Wiki Review: Capacitor Replacement

[wthww]

Hello MLAers,

I did some work tonight on bringing over the Capacitor Replacement page. I'll finish up bringing the missing media over this week, but I took some time to clean up the page a bit in the process.

Would anyone mind taking a breeze through the cap values, or maybe add missing machines?

Second, would the "bottom" section of the page that has cap values for each model be better broken out into model pages with pictures/tables instead of bullets?

Thanks,

//wthww

EDIT: "tonight" to this week.

 

[Phipli]

Hello MLAers,

I did some work tonight on bringing over the Capacitor Replacement page. I'll finish up bringing the missing media over tonight, but I took some time to clean up the page a bit in the process.

Would anyone mind taking a breeze through the cap values, or maybe add missing machines?

Second, would the "bottom" section of the page that has cap values for each model be better broken out into model pages with pictures/tables instead of bullets?

Thanks,

//wthww

If you want to keep it simple but safe - replace all the 47uF 16v tantalum references with 25v.

25v work perfectly in place of a 16v (a little more expensive), but some of those locations are on the 12v rails. While a 16v electrolytic tin can is fine on 12v, a tantalum is meant to be at least 100% uprated (so 24v, with 25v being the next standard value).

A blanket change of 47uF 16v to 47uF 25v for tantalums is a safe change that corrects this issue without having to sit and work through which exact caps are actually on 12v.

 

[Phipli]

Yeah, I've started, but we do need to either put all 47uFs to 25v, or work out specifically which caps are on the 12v rail and bump just those. My preference is the latter, I made a start with the LC III (because it didn't capture the other issue with the -5v cap), but need to start work now. I'll look again later.

 

[cheesestraws]

I wonder if it might be a good thing to revisit the blanket advice to use tantalums - solid polymer capacitors are more available now than they used to be and they have the profound advantage of not catching fire if you install them wrong, along with not containing conflict minerals

 

[Phipli]

I wonder if it might be a good thing to revisit the blanket advice to use tantalums - solid polymer capacitors are more available now than they used to be and they have the profound advantage of not catching fire if you install them wrong, along with not containing conflict minerals

I think a section explaining the options (if you're short of cash, regular wet electrolytics are a valid option - reasonable ones will likely last at least 20 more years even if none of us want to go through it again). Let's make the body of the document generic (separate the 5v and 12v caps so people can use the information) and put a section at the top explaining so people can make an informed decision. We can even make recommendations - I'm just aware that, for example, I don't feel comfortable telling someone to do something I haven't myself and I haven't used solid polymer caps because I have a stockpile of tantalums. That would sort of weirdly make it harder to contribute and I was... Well, I was about to.

I also want to add a "this is the positive end!" Section at the top, with pictures.

I want to go through schematics and separate out the 12v caps. Including for things like the 650 / 800 and IIfx, because both suffer from occasional explosions due to 16v tantalums being used on 12v rails from factory. They are worth recapping just those on those machines.

 

[croissantking]

Would anyone mind taking a breeze through the cap values, or maybe add missing machines?

Yeah I'll happily contribute to this.

Second, would the "bottom" section of the page that has cap values for each model be better broken out into model pages with pictures/tables instead of bullets?

I think broken out into separate pages would be better. Each machine might eventually have a cap list for a PSU and maybe an analog board, in addition to photos and diagrams.

I wonder if it might be a good thing to revisit the blanket advice to use tantalums - solid polymer capacitors are more available now than they used to be and they have the profound advantage of not catching fire if you install them wrong, along with not containing conflict minerals

I like polymers, but they're a bit more expensive... and also for a lot of the laptop stuff I do, are too big or not available in certain values.

I mainly just use good quality electrolytics now - manufacturing quality has dramatically improved since the early days, so I think they'll be safe for a long time to come.

I do understand the preference for tantalums that most people have since at least in theory they'll last indefinitely.

 

[cheesestraws]

I also want to add a "this is the positive end!" Section at the top, with pictures.

Ah yeah, this is a good idea. Bloody Tantalums.

 

[Phipli]

I think broken out into separate pages would be better. Each machine might eventually have a cap list for a PSU and maybe an analog board, in addition to photos and diagrams.

I agree... But hold off until we do an update pass so that we can do the update all in one place. It will mean less copy and paste.

Also finalise the introduction text because we'll have to put it on every page

 

[croissantking]

I agree... But hold off until we do an update pass so that we can do the update all in one place. It will mean less copy and paste.

Also finalise the introduction text because we'll have to put it on every page

Sure I won't touch it