymer 10-22 microfarads at 6.3V (for 3.3V-5V bus) will close this issue once and for all.

Deunan wrote on 2023-07-06, 22:16:

Tantalum caps on Socket7 mobo? Can we get a photo? I don't think I've seen them used past 486 mobos, except SMD but these are not round. Are you sure these are not electrolytics, maybe polymer ones?

Here´s one example:
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/fic-vx98

There are also all Tantalum ASUS Socket 4 boards.

Tantalums are all over the motherboard spectrum... but not just motherboards, but also sound cards, video cards...

kixs wrote on 2023-07-08, 19:18:

Tantalums are all over the motherboard spectrum... but not just motherboards, but also sound cards, video cards...

But in non-power circuits, its do not burn, but simply increase it`s ESR and lose capacity.

Care to explain - non-power circuits? Where are these used - example maybe?

kixs wrote on 2023-07-08, 21:44:

Care to explain - non-power circuits? Where are these used - example maybe?

ESI juli@ XTe

Many auduo manufacturers use it`s to many purpose. I.e. phono amp
https://www.digikey.com/Site/Global/Layouts/D … 58A12640983822C

I guess here it's power related then as one of the blues blew up quite hard.

Tantalum are used in many circuits, not all of them are low-impedance vs power supply so in such cases a short will not cause it to burn up, the energy will be dissipated in some (usualy nearby) resistance. But even in this scenario they also can go shorted internally. Older dry tantalum were not screened properly for what is called dV/dt spikes (basically the current inrush when the voltage rises up rapidly, for example when device is turned on), so even seemingly uncracked ones can degrade and go boom. These days the screening is much more strict, at least for some well-known manufacturers, and that's more costly. Using no-name caps cheaply bought in bulk can get you anything, obviously. Modern electrolytics can easily have lower ESR than tantalums but the latter are still used when long-term value stability and low inductance is required.

Deunan wrote on 2023-07-09, 17:36:

...Older dry tantalum were not screened properly for what is called dV/dt spikes (basically the current inrush when the voltage rises up rapidly, for example when device is turned on), so even seemingly uncracked ones can degrade and go boom...

This can happen especially when old mobos that used to operate with an old "soft starting" AT PSU are hooked to a modern ATX PSU that turns on "hard" with voltages reaching their nominal values in no time.

Deunan wrote on 2023-07-09, 17:36:

Tantalum are used in many circuits

Old type of tantalum capacitor are noisy.
And ...its good, its analog dithering for low bit dac.
Noise can hide distortion and correlation between digital data and analog signal.
And it sounds much nicer.

Each type of capacitor has its own application.