Mach Speed with bad Caps?

[Doramius]

I just came into my first issue with a machspeed mobo having bad capacitors. I've gotta take a few pictures and will post them a little later today. I was first going to try to see if anyone had any insight on what capacitors machspeed used/uses. Haven't seen much.

The motherboard is a Viper 939GT4 STD-G. The markings for the capacitor are on the top and are: F255, 1500, 6.3V (which I am guessing means it's a 1500uF capacitor).

Machspeed has a Lifetime warranty, but apparently they didn't get the card I sent in for this MoBo about 3 or 4 years ago. Oh well. The only issue is the capacitors. Oddly, after letting the board cool down, it will work for a short period before quitting. It is definitely the capacitors, though. Surprisingly tough and wants to work. That's about all I'll give kudos for at the moment.

The warning beep when it quits is that the memory bank is having an issue. 3 capactiors that go to the memory bank all have their tops popped open. no bulging or leakage. Just little points poking up.

Machspeed is made by Jetway. I don't really care for Jetway, but I was surprised at how durable the machspeed boards are. Probably just higher quality parts..... I'm not thinking that's true any more.

Anyone have any info on these capacitors, and are they for sure 1500uF? I think I'll grab 10V replacements if they are. There's certainly enough room for them.

[willawake]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

pic would help. sounds like you identified the values ok. 10v would be overkill but working

[Doramius]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

The diameter of the cap is probably 1/4" or 5/16". and it's about the same in height. That gives me fair certainty it's a 1500uF cap, but as I said, I wanted to get a bit of confirmation. It's all silver in color, except for the info stencilled on the top.

I agree, 10V might be a bit overkill, but this pop of the capacitor after this many years of service has me wondering WHAT? caused the problem or WHY? it happened. I don't see this capacitor listed as a commonly faulty style. I may not be looking in the right places though. Part of the reason why I posted.

The board has only run at stock levels, so my scientific guess is it had a voltage spike and popped. How?, I am uncertain of. If higher voltage is not the better way to go, feel free to voice your concern.

[willawake]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

3-4 years is about right for a badcap to pop. voltage spike i doubt it.

recap with good caps and you should be ok until the board is obsolete.

[gastorgrab]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

The motherboard is a Viper 939GT4 STD-G.

Are those polymer caps?


http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813187013






Manufacturer page is here: http://www.machspeed.com/specs/viper/939STD.html
.

[willawake]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

i think the silver ones are imitating nichicon HD. i would have remembered them a while back but not now.

[linuxguru]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

I can't read the text on the silver ones sprinkled all over the board, but they look like Nichicon HD-series lacquer-coated caps - which are very good and rarely fail. I can't ID the blue ones at the VRM output, but they may be some kind of polymer/solid electrolytic.

[Doramius]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

Sorry for taking so long with the pics. I'm taking classes to re-certify my CCNA. Just gets a bit busy.

They are the silver ones next to the RAM module. Here's a close up of the bad caps.



Here's a close up, just above the PCI-E slot of the same style Caps, but they are perfectly good.



Funny thing is this board STILL wants to work with the capacitors blown. I'm not going to run it though. These caps go to the memory modules, and I don't feel like dumping any money on new RAM.

[linuxguru]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

Yup, they're knock-offs that are imitating the look of the Nichicon HD. The 1500/6.3 Nichicon HD is a physically larger cap (approx. 10x25 mm). The vent is also a '+' vent rather than the K-vent seen on these caps.

[willawake]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

these are sacon FZ http://www.sacon.com.tw
they have at least 3 different "looks" for FZ series
as you have discovered they are pure merde

[kc8adu]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

sacon fz are well known junk.
i get in 3 month old video cards with them blown.
change every last one of them.
even the 220@16 are often open.

[Doramius]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

Well I really needed this machine, so I found a trusty old MoBo that I had hidden away, An old Slot 1 that's had about 4 or more years of good service. I just couldn't part with it. Still can't even though it's now missing 4 caps.

The Caps are green and gold 6.3V from Sanyo. Not sure if they are reliable caps. If they aren't, I'll order some Rubycons. I just need this machine going.
I also had an old PSU that still worked and had some 10V LTEC caps. Not sure if they are reliable either, but I have nothing that uses that style of PSU. It only had 3 Caps, and I wanted all my caps to be the same. I went with the Sanyo in the event I messed up or needed to replace one of the new ones I added.

After the highly intense brain surgery, I've replaced the caps and tested and got the machine running. Runs beautifully.

I'm thinking of getting a custom kit to replace most or all of the caps on the board. Should I wait for failure, or should I change them all soon including the Sanyo's I just installed?

[linuxguru]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

Replace the Sacons right away - they're going to fail soon, anyway. The Sanyos can stay if you can bypass them (in parallel) with some new caps from the recommended list. They look like the CG-series, which is old and good enough for P2/P3 class machines but probably out of their league for P4/A64 class machines.

[kc8adu]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

the sanyo are good parts.
i would replace all sacon on that board.
your fix is ok for a short time till you get your parts.
i would replace those sanyo;s too as they are old.

[Doramius]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

FYI - just so I don't keep getting asked this, Any pictures you deem usefull to show people, feel free to use. I've got a list together of all the caps that should be replaced on this board, and I'll try to post more pics of the recapped board if I can.

[Scenic]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

lelon is known crap BTW...
and LTec too (those seem to be Lelons IMHO as the logo looks similar.. and LTec -> LelonTec or something like that ..!?)

[linuxguru]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

Nah, Ltec are better than Lelon - they're sometimes seen in AcBel and FSP units.

[zandrax]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

I found Ltec even in my Newton Power psu (a Delta subsidiary): I don't know if Ltec is an high or simply middle quality brand.

Zandrax

[rsharp]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

I have been having trouble with these exact same capacitors on NVidia GeForce 6600 video cards. I've probably replaced 8-10 of them here. MPC support is out of order since their recent bankruptcy filing so I can no longer get replacements under warranty. I thought I would try just replacing the capacitors on the cards just to see if I could. Unfortunately I cannot find a place to purchase them from.

Do you know where I can purchase a box of replacements for these capacitors?

They either have f255 1500 6.3V or fz57 1500 6.3V written on the top but they look identical.

Thanks for your help

[Doramius]

Re: Mach Speed with bad Caps?

The letter and number might be something in regards to the materials used or something else that's company specific. I have no clue.

However, they would still be 1500uF @ 6.3V, and this is how you'd find your replacement. Try a 10V or 16V replacement and see what that does for ya.