[COLUG] Replacing Bad Electrolytic Capacitors Saved Motherboard

[Jim]

Earlier today I wrote: 

> Yesterday I wrote: 
> 
> > I recently got a dead motherboard.  The caps were bulged.  
> > I've replaced them, but I don't know yet if the board is still dead, 
> > since I don't have the right CPU and memory on hand with which to test.  
> 
> I was able to get my hands on the right CPU and memory.  
> The motherboard works.  Yippee!  There are some grey bands 
> in the video and there are still some bulged caps by the 
> video chip, so I'll replace those also.  

I replaced four more bulged caps, including three by the video 
chip.  The grey bands in the video are gone and the board boots 
more reliably now.  Sweet!  

I measured the capacitance of the four bulged caps that I removed: 

Label   Measured
1000uF  155uF
1000uF  109uF
 470uF  122uF
 470uF   51uF

Wow, no wonder the board had not been working well.  
It's amazing how well it did work with such lousy components.