[rescue] LCD monitor diagnosis

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Thu, Apr 20, 2006 at 11:03:33PM -0400, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> Good PCs aren't unreliable. They might be ugly, but there is no reason for
> them to be unreliable.

I kept silent on this thread before, but I want to point out why som many
capacitors failed. A Tiawanese company stole the formula for electrolyte,
the liquid inside the capactiors from a Japanese company. 

The Japanese knew they were being ripped off, so they let them steal
the formula. The formula that was stolen worked perfectly fine, EXCEPT
it was unstable and would decompose over time.

That way the capacitors would work fine as they were made, test well
and then six months to a year later, fail. The failures were mundane,
most just stopped working and then would leak, but some due to poor design,
instead of leaking, popped. 

A well designed capacitor's case will open and electrolyte will leak out
if there is too much voltage or it's the  wrong polarity. Poorly designed
capacitors will "explode".

The Tiawanese capacitors passed all of their tests well and were priced a
few cents below the Japanese ones, which in the zillion unit quantities
they are bought in, means a lot of money. 

Anything made using capacitors from that company will fail, if they have
not by now.

Geoff. 


-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
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