[geeks] power supply trouble?

[Jochen Kunz]

On Tue, 14 Jun 2011 01:35:23 -0400 (EDT)
der Mouse <mouse at Rodents-Montreal.ORG> wrote:

> The only thing that's apparent as a possible cause is that of the dozen
> electrolytic caps on the board, some six or seven have visibly bulged
> tops; one of them even has something that could be a small amount of
> some internal compound leaking out. 
[...]
> So, the suspicion I'm looking for a sanity-check on: I suspect that
> these capacitors are the problem and that if I replace them with good
> caps there's a reasonably good chance it'll go back to working fine.
Yes. Bulging electrolytic capacitors are a problem for sure. Your
description of the failure supports this. The capacitors don't go bad
instantly. They degrade over time, typicaly over months or years.

Note: Most likely you will need low-ESR electrolytic capacitors for
SM-PSUs. Ordinary electrolytic capacitors will not work, or only a
short time.
-- 


\end{Jochen}

\ref{http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/}