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1 capacitor swollen on top,on a K8NS Ultra 939 board

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lordgalla

Technical User
Apr 1, 2005
253
US
Hello All; I have a Gigabyte K8NS Ultra 939 Motherboard,all seems ok with it except,I see 1 of the KZG 3300uf 6.3v Capacitors is a little swollen on top,no leakage,and I don't see anything oozing out from it.Should I be worried about this at this time? seems to be working ok right now anyway.What do you guy's think? Thanks for any input on this.
 
Well, replace the capacitor if you know how to solder,have all the tools,and understand that you could damage the board even more. Not to sound pessimistic but I have been doing electronic repair on a component level for more than 20 years,and it is very easy to rip a trace or damage a component next to the bad cap.

That being said. If you want to try it out, my suggestion is to find a broken radio or other small electronics, take it apart,and try to remove some of the components on that first. Soldering like any other learned skill takes practice. Also you might want to look into getting some "chip-quick". Its an alloy designed to lower the temperature needed in de-soldering. You will need if you don't already have, a soldering pencil,solder,braid,pump and if you like the chip quick. easily $40 to $60. A replacement board would run 50-75$. Considering the age of a 939 board, this might be a good time to think about doing an upgrade.
 
Since this thread has mentioned soldering, what are others thoughts on solder equipment. I've thought that it would be nice to do some trial solder-type repairs of motherboards - capacitors, but I read an article on Tom's Hardware suggesting that you shouldn't mess with motherboards unless you have a $200+ (used price, I think) piece of equipment with which to do it - one that has a soldering and desoldering station or whatever.

Anyway, any thoughts here on just getting some el-cheapo soldering kit, if it'd work just as well, or is there a lot of truth to NEEDING the high-dollar equipment?
 
Used to be a lot easier to do component replacement on M/Bs but since they have gone to multilayer you risk damage every time you touch one with an iron.

I don't do as much any more. Probably haven't had the iron warm in more than a year. But if you are committed you can do it with something like an Ungar handle, a 23 watt element, and pencil tips. Plus a sucker and some wick.

Some people can solder, others can't, no matter how much they practice. I taught it many years ago and helped good practitioners improve but couldn't do anything for those who were klutzes. Soldering stations are nice but you can work without one. I use Panavise stuff for board support, to the extent that I have one set at the house and one set in the car.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
 
I use a decent Weller station that is temperature controlled, ran about 130.00 on Amazon. Several sizes of wick, a de-solder pump for bigger jobs, Chip-quick for heat sensitive,and multi-layer boards (works great for replacing broken ac connectors on laptops). Originally was developed for replacing surface mount devices, I came across it years ago when I used to repair televisions.
 
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