This photo is from a lntel branded Pentium 4 motherboard. Maybe it's just age or the environment that it had lived. I am curious how often people have seen leaking Nichicon capacitors in the wild.
depends on the series, PL? all the time. most of the others, very rare
Might just be me, but I don't see a photo in your post.
Kahenraz wrote on 2026-01-23, 01:56:This photo is from a lntel branded Pentium 4 motherboard. Maybe it's just age or the environment that it had lived. I am curious how often people have seen leaking Nichicon capacitors in the wild.
Did you forget to attach the pic?
pete8475 wrote on 2026-01-23, 02:32:Kahenraz wrote on 2026-01-23, 01:56:This photo is from a lntel branded Pentium 4 motherboard. Maybe it's just age or the environment that it had lived. I am curious how often people have seen leaking Nichicon capacitors in the wild.
Did you forget to attach the pic?
Yes, sorry! 😅
maxtherabbit wrote on 2026-01-23, 02:10:depends on the series, PL? all the time. most of the others, very rare
The model on the back appears to be HM(M).
Many Gigabyte boards from that era used HM(M). I’ve recently done a 7N400 Pro 2’s VRMs. A64 and P4 boards share the same family of caps.
I would rate them slightly above the notorious Chemicon Nippon KZG.
Kahenraz wrote on 2026-01-23, 02:51:pete8475 wrote on 2026-01-23, 02:32:Kahenraz wrote on 2026-01-23, 01:56:This photo is from a lntel branded Pentium 4 motherboard. Maybe it's just age or the environment that it had lived. I am curious how often people have seen leaking Nichicon capacitors in the wild.
Did you forget to attach the pic?
Yes, sorry! 😅
No prob!
I sold computers for almost 2 decades and I used a lot of Intel manufactured boards in the p4 era and I'd say a fair number of them had bad caps a few years down the line. 478/DDR1 type stuff.
Nichicon HM and HN series sucked from around 2001-2004 (or maybe even 2005). I've seen a lot of them blow up.
The early '90s Nichicon caps also leaked a lot, but they leaked around the leads. Lots of other cap manufacturers had that problem at the same time, though.
In general, even from reputable (japanese) manufacturers, ultra low ESR caps used in VRM from early 2000s to mid to late 2000s aren't what you could call reliable in the long term.
They are just inherently much more unstable compared to general use or regular low ESR ones and the exact reason why they were discontinued and polymers replaced them as soon as they became economically viable.
Kahenraz wrote on 2026-01-23, 02:53:maxtherabbit wrote on 2026-01-23, 02:10:depends on the series, PL? all the time. most of the others, very rare
The model on the back appears to be HM(M).
I'll add HM to the shit list
