Recap of mste board - is it needed ?

[alienkidmj12]

Anyone aware of the requirement to recap a mega ste system board ?

Thanks

Dave

[Steve]

Are you asking for a list of capacitors needed for ordering?

I have never seen anyone re-cap a mste before, so I don't know.

If you are asking *does it need re-capping?* Well many people will tell you yes, many will tell you no (strangely, even very reputable people will tell you no) But in my opinion, no capacitor has a life expectancy of over 30 years unless it's ceramic.

[sporniket]

One of the question would be : "Will a cap ruin your motherboard by leaking, or will you ruin your motheboard by trying to prevent that ?"

edit : When trying to remove the capacitors of the reset circuit to install exxos's kit, I quickly realized I would not succeed. I decided to just cut the leads near the body of the caps, and solder the new ones to those dangling leads. Not pretty, but no harm to the motherboard.

[exxos]

One of the question would be : "Will a cap ruin your motherboard by leaking, or will you ruin your motherboard by trying to prevent that ?"

That is very good advice actually.

Indeed power supplies need servicing but probably not so much the motherboards. Indeed a lot of people will cause damage in trying to fix it. So should just leave the things alone.

edit : When trying to remove the capacitors of the reset circuit to install exxos's kit, I quickly realized I would not succeed. I decided to just cut the leads near the body of the caps, and solder the new ones to those dangling leads. Not pretty, but no harm to the motherboard.

Indeed they are a bugger. I solder over them to save removing them. There are other caps like in the STFM video circuit which are also known to go bad and a few others.. but recapping a whole motherboard is a whole new level.

Again I should point out that circuits need to be diagnosed they are actually faulty in the first place. Properly documented, serviced and documented again. All the capacitors I have changed have been documented why they need to be changed. In terms of every capacitor on every motherboard out there, somebody really needs to work it all out first. It is indeed a phenomenal amount of work and is one of those things I will never have time for motivation to do myself.

[rubber_jonnie]

For me, the whole recap or not thing for me comes down to a few things.

Is a capacitor obviously leaking? If so, I'll replace it.

Is the capacitor in a highly stressed scenario, like a PSU? If yes, I'll replace it.

TBH I've met quite a few caps that meet both of those conditions, so it's an easy choice to make.

In all other scenarios, I don't usually do it unless something isn't working right and I've run out of ideas.

Of all the 70 odd machines in my collection, only 3 have had multiple mainboard caps replaced, and that was because they met the 1st criteria that they were leaking.

They were my Amiga 1200, Mac Classic and Archimedes A5000. All had the stubby aluminium dustbin type SMD caps which don't seem to last so well.

The only other machine I needed to replace a mainboard cap on was my Amstrad Alt-386. Same type of cap, and it caused extensive track damage to the PCB and many bodge wires were required to repair it.

So what am I trying to say?

If there is an obvious reason to replace caps, then do it, if not then don't. Don't just do it because it's the thing to do, use some reasoning to determine the right path.

[alienkidmj12]

Thanks for all your advice.

Dave