What do you not bother to recap?

[smrieck511]

I've got an SE/30 and an SE FDHD. I've recapped the SE/30 Logic board, both analog boards and both PSU's (one Sony and one Astec). Everything is thankfully looking good.

I am not planning to recap the SE logic board or the Floppy drives. The caps on those look very good and are in spec.

Are there real examples of those SE axials or the tiny caps on the floppy drives causing failures?

 

[joshc]

Floppy drives because I do not use them.

 

[cheesestraws]

I only recap 128/512/Plus ABs if they're actually giving trouble. I don't bother recapping through-hole stuff generally.

 

[s_pupp]

Problem-free longevity is my (somewhat unrealistic) goal, so I recap all aluminum electrolytics in compact Macs, regardless of where they are.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Not much honestly. If I see an electrolytic in a 90s system, it's added to the list of stuff I need to recap. Probably won't get to a lot of it for a good while, but the list as is right now for caps I need to get is:

1. replacement caps for my replacement caps that aren't working well on my 180c LCD
2. 2.2uf inverter board caps for my 5300/1400/3400 systems, ordered the wrong size last time
3. caps for the DC/DC board on my WinBook laptops
4. LCD and inverter caps for my PowerBook 150
5. I know my ThinkPad 560 has some...

it goes on from there. Late 90s caps are aging now, and while a lot more robust than earlier stuff, aren't immune to troubles, and to me, the bit of work required to replace them is more than worth the future stability of them. Most people haven't recapped their PowerBook 3400s yet. I have. It just makes me feel better knowing what I'm using isn't relying on aging electrolyte-based parts.

Then on from their, I'll only change caps in a 2000s era system if they're giving me trouble, but they often do due to the capacitor plague of the time. I've had to replace caps on nearly every last one of my desktops from that 2002-2008 time period.

 

[Byrd]

I'm yet to see capacitor leakage nor would consider recapping anything 1997 Mac onwards (eg. beige G3, TAM, PowerBooks). I'll do it as soon as there are signs, but for now it's not worth the chance of damage.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Something worth mentioning - The 3400c is from 1997, and multiple people have reported replacing the caps on the DC board fixing their dead units. They are failing, but it's rare.

 

[Byrd]

Good point - I'll rephrase and say well cared for and well stored 1997 onwards Macs seem to be OK in my experience. I've a Bondi iMac in dire need but it was stored away under a house exposed to ++moisture non stop.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

…well

My iMac G3 Blueberry needs its caps changed badly, the display image shifts whenever something on the screen shifts. It was stored very well for its life, I can tell by the condition, the condition of the box it came in, and the smell. It was very well cared for.
To be fair though it did see a LOT of use, so I do suppose that should explain it. The original hard drive has 28 thousand hours on it.
My other iMac G3 is beginning to show the same issue, but it was stored far worse.

So in general, yeah, replace as necessary in systems after that point. It's all going to change as time goes on though.

 

[jmacz]

Any electrolytic capacitor hitting 20-30+ in age is a potential problem is it not? I will probably ignore anything I know I can easily procure.

But I'm in the process of recapping a 16" apple trinitron (knock on wood that things go ok). Around 90 caps I've already found three of them to be bad. The others seem to be ok but I've got some weird issues with this monitor which I'm hoping are explained by bad caps.

I've also got on my todo list my apple extended keyboards (2 of them) that I'm partial to. The keyboards only have 3 caps each so should be easy and I'm doing it just in case. Again, partial to these two keyboards.

I know the above is not compact Mac related.

 

[Unknown_K]

I recap stuff that is not working correctly or are seen having leaking or vented capacitors. I don't bother with most large capacitors or axials unless they need it (they seem to last forever).

There is a small chance with any rework of damaging something like lifting a pad or trace or breaking something else. What's the point of recapping a whole motherboard when the problem capacitors were the ones next to the CPU (on an old PC motherboard for example) that were cooked from hot cooling fan exhaust?

 

[joshc]

Any electrolytic capacitor hitting 20-30+ in age is a potential problem is it not

Not always - depends on a lot of factors. Usage, environment it's been used/kept in, brand/quality (to some extent) and the size of the capacitor. The really large high value ones can last a very long time, much longer than 30 years.

 

[Bolle]

LC series power supplies that don’t work with their original leaking caps...
The last 3 non-working LC power supplies I had in my hands did not come back to life after recapping them.
Not going to waste time ever again on recapping one of them if it doesn't work (at least a bit) before the recap.
Every dead LC PSU gets ripped its guts out and they go right to the bin.
Just keeping the shells, for potential modern PSU retrofitting at some point.

Also haven't recapped a single SE(/30) analogboard or SE logicboard.

 

[Unknown_K]

Power supplies are different because if the caps go wonky so does the voltage and then thinks can pop so just recapping won't fix them.

 

[joshc]

LC series power supplies that don’t work with their original leaking caps...
The last 3 non-working LC power supplies I had in my hands did not come back to life after recapping them.
Not going to waste time ever again on recapping one of them if it doesn't work (at least a bit) before the recap.
Every dead LC PSU gets ripped its guts out and they go right to the bin.
Just keeping the shells, for potential modern PSU retrofitting at some point.

Also haven't recapped a single SE(/30) analogboard or SE logicboard.

Oh yeah good point. I don't bother recapping SE / SE/30 power supplies anymore - those get gutted and replaced with a modern PSU retrofit instead.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

What's the point of recapping a whole motherboard when the problem capacitors were the ones next to the CPU (on an old PC motherboard for example) that were cooked from hot cooling fan exhaust?

Yeah this too. I only replace caps that are actively bulging on 2000s era motherboards.

 

[jmacz]

Not always - depends on a lot of factors. Usage, environment it's been used/kept in, brand/quality (to some extent) and the size of the capacitor. The really large high value ones can last a very long time, much longer than 30 years.

Ok thanks for this. I had thought I read that these are all doomed to fail at some point - with that point usually falling within a decade or two, especially with the smaller ones. But guess they are more resilient than I thought.