[rescue] Slightly OT: Bad Cap Saga

[Phil Stracchino]

Curious George wrote:
> --- On Sun, 8/17/08, der Mouse <mouse at Rodents-Montreal.ORG> wrote:
> 
>>> I know there is talk of "capacitor plague" and some legend about
>>> industrial espionage gone wrong, etc.  [...]  But, the variety of
>>> manufacturers that I have been finding really has me doubting that --
>>> did *10* companies share this stolen secret?
>> The "industrial espionage gone wrong" applied not
>> to a consumer
>> electronics maker, but to a capacitor maker.  The resulting
>> caps were
>> sold to _everybody_, so, yes, it's not a bit surprising
>> to see ten
>> different brands, or even ten different assembly houses,
>> affected.
> 
> Perhaps I was not clear.  I am seeing *capacitors* with
> 10 (or more) different "brands" -- the number of different
> "equipment manufacturers is far more than that!
> 
> So, my comment is:
> 
> "Did capacitor manufacturer A 'steal' a formulation, *share* that
> stolen secret with 9+ of *their* competitors -- capacitor manufacturers
> B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I and J -- who, in sum, sold those 10 different
> *brands* of capacitors (Susumi, Luxon, Hermei, Samxon, Su'scon, etc.)
> to M different board houses working for N different 'consumer
> equipment manufacturers' producing P different affected products..."
> 
> I'd be far more likely to buy the story if all of the "bad" caps
> were from "Company A" (regardless of how many different OEM's
> ended up *using* them)...

As previously pointed out, it is common practice for component OEMs to
sell unmarked components to a dozen or more different resellers, who
then put their own brand markings on them.  All the bad caps WERE from
"Company A", Lien Yan Electronics in Taichung, Taiwan.  It's just that
by the time the consumer market got to see them, they were branded
Susumi, Hankyo, Lelon, Luxon, Tayeh, JPCON, and a dozen other brands -
all of whom bought them unmarked from Lien Yan and put their own brands
on them before reselling them to electronics and computer manufacturers.


But then, as has also been previously pointed out, it's well documented
and all the facts are out there on public record.  If you want to ignore
that and disbelieve because it seems too much of a vast conspiracy to
you, well, that's your choice.  But it happened.  It's not just an
Internet myth.


-- 
  Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
  alaric at caerllewys.net   alaric at metrocast.net   phil at co.ordinate.org
         Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
                 It's not the years, it's the mileage.