I read so many posts from people about NOT replacing capacitors, as if somehow 30-year-old fluid-filled caps are as perfect as day one and have eternal life. Many of you know that SE/30 motherboard caps leak and that leaked fluid eats through traces if ignored for years. You also likely know that even the SONY PSU on the SE and SE/30 can falter due to aging capacitors. Even caps on the SE/30 analog board can use replacing. And yet, because we don't hear a lot about people replacing caps on the original Mac128 or 512 or even Plus is not evidence that those caps are somehow in perfect condition, especially the smaller caps. Yes, even keyboard caps go bad, as I had a quirky IIgs keyboard that would sometimes lockup my SE/30 and after I replaced the caps on it, I never had that problem again. (When an ADB device loses power, it will lockup your machine, unlike USB.)
For that very reason I purchased replacement caps this month for my 400k drives and my Mac128/512 analog boards, as well as for my keyboards and even mice.
I know from previous recapping experience that most caps I remove and then test with my DE-5000 meter (which is a great ESR meter, by the way), show reasonably good values, leading you to believe the caps are OK. And this was true on nearly every cap I removed from my bad SONY PSU in my SE/30. But in fact, that PSU couldn't hold up the voltage until I recapped it.
All said, I am NOT a believer in "if it ain't broke don't fix it" because we often don't see what's really broke or in the process of being broke by bad caps.
With that said, you do need to take care when replacing some caps that are in switching power supplies as that could cause instability. That didn't happen when I recapped my SONY PSU, but it did happen when I recapped my HD20SC external HDD enclosure's SONY PSU, with only 1 cap in particular being the culprit. I've actually been shooting a video on that topic for the last couple weeks and am waiting for some new replacement caps to arrive so I can finish that video. The skinny is that some switching PSU's require a minimum ESR to be stable, and such is the case with the HD20SC PSU with regard to the cap at C214.
I also intend to post a video of the recapping of other items, including 400k floppy drives and the Mac128/512/Plus analog board, as I've already purchased replacement caps for those items, as well as keyboards and mice.
Now, getting back on the topic of this thread, this is not to say that recapping is a cure-all, especially when it comes to floppy drives that have mechanical parts and motors that can go bad. But caps are still a consideration that should not be overlooked because, again, electrolytic caps, especially the tiny ones found in 400k drives, do not have eternal life. Remember, it's be 30+ years since these caps were installed.