They are bad, yes.... Need to be changed.

The first thing to do, is to write down the ratings on those caps and were on the board they are mounted.
Then buy some new ones.
Desolder them, and mount the fresh ones. It's not that hard, as you only need a steady hand to do the job.

Please do note that you should not use random common capacitors there. It needs to match the ESR rating too. Get good caps and the board will be happy.

One thing to note is that often times the the capacitors going bad on the motherboard are a result of the capacitors in the power-supply going bad, first and no longer being able to supply proper power to the motherboard, putting strain on the capacitors and eventually killing them. So make sure to give a look inside the power-supply before you do anything to the motherboard.

As far as success rates, it really just depends on how long the system has been allowed to run in this broken state, as I have also seen instances where a board could not be revived, but this is actually very uncommon in my experience, and in the cases it did happen, it was more a matter of one of the IC's overheating and being permanently damaged.

I have recapped several 478 board, and they have always run great, afterwards. But again, make sure your power-supply is good before you do anything or you'll be wasting your time.

Out of curiosity, could you post the brand name and model of your power-supply?

-Jay

By the time they bulge or leak, a bad cap is extremely out of spec and very bad, so those are long gone. In a catastrophic case they can short circuit which will ruin other components on the board.
The caps in your picture look like the CPU Vcore caps on the output side of the CPU voltage regulator. They're probably putting stress on the nearby MOSFETs and of course making it impossible for the CPU to be stable. You won't see the Vcore fluctuation without an oscilloscope but it's there.
Plan on replacing all the matching caps, even if a few aren't bulging yet.
Odds of recovery are good, and it's almost a sure thing if you catch it while the board still runs. It's best to avoid running it any more until the caps are changed.

Those are 8mm VRM high and low caps.

They will be 16V for the high side and 6.3V for the low side.

You will not be able to easily find direct replacements, so I recommend that you use 2.5v-4v 820uF or greater polymers for the VRM low, and 16V 270uF or greater for the VRM high.

For the other caps scattered throughout the board, use a durable series like Panasonic FM/FR or equivalent.

Just a quick advice... They have polarity.

Awesome advice guys, thank you.

In terms of PSU, I've used a mixture over the years - some good, some bad. I will open all of them up and give them a good inspection as none of them are new.

Sourcing the caps won't be too hard a job it seems, as I had forgotten about another 478 board I've got. It was a crappy e-Machines-branded MSI number. Worked okay at first but the BIOS had been crippled. I downloaded the 'proper' BIOS and successfully flashed it, but it hasn't booted since. Thankfully, it uses the exact same rating of capacitor! This is why I never throw anything away.

Hopefully it will work - might do a video on it. If I can revive it, I can save it joining the very short list of things that have died on me over the years.

Butchering old defect stuff for caps and other components is a great way of doing things.
That way you feel more satisfied. Somehow the ultimate "DIY surgery". 🤣

I would never use old electrolytes for recapping... Might be fun, but will they serve you long enough?

I think the old machine was little-used, so I'm hoping for at least 5 years 😀

Love how my P5A-B still works like a charm though, after seeing me through my gaming and tracking heyday 😀

RacoonRider wrote:

I would never use old electrolytes for recapping... Might be fun, but will they serve you long enough?

Then it's just a question of recapping once again... 😉

brostenen wrote:

RacoonRider wrote:

I would never use old electrolytes for recapping... Might be fun, but will they serve you long enough?

Then it's just a question of recapping once again... 😉

Each time you apply heat to the solder pads or 'eyelets', you weaken the glue that keeps them attached. If it tears off completely, you can still get around it on motherboards because the via is intact so the solder will flow into the hole and make the electrical connection even if there's no pad.

You should get it right the first time in my opinion.

True. True. I have recapped a K7s41 a couple of times.
So recapping twice is probably within a safe margin.
If he uses lead solder anyway, it won't need that much heat Eighter.
Recapping 5 times is not good, on the other hand.

One aspect or replacing caps that I find annoying is time. Meaning you get the board, then make a list of caps you need. Then order them online. Then wait until they arrive. Then replace the caps.

I wonder if you can look at a wide range of boards and reduce the number of caps to a few "key" models, buy a lot of those and off you go?

mockingbird wrote:

You should get it right the first time in my opinion.

Noted!