Apple STB Recap Guide

[jajan547]

Hey everyone I made a recap guide for the STB. This guide is for the STB3 (not the much rarer STB1) but I also decided to make a teardown guide on fixit in case some of you are a little uncomfortable trying to see how to disassemble this device. I also wanted to clear up a common myth or two about this device and it's that the internal expansion bay bracket is fused to the board, this is untrue it comes apart and the right angle adapter also isn't soldered it comes right out. Anyways for the few that have one of these I hope it helps.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Great info! Do you mind if I put this info up on my website's capacitor reference library?

Cap Reference - MacDat

www.macdat.net

Even better would be a top-down image of the board to go along with it.

 

[jajan547]

Great info! Do you mind if I put this info up on my website's capacitor reference library?

Cap Reference - MacDat

www.macdat.net

Even better would be a top-down image of the board to go along with it.

Absolutely that would be awesome if you did. I’ll take some better photos tonight of the boards and upload them here.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Thanks! I really appreciate it
I'll label the board photo with values myself once I have it.

 

[jajan547]

Here you are:

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Thanks! I'll get this all added to the library.

 

[jajan547]

Absolutely if you need me to confirm what caps are said values just ask.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Will do.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Absolutely if you need me to confirm what caps are said values just ask.

Found a couple discrepancies.
The list states that it has 1x 100uf 10v. From looking at the board, I see 2x 100uf 6.3v caps, and an additional one the Nichicon caps that is labelled on the side instead of the top, so I can't see it. Am I right to guess that you missed the 100uf 6.3v caps when writing the list, and that the one I can't read the values on is the single 100uf 10v cap referenced?

 

[jajan547]

Found a couple discrepancies.
The list states that it has 1x 100uf 10v. From looking at the board, I see 2x 100uf 6.3v caps, and an additional one the Nichicon caps that is labelled on the side instead of the top, so I can't see it. Am I right to guess that you missed the 100uf 6.3v caps when writing the list, and that the one I can't read the values on is the single 100uf 10v cap referenced?

So sorry about that yes the 100uF 10V is the unlabelled Capacitor at C199 and there are two more caps that are 100uF but at 6.3V both of these are located at C59 and C60. I've updated the list below, thank you for that catch I suppose I overlooked it.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

No problem, thanks for clarifying!

 

[jajan547]

No problem, thanks for clarifying!

100uF 10V is especially bad (the unlabeled) it's right next to an important chip (U47) and even if your board looks clean replace it ASAP! Also I reported my first post so that the PDF can be updated properly.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Maybe this is just a placebo, but I feel like it's always those yellow-label Nichicon caps that leak the worst.

 

[jajan547]

Yeah very, very bad I've seen it across multiple machines that use these. They bulge from the bottom and leak too. Anyways if anyones chip is too far gone (which I doubt but in 8-12 years I'd imagine its possible) the chip in question next to this evil capacitor is a BT BT8069BKPJ 44-Pin PLCC. They can be purchased still HERE

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I'll add that to the notes on the cap reference page, great info!

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I found a couple more of what I believe are errors. One is that you originally had C199 (100uf 10v) noted down as a 47uf 16v cap, and didn't remove it after you added the correct value to your list, which means there are 11 total 47uf 16v caps on the board, not 12.
Secondly, you listed 16 10uf 16v caps, I counted 17 from the image.

With that in mind, here is what I THINK is a 100% correct labeled reference photo. Let me know if you see any mistakes here, I want to make sure it's 100% accurate before I put it up on the site.

And thanks again for letting me use the image!

 

[jajan547]

I found a couple more of what I believe are errors. One is that you originally had C199 (100uf 10v) noted down as a 47uf 16v cap, and didn't remove it after you added the correct value to your list, which means there are 11 total 47uf 16v caps on the board, not 12.
Secondly, you listed 16 10uf 16v caps, I counted 17 from the image.
View attachment 69339
With that in mind, here is what I THINK is a 100% correct labeled reference photo. Let me know if you see any mistakes here, I want to make sure it's 100% accurate before I put it up on the site.

And thanks again for letting me use the image!

Looks great to me I’ll double check but think it’s 100%

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Excellent. It should be up on the site with the next update, probably later this month.

 

[jajan547]

Excellent. It should be up on the site with the next update, probably later this month.

Excellent work!

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Up now: https://macdat.net/cap_reference/apple/other/stb3.html