[TriLUG] [Offtopic] Failing motherboards

[Sinner from the Prairy]

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All,

I just came across this story on spectrum.ieee.org about failing motherboards 
due to faulty capacitors. As I know most of us are (a least) a little 
interested in hardware, and we usualy see a ton of hardware, I thought it 
would be good to know about it.

Check the article here:

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/resource/feb03/ncap.html

" Aluminum electrolytic capacitors with a low equivalent series resistance 
(ESR) are high-capacitance components that generally serve to smooth out the 
power supply to chips. Throughout 2002, they have been breaking open and 
failing in certain desktop PCs. Motherboard and PC makers contacted by IEEE 
Spectrum have stopped using the faulty parts, but because the parts can fail 
over a period of several months, more such failures are expected.

So far, the only motherboard maker to admit to the problem is ABIT Computer 
Corp. (Taipei), and the only major PC maker to acknowledge being affected is 
IBM Corp. But the problem is likely to be more widespread. Indeed, those who 
have repaired the damaged boards say that they have encountered crippled 
motherboards from Micro-Star International, ASUSTek Computer, Gigabyte 
Technology, and others. "


Salut,
Sinner
- -- 
http://www.ibiblio.org/sinner/     Linux User # 89976
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