And a few replies:
@PulsatingQuasar
General purpose simply means they're not anything special, so they're not high temperature, low ESR, "high reliability", or close tolerance.
It's still not a good idea to use tantalum capacitors in situations where you have large inrush currents for the reasons I described earlier.
They might work fine for years, but there's also every chance a capacitor might explode next time you power the computer on. You can't predict when they might fail.
@mike-
Paying that much for a few simple capacitors would be insane. Just use SMD electrolytics which are in the order of 0.5Euro each or less, they'll do the job perfectly well. Buy high temperature ones if you really want to spend a little extra. Don't waste your hard earned cash, or at least give it to me :-P
@rockape
If you haven't seen it already, here's some
instructions on how to approach fixing that kind of thing.
@A4000_Mad
Thanks, glad to hear you're finding them useful! Hmmm, beer, had a bit too much of that last night....
If you think of any other guide subjects you'd like to see, I'm always open for suggestions.
@orange
The 'C' in the part code is probably either a temperature or tolerance; e.g. the capacitance will be within 20% of the rated value. The component datasheet will give you the details.
And SMD or radial/leaded capacitors are basically the same thing internally. Only the package is physically different.
It's probably not necessary to replace all of the capacitors. In all of the countless A4000, A1200, etc, I've worked on, mainly the 22µF and 4.7µF capacitors seem to give trouble. The electrolyte solution in the other values seem stable enough. That's not to say they won't eventually fail over time, so there's nothing wrong with replacing them if you feel the need to.
@people trying to buy capacitors
I stock replacement SMD electrolytics which I can supply as required. Roughly 0.5Euro each depending on the exchange rate, + about 6 Euro for freight ex New Zealand.
Email me for more detail.
Probably a bit cheaper locally if you can find them. Note also that some suppliers like Farnell have a minimum order cost, about $20 here in NZ.
