A4000 owners - check your caps!

[mingle]

Hi all,

Another chapter from my continuing A4000D saga...

After discovering the crackly audio last night, I removed the MB and had a close look and came across a number of leaky caps - I'm hoping the corrosion is only on the surface. :-/

I've attached a few pics to show the mess they can make...

So if you haven't checked your baby yet, do it before this happens to you! :-)

Cheers,

Mike.

[dougal]

That doesn't look nice, but at least its not as messy as the battery leaks.

This capacitor problem seems to be getting more and more common on A4000's/CD32's/A1200's and A600s these days.

Am i right in believing that older Amiga's (A500,A2000 etc...) are not affected by these capacitor problems?

Some months ago i replaced capacitors inside a 2 Sega Game Gears. One of them had no display and the other very low sound. It was annoying for someone like me with very little sodering skills to work on such small and delicate boards of the Game Gear, but once the work was done, both Game Gears worked perfectly.

I imagine it would be easier to solder new Caps on an Amiga (Bigger board and more space to work with), but I personally am more afraid of damaging an expensive Amiga than i would the Sega.

How do you know that CAPS are leaking when they have only just started?

We have heard of the sound problems due to leaky caps. Is the delayed reset problem (common on A600;s and A1200's) also due to leaky caps?

Good lucky cleaning up your A4000. It doesnt look that bad

[gertsy]

Looks nasty!!
Anthony in NZ, AKA Castellen can fix that up for you for a reasonable fee.
But he is a busy person.

You can PM him here.  Unless ur willing to have a go yourself,. and can get the parts.

I have never seen the problem on my A500s or my A2000.
 
Gertsy

[Tumbleweed]

I read somewhere that the the A500 and A2000's don't suffer the leaky cap problems. Other than damaged sound leaky caps can also affect the mouse and joystick ports.

Weed

[Cosmos Amiga]

I have all new caps for your A4000 : 6 euros with shipping in Priority !

[arnljot]

Absolutely check your caps!

All my three Amiga4000s have been gone over by, by the excellent Castellen aka Anthony.

And my doc has also given me a prostate exam, much like older amigas, their male owners must also have components checked out. For both; just do it - as nike says.

[JGB]

All electrolytic capacitors have a limited lifespan.  Eventually the electrolyte dries out and deteriorates.  After that they may overheat when voltage is applied, which may cause them to expel electrolyte onto the board or even explode (pop!).  These pics look like maybe leaked electrolyte on the SMT bits next to the electrolytic caps.  The most obvious indicators of a failed electro are leaked black goo or a bulging container.  Electros generally have the cylindrical can shape.

Several years ago there, was a Chinese company selling caps at a lower cost.  Lots of manufacturers used their product, only to later discover that their (stolen) electrolyte formula was defective, causing wholesale motherboard failures.  Several motherboard makers went out of business, as consequence, just from warranty repair costs.  I had one such MB, which worked fine after replacing the caps.  Turns out, the caps were cheaper because they had, unknowingly, left out an essential ingredient.

[Fester]

Interesting tid-bit about the lower cost caps JGB. I have a 2000 mb out for battery replacement and it does have several cylindrical caps on it. No bulges or leaks on this one at least.

[Sandman]

For what its worth - your mileage may very......  I wouldn't consider myself a soldering expert but have had great success putting new smd caps on my A4000's.

There is a product called 'Chipquick', it is a solder that stays molten long enough to allow you to place the smd caps and move them around.  It worked great for me.

I ordered all the caps thru DigiKey....shipping was extremely fast!

Good Luck