Video failure and system shutdowns

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An article released yesterday by C/Net News describes problems with faulty capacitors that can cause problems in some Dell, HP and Apple systems. The faulty capacitors can cause video problems and system shutdowns. The article can be found here .

Hope this article helps some who may be experiencing video / shut down problems.

Cheers, Bob

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This is not limited to the big PC makers – in fact it is not limited to computers at all. Devices that use electrolytic capacitors are susceptible.

ABit motherboards had some significant problems a couple years ago – they have since changed suppliers. ASUS, Gigabyte, BioStar, MSI, and others all have experienced leaky caps.

At this point, I must pass Kudos to Gigabyte. I have a 2 1/2 year old GA-7VAXP motherboard that was giving me reboot problems for several months – once a week or so it would reboot out of the blue. I Swapped RAM, power supply, video card, updated drivers, monitored heat – nothing helped. There was never a clue as to cause, nothing in Event viewer. Finally, last month, I did another visual inspection, I noticed a cap had started to leak – it was then I noticed 3 more were bulging.

I sent Gigabyte a note asking for parts breakdown as the warranty (1 year parts and labor, 3 years parts) had expired and as a technician, I knew the parts were cheap, labor is not. Replacing caps on multilayered boards can be tricky, but something I have done many times. To my surprise, Gigabyte issued an RMA and told me to send the board in for repair.

30 days later (the web site says 3 to 4 business weeks) I received my board back. A visual shows they replaced 6 caps. As a technician who used to teach soldering techniques, I can tell you they were good soldering joints. Threw the board back in the case and it fired up and has been running 4 days now – hopefully it will hold.

And the good news, it only cost me shipping one-way.

Bill (AFE7Ret)
Freedom isn't free!

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