Singing Potatoes
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Saturday, 12 April 2003
I don't think it's supposed to do that...

For the past couple of weeks, my computer has taken to spontaneously halting without warning. Black screen, no response to any controls (including the power and reset buttons). Today, I finally took the thing apart to see if it was a hardware fault.

All the capacitors around the CPU are leaking their contents through the top.

I knew P4s were hot, but I didn't know they were so hot that they'd boil capacitors. Grrr. Time for a new motherboard, I guess.

Posted by godfrey (link)
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Comments
Are those er, like flux capacitors? Capacitors in flux?
Posted by Moira on 12 Apr 2003 21:23
Ha. Karen asked the same thing.

Turns out that it's a widespread problem caused by some bad industrial espionage, affecting up to 40% of motherboards and monitors manufactured during a certain period, caused by a company producing low-ESR capacitors based on a faulty electrolyte formula.

Harrumph.

Posted by Godfrey on 13 Apr 2003 07:52
Can't you go back to the retailer, and have him return it to the manufacturer? Something like this HAS to be covered.
Posted by Lunchbox on 14 Apr 2003 08:29
Ha. Karen asked the same thing.

((high-fives Karen))
Posted by Moira on 14 Apr 2003 20:13
Great minds...
Posted by Ginevra on 15 Apr 2003 06:35
Something like this HAS to be covered.

Well, sure. The manufacturer warranted that the motherboard would work for one year. Unfortunately, I bought it in November 2001, so I have no legal recourse; it fulfilled its guaranteed lifetime.

I bought a snazzy new motherboard with Firewire and Ethernet built in. Windows XP doesn't like it; it reboots (or locks up, depending on BIOS settings) just after loading the AGP driver. Trying to boot it with older hard drives that I had in my closet, I discovered that the motherboard works just fine under OS/2 Warp 4, Windows ME and Windows for Workgroups (version 3.11).

But not XP.

Which, of course, is what the motherboard claims it was designed for.

Posted by Godfrey on 15 Apr 2003 08:01