That mainboard capacitor has been replaced in a bad way.
It doesn't look like the capacitor has been leaking, just some leftover flux from the soldering.
The underside of the board shows that whomever replaced the capacitor had a few issues getting the capacitor removed & replaced.

weedeewee wrote on 2025-11-11, 13:49:

The underside of the board shows that whomever replaced the capacitor had a few issues getting the capacitor removed & replaced.

Oh boy, if my dad did this all those years ago he is going to hear about it 😈

I'm glad to hear it's just flux, but now that I think about it there is quite a bit of clearance between the board and cap that make it seem obvious it was replaced?

Excited fire it up tomorrow!

yeah looks like ripped the pads (and some pcb) off the bottom so then they soldered from the topside. Maybe too aggressive with a solder braid.
for just testing the board for posting i would just check that the cap is still connected to the traces going to it. The cap itself looks ok.
The caps you want to check are around the CPU, those are ones that usually bulge from the cap plague era.
a long term fix could be switching it to a surface mount electrolytic. You just have to see that the width fits the via spacing. Match the capacitance, voltage can be same or higher. look for low esr. I usually order from mouser and panasonic and rubycon (basically japanese caps makers) are the best. From there i choose based on price.

if you have a multimeter check the motherboard power connector for shorts.
if you have a modern ATX (assuming its not AT) it should detect shorts and powerdown. If you have to use one of those 3 just forget about the ones with bad caps. The third you said looks good, so if you have some junk harddrives use them as a load and turn the supply on. Measure the power rails and if they are in spec it should be good to use.

if you have no shorts on the ATX mainboard and the powersupply has good rails it should be safe to try booting.
a bios post card goes a long way on starting motherboards in a long time.

edit: retroweb shows its a AT power connector. So above still applies load the supply and check the rails. There are cable adapter from at to atx if you ever wanted to modernize the supply.
give the caps in the middle of the board a look. They are right next to the heat sinks.

teeeeeegz wrote on 2025-11-11, 14:13:

Oh boy, if my dad did this all those years ago he is going to hear about it 😈 […]
Show full quote

weedeewee wrote on 2025-11-11, 13:49:

The underside of the board shows that whomever replaced the capacitor had a few issues getting the capacitor removed & replaced.

Oh boy, if my dad did this all those years ago he is going to hear about it 😈

I'm glad to hear it's just flux, but now that I think about it there is quite a bit of clearance between the board and cap that make it seem obvious it was replaced?

Excited fire it up tomorrow!

It's a fairly normal mistake to make with an underpowered soldering iron and an urge to replace the capacitor.
Worst case scenario, It shorted power to ground, which is easily verified.

teeeeeegz wrote on 2025-11-11, 13:35:

All caps look fantastic on this mobo (V58XA) with exception to this particular one in the pics.

Can you show us a picture of your board?
Just because the caps looks good doesn't mean that they are. Certain cheaper brands have been known to fail without showing any visual signs. And some brands are just know to fail... so knowing what's on your board can help us determine if that gloom & doom will come your way.

teeeeeegz wrote on 2025-11-11, 13:35:

I wanted to get a second opinion whether this is bad corrosion, especially with the underside pic of the board?

No, it's just leftover flux from whoever changed and/or resoldered that cap back on the board, as the others mentioned here.
Its trace on the bottom side does look a bit "murdered" though 🤣. Probably still connected OK, however, as the solder blobs on the top side appear to be in good shape.

teeeeeegz wrote on 2025-11-11, 13:35:

If so, any tips / brand of cap I should replace it with, recommendations on how i could repair it, and whether I could fire up the mobo for the first time in 18-20 years just to see if it works fine?

If nothing looks obviously bad, fire it up and hope for the best.
Just beware that while it is very *uncommon*, it still IS possible for an electrolytic cap to go POP after this many years, especially if it hasn't seen any use at all. So my suggestion is to keep your head/face not directly above the motherboard. In particular, the small caps that don't have vents are the ones that can fly like a projectile if they decided to pop. But again, the good news is, this is very very UNcommon. As for the big caps - they can't really pop, since they have vents. If anything goes wrong with those, they'll just fizzle their electrolyte away.
My other recommendation: do not leave the board running unattended - at least for the first 5-10 hours of run time. If a cap goes bad, you'll want to catch it / see it, and shut stuff down when you do. Again, while it's UNcommon that damage will result from caps going bad, it can happen... and the likelyhood of that increases as the equipment is longer used with the bad caps.

teeeeeegz wrote on 2025-11-11, 13:35:

I also pulled 3 power supplies out of storage, one from 2011 (gigabyte 300w) had almost every mid-sized cap bulging with brown stuff on top - pic 3, a second from 2006 (shaw 550w) had only one suspect cap with shiny stuff on top - pic 4, and a third from 1999 (EVE 250w) that looked perfect on the inside - pic 5.

Looking at these PSU's made me feel quite concerned about this particular mobo issue.

The Gigabyte PSU is actually not that terrible of a PSU - it's a fairly modern 2-transistor forward converter made by FSP (judging by the "SPI" markings on the transformers.) It's just not really a 300 Watt PSU, that's all. More like 150 Watts to 180 Watts tops, considering those small heatsinks and the 330 uF primary caps. Also, being a more modern forward converter design, I'm not sure how suitable it would be for an old PC that has bigger draw from the 5V rail (e.g. anything Pentium 3 and older or Athlon/XP and older.) A 5V-heavy PC (like Athlon/XP) could even possibly make the 12V rail go too high. A more ideal use case for such a PSU would be something like a low-power 2nd/3rd/4th gen Celeron or i3 PC with onboard or low-power video card (under 60 Watts.). That is, if you get it fixed (recapped), of course... which shouldn't be too hard to do. Just replace all of the electrolytic caps (except the two big 200V 330 uF ones) and it should be good to go again. In particular, such work is especially good if you want practice with your soldering, as PSUs are much easier to work on (solder) than motherboards.

In regards to the Shaw "550W" PSU and the shiny stuff on one of the caps: that looks like solder splat. In other words, the factory was sloppy with the soldering. But I didn't need a picture to tell you this. Most "Shaw" PSUs are pretty crap with completely fictional power ratings on their label. I can bet my entire retro PC collection that the "550W" unit you have will, in fact, NOT be capable to reach anywhere near 550 Watts of power... except for a brief moment when it blows up trying to pull anything North of 250-300 Watts. I see a KA7500 IC on the board, so it's an oldschool half-bridge design with likely the standard cheap parts... so not really good for much.

Lastly, the 250 Watt "EVE" PSU from 1999: that actually looks quite OK!
I can't quite tell who the manufacturer is, but it looks to be a solid 200 Watt all-day-long PSU, with 250W probably being the peak rating. More importantly, the manufacturer didn't skimp on any of the parts that matter here:
- the AC input filter is complete and mostly OK (I'll nick it some points here for using 2kV ceramic caps instead of proper Y2 class caps and a MPP cap in place of a proper X2 class cap)
- the number and size of the electrolytic capacitors on the output rails seem appropriate for the power rating of the PSU
- speaking of caps, the electrlytic caps are by PCE-TUR, which while not great, are far from the worst out there (hey, Enermax used them quite a bit too!)
- output toroids look appropriately sized
- good size heatsinks
- main PCB and fan use removable connectors, which makes disassembly of the PSU much easier - basically a nice-to-have for when doing regular cleaning maintenance.
Oh, and unlike the Gigabyte and the Shoddy Shaw, this PSU *will* be more than happy to power a 5V-hungry PC. My experience with old and decent quality PSUs from that era is that they have a pretty solid 5V rail. If you are concerned about it, or particularly about the condition of its electrolytic caps, you can recap this PSU too. Just make sure you do so with quality Japanese cap brands, otherwise it probably won't be worth it. Again, despite PCE-TUR not being that great, they are still miles better than the no-name junk sold on Amazon, AliExp, and to the most extent, eBay too.
FWIW, a good fit for PCE-TUR, spec-wise, is usually Nichicon PW, PS, PM, and HE, or Rubycon YXJ or United Chemicon LXZ, LXV, LXY, and KY/KYB. Also Panasonic FC and FK... in case anyone even cares about the details. 😁

teeeeeegz wrote on 2025-11-11, 13:35:

I also haven't used a soldering iron in 15 years 😀

No worries, it's like riding a bike - you'll pick it back up... maybe 😁
Again, though, if you do want to practice on your soldering, start by recapping that Gigabyte 300W PSU. PSUs are much easier to solder onto compared to motherboards.

momaka wrote on 2025-11-13, 04:36:

[...]

As for the big caps - they can't really pop, since they have vents. If anything goes wrong with those, they'll just fizzle their electrolyte away.

What you can get is fountain of corrosive electrolyte squirting out in the direction of your eyes...

Fortunately very uncommon too, unlike with exploding tantalum caps on older boards. This is just about the only reason I'm happy to be of a certain age where I need glasses: a default minimum level of eye protection whenever I get close to things.

Pickle wrote on 2025-11-11, 14:22:

yeah looks like ripped the pads (and some pcb) off the bottom so then they soldered from the topside. Maybe too aggressive with a solder braid.
for just testing the board for posting i would just check that the cap is still connected to the traces going to it. The cap itself looks ok.

Can confirm the caps are all good, and that it was a computer repair guy job (who also didn't lock said case and slid it out + smashed on the floor right after my dad left the store)

Pickle wrote on 2025-11-11, 14:22:

The caps you want to check are around the CPU, those are ones that usually bulge from the cap plague era.
a long term fix could be switching it to a surface mount electrolytic. You just have to see that the width fits the via spacing. Match the capacitance, voltage can be same or higher. look for low esr. I usually order from mouser and panasonic and rubycon (basically japanese caps makers) are the best. From there i choose based on price.

All other caps on the board are in fantastic nick, surprisingly! Thanks for the cap tips, I will keep this in mind as the previous motherboard I gutted from the current case has 6-8 top-bulging caps that will be a great opportunity to get my hands dirty.

Pickle wrote on 2025-11-11, 14:22:

if you have a multimeter check the motherboard power connector for shorts.

Yep I sure did, the aforementioned cap and other ones tested great.

Pickle wrote on 2025-11-11, 14:22:

if you have a modern ATX (assuming its not AT) it should detect shorts and powerdown. If you have to use one of those 3 just for […]
Show full quote

if you have a modern ATX (assuming its not AT) it should detect shorts and powerdown. If you have to use one of those 3 just forget about the ones with bad caps. The third you said looks good, so if you have some junk harddrives use them as a load and turn the supply on. Measure the power rails and if they are in spec it should be good to use.

if you have no shorts on the ATX mainboard and the powersupply has good rails it should be safe to try booting.
a bios post card goes a long way on starting motherboards in a long time.

edit: retroweb shows its a AT power connector. So above still applies load the supply and check the rails. There are cable adapter from at to atx if you ever wanted to modernize the supply.
give the caps in the middle of the board a look. They are right next to the heat sinks.

I bought an ATX to AT adapter and also an on/off switch to replace the momentary variant in the case.

When I tested the rails I did so without any drives connected then with four hard drives connected to somewhat simulate load.

The rails seem in spec except for the -5V, which seemed to read -4.53 stable without anything connected, then i connected four hard drives and it read -4.96, then with only two hard drives down to -4.76 (just in spec).

This seemed very odd, but after giving the internals a proper clean the system booted great outside of needing to replace the CMOS battery, eventually managed to install Windows 95.

In the final build I settled with one hard drive, one CDRW, and a floppy.

However, what I didn't know ahead of time was the combination of this board and my Sound Blaster Live! Value card results in SB 16 emulation absolutely not working. ([Getting Sound Blaster Live CT4830 to work in dos]Another person ran into the same problem[/url] but there is about 3-4 other threads on here mentioning a similar issue, and now that I think about it I don't ever recall playing Dark Forces on this PC maybe because of the sound issue, and my earliest memories was when he probably already upgraded to the Pentium 3 motherboard - which I suspect emulation worked fine.

So I need to source an ISA sound card (ideally Sound Blaster) and hope what I mentioned above regarding the -5V rail should still be ok for it.

weedeewee wrote on 2025-11-11, 14:24:

It's a fairly normal mistake to make with an underpowered soldering iron and an urge to replace the capacitor.
Worst case scenario, It shorted power to ground, which is easily verified.

Works all good thankfully after investigating with my multimeter, but I was wondering what did you mean by an urge to replace it? As in trying to rush the job?

It was done by a computer repair person before my dad started piecing together computers himself, so they might have rushed it!

teeeeeegz wrote on 2025-11-15, 11:58:

weedeewee wrote on 2025-11-11, 14:24:

It's a fairly normal mistake to make with an underpowered soldering iron and an urge to replace the capacitor.
Worst case scenario, It shorted power to ground, which is easily verified.

Works all good thankfully after investigating with my multimeter, but I was wondering what did you mean by an urge to replace it? As in trying to rush the job?

It was done by a computer repair person before my dad started piecing together computers himself, so they might have rushed it!

I just mean that whomever replaced it wanted to replace it but it didn't go smoothly. no worries.

momaka wrote on 2025-11-13, 04:36:

Can you show us a picture of your board?
Just because the caps looks good doesn't mean that they are. Certain cheaper brands have been known to fail without showing any visual signs. And some brands are just know to fail... so knowing what's on your board can help us determine if that gloom & doom will come your way.

Thankfully I took a pic of the board before I put everything together but unfortunately a top-shot, however I did take a pic of the caps around the CPU!

momaka wrote on 2025-11-13, 04:36:

teeeeeegz wrote on 2025-11-11, 13:35:

I wanted to get a second opinion whether this is bad corrosion, especially with the underside pic of the board?

No, it's just leftover flux from whoever changed and/or resoldered that cap back on the board, as the others mentioned here.
Its trace on the bottom side does look a bit "murdered" though 🤣. Probably still connected OK, however, as the solder blobs on the top side appear to be in good shape.

I know, couldn't believe it!

momaka wrote on 2025-11-13, 04:36:

If nothing looks obviously bad, fire it up and hope for the best. Just beware that while it is very *uncommon*, it still IS poss […]
Show full quote

teeeeeegz wrote on 2025-11-11, 13:35:

If so, any tips / brand of cap I should replace it with, recommendations on how i could repair it, and whether I could fire up the mobo for the first time in 18-20 years just to see if it works fine?

If nothing looks obviously bad, fire it up and hope for the best.
Just beware that while it is very *uncommon*, it still IS possible for an electrolytic cap to go POP after this many years, especially if it hasn't seen any use at all. So my suggestion is to keep your head/face not directly above the motherboard. In particular, the small caps that don't have vents are the ones that can fly like a projectile if they decided to pop. But again, the good news is, this is very very UNcommon. As for the big caps - they can't really pop, since they have vents. If anything goes wrong with those, they'll just fizzle their electrolyte away.
My other recommendation: do not leave the board running unattended - at least for the first 5-10 hours of run time. If a cap goes bad, you'll want to catch it / see it, and shut stuff down when you do. Again, while it's UNcommon that damage will result from caps going bad, it can happen... and the likelyhood of that increases as the equipment is longer used with the bad caps.

Works great, tested w/ multimeter + PC boots. (and i'm not going anywhere near the cap!)

Kept an eye on it the whole time, roughly 10 hours of use and no problems, and powered down when I walked away because I felt a bit edgy about it all. The previous motherboard I pulled out had about 6-8 bulging caps!

momaka wrote on 2025-11-13, 04:36:

teeeeeegz wrote on 2025-11-11, 13:35:

I also pulled 3 power supplies out of storage, one from 2011 (gigabyte 300w) had almost every mid-sized cap bulging with brown stuff on top - pic 3, a second from 2006 (shaw 550w) had only one suspect cap with shiny stuff on top - pic 4, and a third from 1999 (EVE 250w) that looked perfect on the inside - pic 5.

Looking at these PSU's made me feel quite concerned about this particular mobo issue.

The Gigabyte PSU is actually not that terrible of a PSU - it's a fairly modern 2-transistor forward converter made by FSP (judging by the "SPI" markings on the transformers.) It's just not really a 300 Watt PSU, that's all. More like 150 Watts to 180 Watts tops, considering those small heatsinks and the 330 uF primary caps. Also, being a more modern forward converter design, I'm not sure how suitable it would be for an old PC that has bigger draw from the 5V rail (e.g. anything Pentium 3 and older or Athlon/XP and older.) A 5V-heavy PC (like Athlon/XP) could even possibly make the 12V rail go too high. A more ideal use case for such a PSU would be something like a low-power 2nd/3rd/4th gen Celeron or i3 PC with onboard or low-power video card (under 60 Watts.). That is, if you get it fixed (recapped), of course... which shouldn't be too hard to do. Just replace all of the electrolytic caps (except the two big 200V 330 uF ones) and it should be good to go again. In particular, such work is especially good if you want practice with your soldering, as PSUs are much easier to work on (solder) than motherboards.

This PSU came in a low cost computer case to power a "Pentium Dual Core" with only a HDD + DVD drive, so more of a power sipper kind of CPU as you suspected!

TIL P3/Athlon/XP demanded more of the 5V rail, I always assumed P4 would fall into that category since that pushed so much heat iirc.

But yeah, great idea for recapping the Gigabyte PSU as a mini project!

momaka wrote on 2025-11-13, 04:36:

In regards to the Shaw "550W" PSU and the shiny stuff on one of the caps: that looks like solder splat. In other words, the factory was sloppy with the soldering. But I didn't need a picture to tell you this. Most "Shaw" PSUs are pretty crap with completely fictional power ratings on their label. I can bet my entire retro PC collection that the "550W" unit you have will, in fact, NOT be capable to reach anywhere near 550 Watts of power... except for a brief moment when it blows up trying to pull anything North of 250-300 Watts. I see a KA7500 IC on the board, so it's an oldschool half-bridge design with likely the standard cheap parts... so not really good for much.

Interesting, because of its reflectiveness I was unsure if it was actually corrosion.

This PSU came with a cheap case and for a Pentium D 920 (from my dad's old PC) w/ NVIDIA 7600 GT card from 2006.

Interesting story; I also had the same PSU with another cheap Shaw case and same CPU, however when I eventually upgraded to the X1950 Pro in 2007 my computer would occasionally kick the bucket and blue screen playing COD 1/4. I remember this card being specced for specific amps on the 12V rail, which is what the PSU offered so I presumed it was a driver issue.

Then one day teenage me pulled out the motherboard to clean the inside and when I unplugged the ATX connector I distinctly remember the inner connector plastic being very dark yellowed / nearly brown rather than translucent clear which scared the shit out of me. I soon realised this PSU had a terrible 12V rail and didn't do what it said on the tin.

Learned something about shitty cheap power supplies that day, and thankfully nothing bad happened! No more blue screens with the new PSU.

This Shaw PSU still has a -5V rail, do you think it might be worth keeping it around just for that inclusion?

momaka wrote on 2025-11-13, 04:36:

Lastly, the 250 Watt "EVE" PSU from 1999: that actually looks quite OK! I can't quite tell who the manufacturer is, but it looks […]
Show full quote

Lastly, the 250 Watt "EVE" PSU from 1999: that actually looks quite OK!
I can't quite tell who the manufacturer is, but it looks to be a solid 200 Watt all-day-long PSU, with 250W probably being the peak rating. More importantly, the manufacturer didn't skimp on any of the parts that matter here:
- the AC input filter is complete and mostly OK (I'll nick it some points here for using 2kV ceramic caps instead of proper Y2 class caps and a MPP cap in place of a proper X2 class cap)
- the number and size of the electrolytic capacitors on the output rails seem appropriate for the power rating of the PSU
- speaking of caps, the electrlytic caps are by PCE-TUR, which while not great, are far from the worst out there (hey, Enermax used them quite a bit too!)
- output toroids look appropriately sized
- good size heatsinks
- main PCB and fan use removable connectors, which makes disassembly of the PSU much easier - basically a nice-to-have for when doing regular cleaning maintenance.
Oh, and unlike the Gigabyte and the Shoddy Shaw, this PSU *will* be more than happy to power a 5V-hungry PC. My experience with old and decent quality PSUs from that era is that they have a pretty solid 5V rail. If you are concerned about it, or particularly about the condition of its electrolytic caps, you can recap this PSU too. Just make sure you do so with quality Japanese cap brands, otherwise it probably won't be worth it. Again, despite PCE-TUR not being that great, they are still miles better than the no-name junk sold on Amazon, AliExp, and to the most extent, eBay too.
FWIW, a good fit for PCE-TUR, spec-wise, is usually Nichicon PW, PS, PM, and HE, or Rubycon YXJ or United Chemicon LXZ, LXV, LXY, and KY/KYB. Also Panasonic FC and FK... in case anyone even cares about the details. 😁

I've linked a pic of the PSU below but it seems rock solid for a retro rig given what you've said. Going to take good care of this guy for a long time. Thanks for the all tips on the caps, i'll definitely source the good stuff for it!

momaka wrote on 2025-11-13, 04:36:

teeeeeegz wrote on 2025-11-11, 13:35:

I also haven't used a soldering iron in 15 years 😀

No worries, it's like riding a bike - you'll pick it back up... maybe 😁
Again, though, if you do want to practice on your soldering, start by recapping that Gigabyte 300W PSU. PSUs are much easier to solder onto compared to motherboards.

For sure. I was thinking i'd have to solder the ATX to AT adapter to the on/off power button but thankfully they just clipped on, so no soldering just yet!

When you get replacing caps on the other mb a hot air gun or station and desolder gun make it safer and easier to clear the holes.
With just an iron it’s hard with the ground plane sucking away the heat. But an iron is enough to get the cap off by going side to side and wiggle it out.

Pickle wrote on 2025-11-15, 16:30:

When you get replacing caps on the other mb a hot air gun or station and desolder gun make it safer and easier to clear the holes.
With just an iron it’s hard with the ground plane sucking away the heat. But an iron is enough to get the cap off by going side to side and wiggle it out.

Great to know thanks! 😀

teeeeeegz wrote on 2025-11-15, 12:52:

Thankfully I took a pic of the board before I put everything together but unfortunately a top-shot, however I did take a pic of the caps around the CPU!

Good enough. 😉
Looks like they are YEC (or as some call them, "yuck!") brand, which aren't known for their reliability. Then again, there are worse stuff out there.
Given the low power demands of the CPUS from that era and the fact that these still appear to be OK after all this time, it's probably OK to leave them for now. If it's for your own use, just keep an eye on them from time to time. If it's for resale or someone else, I usually recap it then so that I know it won't come back.

teeeeeegz wrote on 2025-11-15, 12:52:

This Shaw PSU still has a -5V rail, do you think it might be worth keeping it around just for that inclusion?

Depends on how much/many corners the manufacturer cut when they made it.
Pretty much all of these old cheapo "gutless wonders" PSU are based on the same ancient half-bridge topology design from the 80's. So generally speaking, pretty much every one of them can be fixed/repaired/recapped/upgraded back to a useful PSU. But weather or not that's worth doing will depend on variations in the PCB component layout and minor variations in the design.
I've seen these designs "tweaked" for more modern 12V systems by adding a few extra turns on the main transformer for the 12V rail to keep it a little higher when the PSU is under load. These particular ones had problems powering old 5V-heavy systems.
On the other hand, most (if not all) of these from around the mid 2000's should be able to make for O.K. 5V-heavy PSUs. How much will depend on the secondary side rectifier on the 5V rail. If it's rated for 20 Amps, it will be fine for a Pentium II or 3 build and even most socket A builds, save for the more power-hungry ones (e.g. CPU TDP >60 Watts.)
Generally, a recap and a few minor upgrades might be all that is needed to bring such PSU to an acceptable level of performance. Keep the power draw under 200 Watts (which most systems from the early and mid 2000's will do), and there won't be any problems.
FWIW, I run a recapped 250 Watt Deer in one of my P3's. It was one of the 1st PSUs I recapped. IIRC, I did it back in 2008 or thereabouts. Didn't change 3 of the larger caps on the output back then since I didn't have proper replacements... and those 3 caps did eventually go bad too. But apart from that, the PSU has been rock-solid with that Pentium 3 PC and still is, now that I have it fully recapped.
So TLDR: indeed some of these cheapo PSUs can be repurposed for an old PC with a bit of work. The -5V rail is a nice bonus, even though you're very unlikely to ever run into hardware that needs it. On the other hand, when a PSU has a -5V rail, chances are it's old enough that it will be suitable for a 5V-heavy PC.

dionb wrote on 2025-11-13, 07:17:

What you can get is fountain of corrosive electrolyte squirting out in the direction of your eyes...

With the really big caps (e.g. primary/input filters of a PSU), sure, that would be possible. But most caps on a motherboard are too small and don't really have that much electrolyte in them. At most, they will shoot out some smoke/steam upwards... though that is pretty rare, as you noted. The most common way I've seen them fail is they will just dome and then quietly sizzle away.
The electrolyte on a lot of the cheap caps isn't usually that corrosive or at all.
Only ones that use quaternary ammonium salts (QAS) tend to be more corrosive. On that note, beware of old Nichicon PR series - almost all of them leak from the bottom. IIRC, PL also exhibited this problem, but very rarely (so usually OK to leave them.) PL is very common in old Astec PSUs.

Pickle wrote on 2025-11-15, 16:30:

When you get replacing caps on the other mb a hot air gun or station and desolder gun make it safer and easier to clear the holes.
With just an iron it’s hard with the ground plane sucking away the heat. But an iron is enough to get the cap off by going side to side and wiggle it out.

Depends a lot on what iron you have.

Back when I only had a simple (no heat control) 30W soldering iron, the heat gun was a must. I did a few motherboard recaps, but it was a struggle and took me all day to do.
Eventually got one of those Radio Shack 40 Watt desoldering irons (with a bulb sucker) and thought this would make things easier. It didn't. In the next few years, I tried all kinds of other hacks and nothing really worked too well... until I moved up to a soldering station that had T12 tips. And even then, it took me some practice before I finally figured how to do recaps easier.

Tip #1: apply flux to all of the cap solder joints you intend to do... and be generous with the flux! Alternatively, you could apply fresh solder (60/40 leaded solder preferred due to lower melting point) to the joints... but you'll probably still need additional flux.

Tip #2: use a soldering iron with a big, thick, large tip and keep a nice "goop" of solder on it. This will greatly help with the heat transfer from the soldering iron's tip to the board.

Tip #3: DON'T use desoldering wick, desoldering suckers, or anything related. Simply wiggle the caps side to side while you heat the alternate leg of the cap on the other side, as @pickle mentioned. I use this method and find it the quickest to remove caps. Once the cap is out, I use a stainless steel sewing needle and clear the holes by melting the solder on each cap spot and poking with the needle through the hole on the other side where the cap was. I've tried expensive desoldering irons/stations before, and I can't say I work faster or that it's easier for me. So I stick to this more manual method outlined above.

teeeeeegz wrote on 2025-11-15, 11:53:

So I need to source an ISA sound card (ideally Sound Blaster) and hope what I mentioned above regarding the -5V rail should still be ok for it.

Not all ISA sound cards utilize -5V. Easiest way to tell is to check the back side of the card. It'll be the fifth pin from the connector bracket. Missing pin means no -5V needed.