Faulty capacitors.

From: Brian Chase <vaxzilla_at_jarai.org>
Date: Mon Nov 4 19:20:01 2002

Someone passed this along to me today. It's a current news item, but I
though it at least tangentially relevant to classiccmp folks. You'll
get a bang out of this one--quite literally:

-> In September 2002, reports started to surface in the United States
-> among brand name computer manufacturers that there were problems
-> with low-ESR aluminum capacitors produced in Taiwan. Apparently, a
-> poor-quality, water-based electrolyte had been supplied to multiple
-> manufacturers of low-ESR aluminum electrolytic capacitors in
-> Taiwan. Our intelligence sources in Taiwan later confirmed that as
-> many as eleven manufacturers of low-ESR aluminum capacitors in
-> Taiwan might have been exposed to the poor electrolyte. The
-> electrolyte, which is a locally produced knock-off of the Japanese
-> P-50 type water-based system, was produced without the proper
-> additives required to stave off excess hydrogen gassing. Consequently,
-> aluminum capacitors produced with the P-50 knock-off tend to fail
-> catastrophically, by blowing open the rubber seal and leaking liquid
-> electrolyte on the printed circuit board. These failures reportedly
-> occur at half the rated lifetime of the components.

http://www.ttiinc.com/MarketEye/zogbi_on_passives_20021014.asp

ObClassicCmp: What are the expected lifespans of various capacitor
types? I don't have any truly ancient systems, but some of them are
coming up on the 20 yr mark. When should I look into replacing the
old caps?

-brian.
Received on Mon Nov 04 2002 - 19:20:01 GMT

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