Nice job!!!! couple more tips: Adding a little bit of flux helps. Clean and re-tin your tip often. Clean the area on the board where you soldered with isopropyl alcohol when finished. This will give you a nice "factory" look finish when done. And the most important: DON'T BURN YOUR FINGERS!!! I have a nasty burn scar on my thumb from when I burned it years ago. I only accidentally bumped it for like a half a second......happens so quick.....OUCH!!!!! Keep up the good work.
Hey dude, even you are at a young age today, your explanation was crystal clear and one of the best out on youtube. I hope you excel in this area of interest and you'll become a professional not to mention, you are already 1 in my eyes. :D
I like to take photos of everything before i start desoldering, because my memory is crap and i've found that you can't always trust the legend printed on the board to be 100% complete and accurate. Like, I was removing some leaky caps from this Bondwell 286 laptop yesterday, and i noticed that the silkscreen had actually got "+" and "-" mixed up in several places. Best to have a photo of it so you know for sure how the capacitor was REALLY oriented.
Yeah, that is always a good idea. You can also just do 1 component at a time, but it's really down to whatever is easiest for you. These boards are designed by humans after all, so there is bound to be mistakes here and there. Photos are great, indeed!
WoW. Thank you for this. I've been dreading getting into this for some p5a boards I have..but you explained the process in a way that alleviated my concerns. (read the comments and got viewers bonus tips and tricks too) Keep up the great work. Subscribed!
Great Video. I got a old Shuttle AMD Athlon XP 2100 Mother Board that need 4 of the 6 caps replaced and are leaking and ran great and stable till they started leaking. Granted I know the board is old but for a retro system it is great to make a Free Dos system out of. I just lack any kind of soldering skills or solder or a soldering iron or flux. You know all the things required for soldering anything successfully especially good soldering skills. Anyway, great video.
Thanks! Nice, I've been getting into Athlon stuff a bit recently too. Soldering isn't too hard, just watch a few tutorials and practice. For a long time I was using a really cheap and nasty soldering iron, but you know what? That's what I learnt on, so I've found it super easy to use better gear. I've been soldering for about 8 years now (on and off, I'm certainty not the best!) and if I could offer any advice, it would be to practice. Really, practice and technique are the two most important things with soldering.
@@ScanLinesAU No problem man. www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=47545 That's pretty much the go to thread on the topic. Very sparce info on the net, but the full mobo poly mod will buy you 20 more years on the mobo (as far as caps are concerned) . Saw a video on A ultrasonic cleaning in a water & pcb cleaning solution that made the mobo factory fresh. Also, check philscomputerlab for inspiration. Critically underviewed channel.
@@ashleyjwilliamshand Ah nice, yeah I'll check that out. Ah yep, I've got a very high tech solution for cleaning motherboards, it involves a garden hose haha. Just rinse them down and let dry for a week. Good as new! Yeah Philscomputerlab is great hey, been watching his vids for a good 3 years.
Nice done! You may refer to the "microfarads" or "μF" as "Capacitance". I strongly recommend using a bit of flux too, liquid, gel, paste, whichever you can get.
Thanks! Ah yeah, I've always called it microfarads, but capacitance sounds easier hah. Yeah, flux is good. I haven't ever really needed to use any in this application though, but will give it a try for sure.
Thanks! I have a Dell Dimension 2400 mobo I'm suspecting has faulty caps. It's probably not worth fixing money wise considering how eager people are to get rid of them but I need to get better at soldering and I think it'll make a decent "retro" gaming rig
Question: I heard some saying that the capacitors used must be exclusively "low ESR", and found out that those are so very expensive, sound like an scam to me. Any idea?
You cannot swap caps with lower voltage-rated ones, true. But in this application (most of these caps are parts of step-down voltage regulators or simply filtering voltage ripples) there's no harm in going higher. Manufacturers just aim for the lower value that will (somewhat reliably) do the job. Board real estate is another factor.
You should also mention values like ESR, ripple current and impedance. They can be only found in datasheets and are not written directly on the capacitor. Use of high ESR capacitors in circuits where low ESR is needed can cause problems.
I need to recap my acer aspire m5201 from way back as it's used for cnc control and no way can i rebuild the models i made for the cnc program. Remember,replacing just the visually swollen caps might not be the best idea as ALL the caps will be of the same age ,also you should reform the oxide layer as the caps will have been lying on the shelf for a while and if not reformed the caps may be out of spec for ESR and leakage current. Not going to go well for a mobo if the caps are for critical use areas. Always measure new caps for mobo's,make sure they are within spec. Some manufacturers state to add series 1k resistors and apply full rated voltage , the method i know uses series resistors but apply the voltage incrementally over a period of 3-5 hours,use a bread board and raise the voltage no more than the lowest voltage caps,going in voltage rating stages removing each batch of rated voltage caps until all caps are done,so going from say 1vdc to 6.3vdc in 3-4 hours removing the 6.3 caps and discharging them using a 220k resistor then measure ESR. Watch this video-ua-cam.com/video/L-u8JhVgQlY/v-deo.html - and you may make a tool for this very endeavour .
So, if I have a 820 UF 2.5v capacitor, then All I need to match is the 820 value. As long as the unit is 2.5v or above it will work? Also, I have a motherboard with a broken solid capacitor. Can they be replaced using the same method?
Yes, you are correct. You probably don't want to go too high in voltage over the original because usually it will be a slightly larger capacitor that might not fit well back into the same space. It will also cost a little bit more to get higher voltage-rated capacitors. As far as the broken solid capacitor, you're probably talking about a ceramic disc capacitor, which are usually brown. I would think you can use the same reasoning when replacing those, but I would try to get the exact same match if you could. You might want to ask someone else about those. I have recapped a lot of circuit boards with electrolytic capacitors, but I have not replaced ceramic disc capacitors, really. One thing to think about is that you may end up having to get at least some low-ESR capacitors, especially for the large ones around a processor chip on a motherboard if that's what you're working on. Some circuits require that type of capacitor. They are usually exactly the same as what you would generally buy except they are labeled as low-ESR. (Equivalent Series Resistance) They cost a bit more, too.
There are certainly capacitors that can give you quite a shock, but I doubt you'll run across any on a motherboard or video card that can do so. Capacitors in power supplies or CRT monitors are a different story, at the very least learn how to safely discharge a capacitor before you go poking about inside of those or anything operating on mains voltage.
The charge in the capacitors would probably be gone already since you have circuits that discharge them automatically in a lot of modern boards. Also, if the item has been stored somewhere for a long time, there should be no charge remaining in the capacitors because it would have dissipated by now. The largest shock you could possibly get would be like touching a doorknob and getting a static shock. The circuits in motherboards only use a maximum of about 12 volts, so that's not enough push to put much current through your body, and it still wouldn't kill you.
This motherboard is similar to Asus P4R800-VM! You know, I bought this motherboard, marked as "to be fixed". Starts but black screen. Tested capacitors and ALMOST ALL are blown! Never seen anything like this. I can't figure out why it happened.
I've heard about that with the Asus motherboards. The only other time I came across that problem is with certain arcade monitor chassis boards. I think the Neotecs were the worst, but there were also some others that had a few errors. The best thing to do is simply note if they're marked properly when you take the old capacitor out. There are so many people that want to pull a whole bunch of capacitors out and shove a bunch of new ones back in there all at the same time. I don't see why it's so hard to do one at a time.
If only one capacitor is broken, can you get away with simply neglecting it and only replacing it if the pc won’t post or would there already be damage done?
I believe a bloated capacitor will eventually actually blow, and then you'll be screwed because most probably the motherboard will be damaged beyond repair.
I have a GIGABYTE GA-7DXE Socket 462 MB with AMD Athlon XP 1700+ CPU, 256MB RAM. I know it is old. But I want it for a retro build. I used that MB with Windows 2000 and now it does not power up. Changed PSU, blinking DIMM_LED like TICK-TOCK. Also sometimes it auto powers up, but nothing on screen. Basically, changed PSUs, nothing changed ALSO CHANGED THERMAL PASTE ON CPU, CPU DIE is not cracked or chipped Help please. I will thank anyone who help me. Also a recap can be worth on this board? I think about recapping. And it can work after that intermittent power cycles that suffered before the plan of recapping? I have a solder iron, 60/40 flux, needle. Can i use them without a soldering pump? PS: I bought as replacement caps some from Panasonic, some from Elite and some from Sancon. Can I use these instead of the original Choyo & Chong?
Quite sorry to burst your bubble, but those caps you bought are fake Nichicons. Here's how I know this: - Nichicons were never green/gold printing for a start. Either brown/white printing for some older caps (and usually PSU caps at that), or black/white for motherboards. Black/gold printing is also counterfeit, proven by Dell and Apple in several cases. - the printing looks sketchy as all hell. Hope you can replace them soon, as the board looks like a competent MSI retro motherboard, and it would be a shame to run it with fake capacitors that can hold up for less than even the original crapcaps did.
Ah damn, thank you for pointing this out! Yeah I got them on eBay ages ago, but had never really looked into whether they were actually real or not. Nowadays I use RS-Components though, so I'll definitely have to order some real Nichicons! Appreciate you bring this up, thanks again!
Bruh, how old are you?
Seeing people this young and smart restores my faith in mankind.
Nice job!!!! couple more tips: Adding a little bit of flux helps. Clean and re-tin your tip often. Clean the area on the board where you soldered with isopropyl alcohol when finished. This will give you a nice "factory" look finish when done. And the most important: DON'T BURN YOUR FINGERS!!! I have a nasty burn scar on my thumb from when I burned it years ago. I only accidentally bumped it for like a half a second......happens so quick.....OUCH!!!!! Keep up the good work.
Appreciate the soldering tips. Hah, I know all too well about burning fingers! Too easy to do hey. Thanks, I sure will.
i did burn myself years ago but at least i didn't get scars, i guess im less prone to scars.
Hey dude, even you are at a young age today, your explanation was crystal clear and one of the best out on youtube. I hope you excel in this area of interest and you'll become a professional not to mention, you are already 1 in my eyes. :D
when i was googling for this i didn't expect a 12 year old kid explain it to me. this guy is gonna grow up into an engineering genious
You sound like a young person. I admire your knowledge on this subject. Thank you for the info!
I like to take photos of everything before i start desoldering, because my memory is crap and i've found that you can't always trust the legend printed on the board to be 100% complete and accurate. Like, I was removing some leaky caps from this Bondwell 286 laptop yesterday, and i noticed that the silkscreen had actually got "+" and "-" mixed up in several places. Best to have a photo of it so you know for sure how the capacitor was REALLY oriented.
Yeah, that is always a good idea. You can also just do 1 component at a time, but it's really down to whatever is easiest for you. These boards are designed by humans after all, so there is bound to be mistakes here and there. Photos are great, indeed!
WoW. Thank you for this. I've been dreading getting into this for some p5a boards I have..but you explained the process in a way that alleviated my concerns. (read the comments and got viewers bonus tips and tricks too)
Keep up the great work.
Subscribed!
I'm gonna use this video as guidance when I take on my old school ECS motherboard. Never attempted this before, but it doesn't look too bad.
Great Video. I got a old Shuttle AMD Athlon XP 2100 Mother Board that need 4 of the 6 caps replaced and are leaking and ran great and stable till they started leaking. Granted I know the board is old but for a retro system it is great to make a Free Dos system out of. I just lack any kind of soldering skills or solder or a soldering iron or flux. You know all the things required for soldering anything successfully especially good soldering skills. Anyway, great video.
Thanks! Nice, I've been getting into Athlon stuff a bit recently too. Soldering isn't too hard, just watch a few tutorials and practice. For a long time I was using a really cheap and nasty soldering iron, but you know what? That's what I learnt on, so I've found it super easy to use better gear. I've been soldering for about 8 years now (on and off, I'm certainty not the best!) and if I could offer any advice, it would be to practice. Really, practice and technique are the two most important things with soldering.
Ty so much, gives me the confidence to repair my monitor again.
Thank you!! Just found out I may have to replace caps on my betamax I've never soldered before needless to say replaced a capacitor lol😅
Love the videos! Very informative and top notch quality. Keep em' coming!
Would love too see a electrolytic to polymer cap upgrade video.
Thanks man! Yeah planning on doing something like that, just need to find the right motherboard for the job.
@@ScanLinesAU No problem man.
www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=47545
That's pretty much the go to thread on the topic. Very sparce info on the net, but the full mobo poly mod will buy you 20 more years on the mobo (as far as caps are concerned) .
Saw a video on A ultrasonic cleaning in a water & pcb cleaning solution that made the mobo factory fresh. Also, check philscomputerlab for inspiration. Critically underviewed channel.
@@ashleyjwilliamshand Ah nice, yeah I'll check that out.
Ah yep, I've got a very high tech solution for cleaning motherboards, it involves a garden hose haha. Just rinse them down and let dry for a week. Good as new! Yeah Philscomputerlab is great hey, been watching his vids for a good 3 years.
Best video about how to do this on you tube!!!
Love the vid, been a great help! P.s. are you Australian? Cause of the accent ;)
Nice done! You may refer to the "microfarads" or "μF" as "Capacitance". I strongly recommend using a bit of flux too, liquid, gel, paste, whichever you can get.
Thanks! Ah yeah, I've always called it microfarads, but capacitance sounds easier hah. Yeah, flux is good. I haven't ever really needed to use any in this application though, but will give it a try for sure.
glad to see the vintage computing community isnt just shriveled 40 year old dudes
Thanks! I have a Dell Dimension 2400 mobo I'm suspecting has faulty caps. It's probably not worth fixing money wise considering how eager people are to get rid of them but I need to get better at soldering and I think it'll make a decent "retro" gaming rig
Nice board! Looks like a MS-6309 or something very close to it... as you say, very well worth saving!
Question: I heard some saying that the capacitors used must be exclusively "low ESR", and found out that those are so very expensive, sound like an scam to me. Any idea?
You can practice desoldering on old broken components like dead cards. I first learned to desolder on a cracked modem card.
What is the recommended soldering iron for this job?
You cannot swap caps with lower voltage-rated ones, true. But in this application (most of these caps are parts of step-down voltage regulators or simply filtering voltage ripples) there's no harm in going higher. Manufacturers just aim for the lower value that will (somewhat reliably) do the job. Board real estate is another factor.
You should also mention values like ESR, ripple current and impedance. They can be only found in datasheets and are not written directly on the capacitor. Use of high ESR capacitors in circuits where low ESR is needed can cause problems.
Nice vid! I recapped my ECS K7VZA and Shuttle AK12.
Thanks! Yeah great to save this old stuff, awesome job.
Nice job and presentation, Thank you.😊
my msi 1996 seems to have no bulgy capacitors but seems have a bit of problem of powering on
Hello
if My Motherboard (Bad Capacitors Rubycon 6.3v 2200uf) but I put ( RUBYCON MCZ 6.3V1200UF) Any Problems !!!
Have a new subscriber!
hey man i just wanna let you know if i can use your vids in a presentation of mine for my college work hope you dont mind
nice job, nice board too, great for an old dos machine with an isa sound card!
Nice video! Very well done
Thanks!
I need to recap my acer aspire m5201 from way back as it's used for cnc control and no way can i rebuild the models i made for the cnc program.
Remember,replacing just the visually swollen caps might not be the best idea as ALL the caps will be of the same age ,also you should reform the oxide layer as the caps will have been lying on the shelf for a while and if not reformed the caps may be out of spec for ESR and leakage current.
Not going to go well for a mobo if the caps are for critical use areas.
Always measure new caps for mobo's,make sure they are within spec.
Some manufacturers state to add series 1k resistors and apply full rated voltage , the method i know uses series resistors but apply the voltage incrementally over a period of 3-5 hours,use a bread board and raise the voltage no more than the lowest voltage caps,going in voltage rating stages removing each batch of rated voltage caps until all caps are done,so going from say 1vdc to 6.3vdc in 3-4 hours removing the 6.3 caps and discharging them using a 220k resistor then measure ESR.
Watch this video-ua-cam.com/video/L-u8JhVgQlY/v-deo.html - and you may make a tool for this very endeavour .
My Asus motherboard is from 2002...having a number of bulged electrolytic capacitors....but strangely it is still working
So, if I have a 820 UF 2.5v capacitor, then All I need to match is the 820 value. As long as the unit is 2.5v or above it will work? Also, I have a motherboard with a broken solid capacitor. Can they be replaced using the same method?
Yes, you are correct. You probably don't want to go too high in voltage over the original because usually it will be a slightly larger capacitor that might not fit well back into the same space. It will also cost a little bit more to get higher voltage-rated capacitors.
As far as the broken solid capacitor, you're probably talking about a ceramic disc capacitor, which are usually brown.
I would think you can use the same reasoning when replacing those, but I would try to get the exact same match if you could. You might want to ask someone else about those.
I have recapped a lot of circuit boards with electrolytic capacitors, but I have not replaced ceramic disc capacitors, really.
One thing to think about is that you may end up having to get at least some low-ESR capacitors, especially for the large ones around a processor chip on a motherboard if that's what you're working on.
Some circuits require that type of capacitor. They are usually exactly the same as what you would generally buy except they are labeled as low-ESR. (Equivalent Series Resistance) They cost a bit more, too.
Can there be voltage on these if everything is off? I'm scared I get shocked and die
There are certainly capacitors that can give you quite a shock, but I doubt you'll run across any on a motherboard or video card that can do so. Capacitors in power supplies or CRT monitors are a different story, at the very least learn how to safely discharge a capacitor before you go poking about inside of those or anything operating on mains voltage.
The charge in the capacitors would probably be gone already since you have circuits that discharge them automatically in a lot of modern boards.
Also, if the item has been stored somewhere for a long time, there should be no charge remaining in the capacitors because it would have dissipated by now.
The largest shock you could possibly get would be like touching a doorknob and getting a static shock.
The circuits in motherboards only use a maximum of about 12 volts, so that's not enough push to put much current through your body, and it still wouldn't kill you.
This motherboard is similar to Asus P4R800-VM! You know, I bought this motherboard, marked as "to be fixed". Starts but black screen. Tested capacitors and ALMOST ALL are blown! Never seen anything like this. I can't figure out why it happened.
V nice
4:45 The side with a white mark is always a ground or negative side until it is an Asus motherboard :)
I've heard about that with the Asus motherboards. The only other time I came across that problem is with certain arcade monitor chassis boards. I think the Neotecs were the worst, but there were also some others that had a few errors.
The best thing to do is simply note if they're marked properly when you take the old capacitor out.
There are so many people that want to pull a whole bunch of capacitors out and shove a bunch of new ones back in there all at the same time. I don't see why it's so hard to do one at a time.
If only one capacitor is broken, can you get away with simply neglecting it and only replacing it if the pc won’t post or would there already be damage done?
I believe a bloated capacitor will eventually actually blow, and then you'll be screwed because most probably the motherboard will be damaged beyond repair.
Subbed !
I have a GIGABYTE GA-7DXE Socket 462 MB with AMD Athlon XP 1700+ CPU, 256MB RAM.
I know it is old. But I want it for a retro build. I used that MB with Windows 2000 and now it does not power up. Changed PSU, blinking DIMM_LED like TICK-TOCK. Also sometimes it auto powers up, but nothing on screen.
Basically, changed PSUs, nothing changed
ALSO CHANGED THERMAL PASTE ON CPU, CPU DIE is not cracked or chipped
Help please. I will thank anyone who help me.
Also a recap can be worth on this board? I think about recapping. And it can work after that intermittent power cycles that suffered before the plan of recapping?
I have a solder iron, 60/40 flux, needle. Can i use them without a soldering pump?
PS: I bought as replacement caps some from Panasonic, some from Elite and some from Sancon. Can I use these instead of the original Choyo & Chong?
4:14 Better avoid those Chhsi capacitors haha
Quite sorry to burst your bubble, but those caps you bought are fake Nichicons.
Here's how I know this:
- Nichicons were never green/gold printing for a start. Either brown/white printing for some older caps (and usually PSU caps at that), or black/white for motherboards. Black/gold printing is also counterfeit, proven by Dell and Apple in several cases.
- the printing looks sketchy as all hell.
Hope you can replace them soon, as the board looks like a competent MSI retro motherboard, and it would be a shame to run it with fake capacitors that can hold up for less than even the original crapcaps did.
Ah damn, thank you for pointing this out! Yeah I got them on eBay ages ago, but had never really looked into whether they were actually real or not. Nowadays I use RS-Components though, so I'll definitely have to order some real Nichicons! Appreciate you bring this up, thanks again!