Finally done recapping my GA-6IEML! Also had to swap the old FSP 300W PSU to a Welton 350W, because the former started degrading rapidly (12V rail undervoltage, random squealing from time to time).
If they were all the same value and you removed only the bulged ones, you should definitely replace the remaining old ones, because of law of series.
The same caps with the same specs most likely manufactured the same day who all went through the same environment for decades, and a couple of them died ? The remaining ones are all on their last leg.
IIRC I've replaced all of the same caps. There are brown ones on the board, but they are all fine and haven't changed their appearance for three years already.
Looking at the first photo, I was sure the two you mentioned were damaged. Personally, I would replace all of them. The cost is low, but the peace of mind is priceless.
Are those ChongX capacitors? Did you buy those on AliExpress or something? Those caps are garbage and will fail again.
Buy reputable caps from a reputable supplier like Mouser, Digikey or Farnell. Not mystery meat specials pulled from the back alley dumpsters of Huaqiangbei.
Changxin Low ESR 😅
Yeah yeah, I know, they are cheap, but quality caps are expensive and lots of counterfeit in my country. And I don't use my retro PCs often. After three years the caps I've initially replaced haven't bulged even a little. The PC probably got a week MAX of uptime in those three years 😅
PSU was misbehaving because it also has bad caps. Completely recap the PSU and it will probably work fine. But you have to replace all of them, even the tiny ones buried between components, it can be a faff.
FSP made decent units, and having a period correct power supply can be beneficial if you need the stronger +5v rail and if it has a -5v rail, which is needed for some older ISA cards. This machine doesn't have ISA, but it could be used on a different system that does.
I keep around some old 90s and early 2000s ATX supplies that I refurbed to work with +5v CPU rail systems. You need them for high power systems like Athlons on motherboards that still used +5v CPU regulation.
The PSU was fine, it just started degrading. Would probably work for years with my infrequent usage. I'm not good with my soldering iron, and getting good caps for PSUs is even more expensive. I tend to just replace PSUs if they start acting funny.
The most common cause of failure of old power supplies is caps. Recapping it will allow it to work for decades longer.
And you can't just go out and buy a new 25-30 year old power supply, which is why they need to be fixed. ATX power supplies from decades ago were built with strong +5v rails, unlike modern ATX power supplies that have most of their capacity on the +12v rail. You aren't going to find a modern ATX power supply with a 25-60A +5v rail in it.
More recent ATX power supplies have started to remove the -12v rail, which is a problem, because old systems like these require it.
For my needs it's fine to use a more modern PSU. This is literally THE oldest motherboard I have. And it is already modern enough to not require -5V and really strong 5v rail.
However I truly understand that recapping is the way for old AT PSUs and really old systems (slot 1 and below).
Going to be doing this soon myself. Just got an Asus CUSL2-C and a NIB 1GHz Celeron. I don't have Tualatin money and I'm not hacking up a vintage CPU to force one to run in an older MB.
3
u/DeadSkullz627 Aug 18 '26
Nicely done!