EPoX 8K3A

[erek]

Scope out these caps GiGaBiTe

 

[DrLobotomy]

Good ol jiffy pops.

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Scope out these caps GiGaBiTe

Wouldn't expect any different, Athlon XP boards were right smack dab in the middle of the capacitor plague.

With the ugly green sheathing, I'd say they were either Teapo, G-Luxon or SamXon capacitors, but I see a hint of a name that's neither, so it's probably some other wofat garbo.

If you need recapping service, let me know.

 

[Deleted member 312202]

Epox was the only motherboard manufacturer that I had problem with blown caps. They made some nice boards otherwise.

 

[Susquehannock]

From what I remember just about all board makers dealt with this issue in some capacity. Have personally had several brands suffer from it. ASUS, Abit, Soltek, Dell, HP, etc ... sometimes even on board which were never powered up. Oozing caps sitting in the box.

I find the whole 'capacitor plague' fascinating and have been following it from early on.

Seems that Abit got most of the bad press since they admitted to using bad caps very early on. As did IBM. Not long after, Abit was indicted for bad accounting practices artificially boosting sales numbers by having several fake companies at same address. Likely an attempt to stop bleeding from the bad cap suits. Hard to say how the 'plague' contributed to so many of the smaller companies that we miss so much going belly up.

Many companies avoided the issue all together. Worst was Dell. They were caught (internal e-mails telling employees to downplay things) lying to customers about failures due to bad caps and fined $300-million for it. Their reputation now ruined, Dell fell from top PC maker to a distant third in short order and have not completely recovered.

I am not a foil hat type, yet some do believe the 'capacitor plague' was an intentional move by certain entities. Don't quote me on any of this. If memory serves the so called bad formula was stolen in China, then moved through Chinese division of Taiwanese manufacturers. A long game play to undermine smaller companies and eliminate competition? Lenovo did buy IBM's computer division at a discount not long after news of the plague broke. And now they are world's largest PC maker. Points to ponder.

 

[GiGaBiTe]

From what I remember just about all board makers dealt with this issue in some capacity. Have personally had several brands suffer from it. ASUS, Abit, Soltek, Dell, HP, etc ...

I've seen pretty much every brand from that time frame have problems with failing capacitors. The brands that weren't using cheap garbage often suffered from counterfeits that flooded the supply chain at the same time. But it wasn't solely limited to motherboards, EVERY electronic device that used capacitors had the same issues.

sometimes even on board which were never powered up. Oozing caps sitting in the box.

The incomplete electrolyte formula stolen from Nichicon that many of the trash and fake capacitors used was very unstable and would decompose to hydrogen gas even if not used. Being used or heated just accelerated the process. There was another factor as well, apparently the Chinese cap manufacturers were using tainted aluminum for the cans, which further reacted with the bad electrolyte and caused more problems.

I am not a foil hat type, yet some do believe the 'capacitor plague' was an intentional move by certain entities. Don't quote me on any of this. If memory serves the so called bad formula was stolen in China, then moved through Chinese division of Taiwanese manufacturers. A long game play to undermine smaller companies and eliminate competition? Lenovo did buy IBM's computer division at a discount not long after news of the plague broke. And now they are world's largest PC maker. Points to ponder.

It was industrial espionage. The Taiwanese wanted to get into the capacitor market, but developing a good electrolyte for capacitors is a complex and expensive R&D process. So they just stole what they thought was a good formula from Nichicon and started shitting out defective capacitors by the millions. It's surprising it didn't happen sooner, that area of the world is known for stealing technology to make their own or counterfeit products and still do to this day. It's why you can buy thousands of components on ebay or ali express for pennies on the dollar.

The smaller board vendors were just collateral damage in this scheme, which is a shame because some of them were pretty good.

 

[OnceSetThisCannotChange]

I may even have one of those lying around in a box somewhere.

 

[pendragon1]

Wouldn't expect any different, Athlon XP boards were right smack dab in the middle of the capacitor plague.

With the ugly green sheathing, I'd say they were either Teapo, G-Luxon or SamXon capacitors, but I see a hint of a name that's neither, so it's probably some other wofat garbo.

If you need recapping service, let me know.

yup and it was so bad we had systems coming back within the year with those boards failing, almost all boards we used at the time had it.

It was industrial espionage. The Taiwanese wanted to get into the capacitor market, but developing a good electrolyte for capacitors is a complex and expensive R&D process. So they just stole what they thought was a good formula from Nichicon and started shitting out defective capacitors by the millions.

I always start explaining that by saying "now this may sound like a shitty spy movie but its the truth"

 

[amittalkin]

what kinda cooler does it have on CPU?

 

[GiGaBiTe]

what kinda cooler does it have on CPU?

Usually something like this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133171545779

It was an awful cooler design and if you didn't have a shim, cracking the die on the CPU was a real possibility due to the sheer force required to clip the retainer to the socket.

Slipping with a screwdriver and punching a hole in the motherboard was also a common phenomenon, lots of threads on this on various tech forums back in the day.

It never made sense to me why the retainer clamp was so stiff, the Socket 5, 7 and 370 had the same retention mechanism, but the retainer was far less rigid and usually had a hinged clip on one side so you didn't risk breaking the board. AMD seemed to have learned their lesson because from 754, 939 and onwards, you don't have to heave down on anything. It's also nice that every heatsink from 754 and 939 to now is forwards and backwards compatible, at least the clip on types.