[rescue] Sun Kit Needed for EE Student Here

[Don Y]

Carl R. Friend wrote:
>    On Thu, 4 May 2006 wa2egp at att.net wrote:
> 
>> But the electrolytics are the ones that go bang. I've never seen
>> a chip capacitor do that (although they may).
> 
>    I have an Indy motherboard that had a surface-mount cap go south
> (as in crack open and stink) that made the entire board inop.  I found
> the failure "by nose" -- quite literally -- the crack in the cap was
> just about too small to see (and certainly too small to notice on a
> quick visual inspection).  There was some discolouration, so that
> should have been a hint.
> 
>    In any event, I suspect that if I replace it I'll have a good
> spare motherboard.  I just haven't gotten around to it yet....

SMT caps also suffer from problems.  Often the problem is a
mechanical one -- the "contact" separates from the component
itself.  And, due to their size and shape, it is often very hard
to find.