HP Vectra Pentium II -- Flaky caps?

[William R. Walsh]

Hello all...

I have an HP Vectra VL Pentium II with 300MHz CPU. While this system is
generally reliable and well behaved with Windows 2000 Pro SP4, there are
times when it randomly drops into a STOP error or applications start acting
up. I am certain that there are no viruses or other malicious code causing
problems.

I've heard that some PII/PIII system failures can be caused by some now
famous improperly manufactured capacitors. How likely is this to be a
problem in a name brand system with a motherboard that claims to have been
"Made In France"?

I haven't actually checked to see where the capacitors were made, but I'm
wondering if it matters...

William

 

[hemyd]

From my experience (replaced scores and scores of motherboards) it is very
possible that the caps are faulty, as this is something that has been
plaguing the PC industry for a few years. One sure way to tell is to lift
off the top cover and look at the tops of the electrolytic caps. If there is
even a slight doming on one or more caps, then either all the electros or
the motherboard needs to be replaced. The symptoms are generally (but not
always) rebooting, freezing, shutting down. The caps may also blow other
components. The faulty caps will eventually leak, but even a slight doming
with no leak is a sign of a bad cap.

Henry Mydlarz
Melbourne, Australia

"William R. Walsh" <newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>
wrote in message news:e_1fc.32060$wP1.110352@attbi_s54...

Hello all...

I have an HP Vectra VL Pentium II with 300MHz CPU. While this system is
generally reliable and well behaved with Windows 2000 Pro SP4, there are
times when it randomly drops into a STOP error or applications start
acting
up. I am certain that there are no viruses or other malicious code causing
problems.

I've heard that some PII/PIII system failures can be caused by some now
famous improperly manufactured capacitors. How likely is this to be a
problem in a name brand system with a motherboard that claims to have been
"Made In France"?

I haven't actually checked to see where the capacitors were made, but I'm
wondering if it matters...

William

 

[Tom]

There's an interesting story behind these caps. See:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=5878

Rick

"hemyd" <henspammyd@iinet.net.au> wrote in message news:407ceba7$0$16605$5a62ac22@freenews.iinet.net.au...

From my experience (replaced scores and scores of motherboards) it is very
possible that the caps are faulty, as this is something that has been
plaguing the PC industry for a few years. One sure way to tell is to lift
off the top cover and look at the tops of the electrolytic caps. If there is
even a slight doming on one or more caps, then either all the electros or
the motherboard needs to be replaced. The symptoms are generally (but not
always) rebooting, freezing, shutting down. The caps may also blow other
components. The faulty caps will eventually leak, but even a slight doming
with no leak is a sign of a bad cap.

Henry Mydlarz
Melbourne, Australia

"William R. Walsh" <newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com
wrote in message news:e_1fc.32060$wP1.110352@attbi_s54...
Hello all...

I have an HP Vectra VL Pentium II with 300MHz CPU. While this system is
generally reliable and well behaved with Windows 2000 Pro SP4, there are
times when it randomly drops into a STOP error or applications start
acting
up. I am certain that there are no viruses or other malicious code causing
problems.

I've heard that some PII/PIII system failures can be caused by some now
famous improperly manufactured capacitors. How likely is this to be a
problem in a name brand system with a motherboard that claims to have been
"Made In France"?

I haven't actually checked to see where the capacitors were made, but I'm
wondering if it matters...

William

 

[hemyd]

Although I have not seen this first hand, I believe that this problem is or
was not limited to PCs, but could also affect any such circuitry, including
televisions. One more reason why I wouldn't want to buy an expensive TV
without an extended warranty....

Henry Mydlarz
Melbourne, Australia

"Tom" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:c5irp0$242fi$1@ID-82690.news.uni-berlin.de...

There's an interesting story behind these caps. See:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=5878

Rick

"hemyd" <henspammyd@iinet.net.au> wrote in message
news:407ceba7$0$16605$5a62ac22@freenews.iinet.net.au...
From my experience (replaced scores and scores of motherboards) it is
very
possible that the caps are faulty, as this is something that has been
plaguing the PC industry for a few years. One sure way to tell is to
lift
off the top cover and look at the tops of the electrolytic caps. If
there is
even a slight doming on one or more caps, then either all the electros
or
the motherboard needs to be replaced. The symptoms are generally (but
not
always) rebooting, freezing, shutting down. The caps may also blow other
components. The faulty caps will eventually leak, but even a slight
doming
with no leak is a sign of a bad cap.

Henry Mydlarz
Melbourne, Australia

"William R. Walsh" <newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com
wrote in message news:e_1fc.32060$wP1.110352@attbi_s54...
Hello all...

I have an HP Vectra VL Pentium II with 300MHz CPU. While this system
is
generally reliable and well behaved with Windows 2000 Pro SP4, there
are
times when it randomly drops into a STOP error or applications start
acting
up. I am certain that there are no viruses or other malicious code
causing
problems.

I've heard that some PII/PIII system failures can be caused by some
now
famous improperly manufactured capacitors. How likely is this to be a
problem in a name brand system with a motherboard that claims to have
been
"Made In France"?

I haven't actually checked to see where the capacitors were made, but
I'm
wondering if it matters...

William

 

[Bob]

William R. Walsh wrote:

Hello all...

I have an HP Vectra VL Pentium II with 300MHz CPU. While this system
is generally reliable and well behaved with Windows 2000 Pro SP4,
there are times when it randomly drops into a STOP error or
applications start acting up. I am certain that there are no viruses
or other malicious code causing problems.

I've heard that some PII/PIII system failures can be caused by some
now famous improperly manufactured capacitors. How likely is this to
be a problem in a name brand system with a motherboard that claims to
have been "Made In France"?

I haven't actually checked to see where the capacitors were made, but
I'm wondering if it matters...

William

William,

Here's a guy who's set up his own cottage industry doing repairs on
motherboards with bad caps:

http://www.motherboardrepair.com/

He had some photos of what the bad caps looked like and details by brand
name, but those details seem to have been pulled.

And another site with details: http://www.badcaps.com

By the way, when you get a STOP error, jot down the details and check out at
http://support.microsoft.com/ , you might get a hint as to what's causing
the problem. Or you can check the system event log; it might have some
clues as to what's misbehaving on your system. One thing, how's the cooling
fan on your CPU? If the processor is overheating, it can cause some weird
problems.

Hope this helps,
Bob.

 

[Chaos Master]

William R. Walsh [newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com] said while
playing with a machine gun:

Hello all...

I have an HP Vectra VL Pentium II with 300MHz CPU. While this system is
generally reliable and well behaved with Windows 2000 Pro SP4, there are
times when it randomly drops into a STOP error or applications start acting
up. I am certain that there are no viruses or other malicious code causing
problems.

I've heard that some PII/PIII system failures can be caused by some now
famous improperly manufactured capacitors. How likely is this to be a
problem in a name brand system with a motherboard that claims to have been
"Made In France"?

I haven't actually checked to see where the capacitors were made, but I'm
wondering if it matters...

I would start checking memory before looking at capacitors. Google "memtest86",
it generates a floppy disk which can be used to test memory.
If some capacitor is obviously bad, it can be replaced but it may take some work
to do repair on a 4-layer board like a PC motherboard.

[]s
--
_____ ___ Chaos MasterŽ
|\/\/\| Posting from Brazil
|/\/\/| MSN: wizard_of_yendor at hotmail.com
___|_____| irc.brasnet.org #XLinuxNews #POA

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

said
while
playing with a machine gun:

I don't own one, so that's rather difficult for me to do...

I would start checking memory before looking at capacitors. Google
"memtest86",
it generates a floppy disk which can be used to test memory.
If some capacitor is obviously bad, it can be replaced but it may take
some work
to do repair on a 4-layer board like a PC motherboard.

This is where things get strange. I have run MemTest/86 for a month and it
never failed. I'm convinced the memory must be good. Otherwise I don't think
the test could have lasted that long. Usually the machine seems to have the
most trouble when powering up, although lately it has been better behaved.
Once it has been running for a while, it seems fine.

I've checked PSU voltages, changed the CPU out with a known working one and
changed the memory config back to the factory setup. Everything just seems
to be *fine*, but it can't be because the system does not always work right.
I think all I can do now is to check all the cards. Perhaps one of those is
causing a problem.

William

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

If there is
even a slight doming on one or more caps, then either all the electros or
the motherboard needs to be replaced.

I checked all the caps visually and they are perfect. I can't find a thing
wrong with them, but I don't have an ESR tester yet.

The symptoms are generally (but not
always) rebooting, freezing, shutting down.

Doesn't do any of these--it just throws STOP errors of varying types and
usually when started cold. When warm it may run fine for hours under heavy
load (CPUBURN, MemTest/86, Distributed.net, etc...) or applications may
start acting weird.


I think I'm going to look at a possible card problem. Something tells me
I've got an option card in the system that may not be up to snuff.

William

 

[Chaos Master]

hemyd [henspammyd@iinet.net.au] spits:

Although I have not seen this first hand, I believe that this problem is or
was not limited to PCs, but could also affect any such circuitry, including
televisions. One more reason why I wouldn't want to buy an expensive TV
without an extended warranty....

All circuits that depend on Capacitors may suffer from this problem.

[]s
--
_____ ___ Chaos MasterŽ
|\/\/\| Posting from Brazil
|/\/\/| MSN: wizard_of_yendor at hotmail.com
___|_____| irc.brasnet.org #XLinuxNews #POA

 

[Chaos Master]

William R. Walsh [newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com] spits:

Doesn't do any of these--it just throws STOP errors of varying types and
usually when started cold. When warm it may run fine for hours under heavy
load (CPUBURN, MemTest/86, Distributed.net, etc...) or applications may
start acting weird.

Just for a suggestion, get one of those Linux "live" distros like Knoppix or
Damn Small Linux, or just do a Linux install in a dual-boot configuration, and
use it to run your PC for a while. Linux is rather intensive in CPU usage during
boot-up and this would help you in tracing the problem.

[]s
--
_____ ___ Chaos MasterŽ
|\/\/\| Posting from Brazil
|/\/\/| MSN: wizard_of_yendor at hotmail.com
___|_____| irc.brasnet.org #XLinuxNews #POA

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

Thanks!

I'll give that a try. I thought pulling my ISA PCMCIA card reader might
help, since it has been acting up lately...but it did not. I've just got to
remember where I put my Knoppix disc.

William

"Chaos Master" <blownaddress@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.1ae94a1647f0c2cc989876@NEWS.INDIVIDUAL.NET...

spits:

Doesn't do any of these--it just throws STOP errors of varying types and
usually when started cold. When warm it may run fine for hours under
heavy
load (CPUBURN, MemTest/86, Distributed.net, etc...) or applications may
start acting weird.

Just for a suggestion, get one of those Linux "live" distros like Knoppix
or
Damn Small Linux, or just do a Linux install in a dual-boot configuration,
and
use it to run your PC for a while. Linux is rather intensive in CPU usage
during
boot-up and this would help you in tracing the problem.

[]s
--
_____ ___ Chaos MasterŽ
|\/\/\| Posting from Brazil
|/\/\/| MSN: wizard_of_yendor at hotmail.com
___|_____| irc.brasnet.org #XLinuxNews #POA

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

I don't know why I didn't try the easiest thing first--but formatting the
hard disk and reinstalling the OS fixed all the odd behavior. I can't
imagine what went wrong with the original install as the machine has seen
little upgrading outside of the memory and CPU. I know it's never had a
virus or anything like that either.

But in any case the problems are now solved and the computer is reliable
once again.

I did check to see who made the caps. It looks to be a mix of Sanyo and
Matsushita caps...two parts brands I wouldn't expect to have much trouble
with.

Thanks to everyone who replied.

William