A capacitor is one of the main components of a motherboard. They store power and regulate voltage manufacture sure there is a uniform whole of electricity flowing through your computer. When they go bad, you can have problems with video, power issues and rebooting at random. Here are a few reasons why capacitors fail:
- excessive internal computer heat
- Heat from weather
- Underpowered power source
One of the first tests you should do is to run a ideas test on the memory to check and see whether the main processor shows abnormally high temperatures when you have little or no applications running. Remember that it may not all the time be a capacitor causing the problem. You could be experiencing a fan not properly working so your computer is running hot, a failing power furnish or some other hardware problem.
A visual inspection of capacitors is recommended to help diagnose the problem. If a capacitor is emitting a brown residue from its base or the top of the capacitor is bulging; these are good clues you have a bad or soon to fail capacitor. In some cases, you might also smell a strange odor, potentially something like ammonia. Also check to see if all capacitors are flush to the motherboard (the cap should be at a 90 degree angle to the board) not tilted to one side or the other.
If there are no corporeal signs, an oscilloscope, a type of electronic test instrument that allows signal voltages to be viewed, can be used to scrutinize the voltage on the capacitors.
Capacitors can be supplanted and soldered into place; however it is not advisable to do this yourself if you have no soldering experience. You can ruin the whole motherboard with improper soldering and not only need to then replace the motherboard but potentially the processor(s) and Ram as well. an additional one very prominent item to remember is if you solder the capacitor correctly but replace it with the wrong type, you can end up with even bigger problems. So go to your local electronics store and make sure to get the proper capacitor for your computer.
When in doubt, leave it in the hands of experts. Sometimes as they say you can be penny-wise but pound-foolish.
Causes of Random Computer Rebooting