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Luke Scharf · December 16th 07, 10:56 PM posted to rec.radio.shortwave

wrote:
Asked wasn't it unusual
for several capacitors to leak simultaenously and answered in the
affirmative.

I know nothing about this radio or the year that it was manufactured...
But 2-3 years ago, there was a big problem with the capacitors in
computers. Dell and Apple were both hit with this, and had to replace a
large number of motherboards.

It caused all kinds of grief for the IT folks cursed with these units --
many of us who were taking care of computer-labs at the time ended up
replacing the motherboards on at least 2/3rds of the machines that we
purchased during that era.

I think that Dell may have extended its warranty on the motherboards and
power supplies manufactured during this time. It was quite easy to get
a replacement motherboard. All you had to say was "I see a bulging
capacitor", and the replacement part would be on its way immediately.

The backrumor is that there are 2-3 factories in Asia that make all of
the capacitors that are used for the big computer-manufacturers (most
companies like Dell, HP, Apple, IBM/Lenovo and others are built-to-spec
in these factories, alongside most off-brand computers). One of those
capacitor factories started making sub-spec capacitors in order to cut
costs or something, and the rest of the world had a big problem. Not
unlike the exploding Sony lithium-ion batteries that were a big deal
last year. I wonder what it'll be this year?

Anyway, if this radio was made 2-3 years ago using capacitors from that
factory, it would not be at all unusual for several of the caps to
bulging, leaking, or behaving oddly. I never had one explode, though --
from that problem, anyway. :-)

-Luke