Re-capping as a preventive maintenance?

[dudeguy]

Does anyone do this? I have a SNES with two caps that are on their way out, the rest are good. Ordered replacements just to have peace of mind for the next 20 years.

 

If all goes well I wanna do this to all my other consoles as well, even though they work just fine.

 

Thoughts?

[+Mitch]

Unless the system is known to have bad caps then no. Also, a lot of the caps people are using to replace the original ones are cheap junk.

 

Mitch

[Tanooki]

Never.  I view messing with working parts on the level of playing with fire.

 

The old quote of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies here.

 

 

If the system were showing problems, things are failing or failed, then yeah pop the lot of them and replace it all after cleaning up any potential mess.  Nintendo was known for using quality parts unlike Sega and NEC with their fishy caps from hell that cause all sorts of problems.  Not that they were perfect using asinine glue on the ribbon cables on Virtual Boy (DMG gameboy too it appears.)  In time you get lines or utter drop out.  They don't/can't make a replacement ribbon on DMG so you end up with a new lit LCD, but on VB you should just fix the ribbon though now there are limited sold replacement parts too as an option at least.

 

I got a Game Gear some months ago, a launch system too that somehow has 0% cap failure or stress, and I had intended a recap and modern panel but in good conscience it's a survivor of 30 years so I'll let it be until necessary.  Yet normally I'd pop, stare, grumble, and order a pack.

[dudeguy]

I dont know exactly which Game Gear it is but one of the models they used good caps that never went bad. I think it was a later model.

 

also, you guys arent worried about capacitors leaking and ruining the PCB? it does happen. those things arent meant to last forever

[DeathAdderSF]

On 4/16/2023 at 12:45 PM, dudeguy said:

Does anyone do this?

 

*raises hand*

 

I prefer to rest easy knowing my gear is all in top shape. I'd rather do it now than risk having ancient parts go "pop!", or leak, and have to pony up add'l dough for more complex repairs down the road.

 

The guy who does the work for me uses high-quality capacitors, and stands by his work. The result is always a professional, clean job, resulting in me having peace of mind.

 

But that's just my view.

[+thanatos]

I'm also in the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" category.  My CoCo 3 just ran another 20 hours at the MGC two weeks ago with no problems.  It's all original except for the modern 512K upgrade I swapped out from the original version a couple years ago.  (Knocks on wooden desk)

 

 

[Atariboy]

It really depends on the era and type of capacitors. Something from the 1970's and 1980's with ceramic and electrolytic capacitors, I'm in the camp that says let them run until you start to experience issues. They're probably fine with a lot of life left and aren't likely to cause damage letting them run until they fail.

 

The one exception from that era seems to be Tantalum capacitors, which are time expired and very failure prone today. It's one reason why people avoid vintage power supplies in the classic computer scene, especially in cases where a failed power supply can deliver a lethal dose of power to a system and destroy proprietary chips (Many PSU's from the era are encased in epoxy and aren't serviceable). But past that risk such as with the Commodore 64, a Tantalum failure seems fairly harmless past causing a stink and some smoke when one blows up. I don't think they cause much in the way of serious issues like causing trace corrosion. 

 

If it's 1990's era hardware (especially 1990-1995 or thereabouts) and we're talking surface mounted electrolytic capacitors, they're trash and have likely already started failing and causing fallout damage as they leak. If you're lucky enough not to have that happen yet on something with a reputation for failing caps, count yourself lucky and get it recapped.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Atariboy

[DeathAdderSF]

2 hours ago, Atariboy said:

If it's 1990's era hardware (especially 1990-1995 or thereabouts) and we're talking surface mounted electrolytic capacitors, they're trash and have likely already started failing and causing fallout damage as they leak.

 

I second this, as I've encountered it in many pieces of '90s equipment. It's a rampant problem, a serious concern. If you value your equipment from this particular time period, I'd def recommend replacing the caps.
 

When I was having my Super A'can upgraded to s-video output, the machine worked fine but its capacitors had already begun to give way. You wouldn't want a "collectible" machine like that getting damaged, but really, you should protect every machine that you use, or care about using in the future. And why not? The parts and labor are affordable. It's a good but cheap investment into the longevity of your equipment.

Edited April 18, 2023 by DeathAdderSF

[dudeguy]

I have a number of CRTs I want to re-cap eventually. "when I have time".

[+GoldenWheels]

I mean, it seems there are some notorious systems with caps so bad you maybe SHOULD get in there before they leak all over the board. PC Engine Duo, PC Engine GTs, and Game Gears spring to mind as being particularly famous for leaking.

[Austin]

3 hours ago, GoldenWheels said:

I mean, it seems there are some notorious systems with caps so bad you maybe SHOULD get in there before they leak all over the board. PC Engine Duo, PC Engine GTs, and Game Gears spring to mind as being particularly famous for leaking.

Add Sega CD Model 1, 3DO FZ-1 and the original Xbox to that list as well.

 

As time moves on, expect more to be added.

[Video]

If it ain't broke and all that. Some stuff from way back had quality parts and likely will still be good even decades down the road.

 

Now Sega on the other hand, if you haven't already recapped it, your dang lucky, or just uninterested enough to have not already found out it died.

 

It does seem brand centric though, some stuff may last forever, but some was just crap build quality.

 

Also 80's and earlier era stuff in general seems better than 90's plus era stuff. Basically once you left the through mounted and ceramic caps to the surface mounted and paper (or whatever their made of) caps, things just went to crap.

 

Basically, unless its showing signs, or is a known problem product, I wouldn't bother.

[qrysdonnell]

A while back I had a stack of old 2600s that I was intending to recap and mod and presumably sell. I didn't have a real plan other than to practice modding on them.

 

I also have a bit of skeptical mind, and wondered if recapping was necessary. I ended up doing two units, both 'worked'. One was a 4 switch 2600 that worked fine, but certain games outputs looked a little dark compared to other 2600 I had (Yars Revenge was the one that I noticed it on) and when asking around people would generally mention recapping first. I got one of the kits and tested as I replaced each capacitor and none of them made a difference. I did eventually install the composite mod (just a basic mod I got off eBay) and then moved on. I have a non-modded light 6er on display. So this ended up back in storage.

 

Next I worked on a Jr. I had. This one I replaced the caps and everything as it was before (I don't think this system had any issues) and then on replacing the voltage regulator (it came in the kit so why not?) I ended up frying something. That was likely because I didn't have a great desoldering equipment. I did attempt to figure out where the problem was, but it was beyond my skills. Stuck it back in storage just in case I wanted to troubleshoot it someday.

 

These then sat around for a long time until I decided I needed to prune my storage. The composite modded 4 switch actually sold for $200 on eBay. I was surprised there. The broken Jr sold for a whopping $6.50! In eBay feedback the person who purchased it did mention that they were able to fix it without much trouble so I guess I didn't try enough.

 

I did learn that it's probably best to leave well enough alone. Obviously it's a little different for systems with known problems, but if you are at a beginner level of modding it's probably best to not overcomplicate things!

 

[CatPix]

I can't hurt to replace caps especially if your system is know to ahve failing ones. At least replace, for older machines, the power supply caps and any tantalum ones (the ones that looks orange droplets - usually more found in IMB-PC clones and used near RAM)

 

A cap that fail on the logic board may just cause glitches, but a failing cap on the power supply may cause power instability bad enough to fry part of your system.

 

When possible, replace electrochemical caps with non-electrochemical ones as those can last decades (I have seen Mikado caps from the 1920's that are still within their original building specs) and more importantly, won't leak out when left unnattended.

So, replace in the PSU, replace the one that you know will fail (such as the Xbox clock ones).

Normally you only need to replace the electrochemical and tantalum ones, every other type is more robust - if you wonder why they aren't used more, it's mostly because of cost, capacity and size - Electrochemical caps are usually cheaper, available in more capacities and smaller that ceramic and other types.

 

For replacement being junk, well just order caps from reputable brands. Even "super good" caps (electrolytics ones at least) shouldn't cost you more than 2$ a pop, except maybe for beefy PSU ones (and even then, with a few exception like the boomstick in a PET power supply, they are still under 10$). Usually I recommand NOT to buy "cap kits" as they tend to have mediocre quality parts for very high prices.

 

Edited April 24, 2023 by CatPix

[dudeguy]

I re-capped my SNES. I tested all the new caps before putting them in. 2 of them came up as suspect even though theyre brand new. Im told you cant go off cap meters, you have to look at data sheets and compare values but Im not sure how to do that. looked for a spot about ohms but didnt really see anything in there

[DJ Clae]

On 4/24/2023 at 10:15 AM, CatPix said:

I can't hurt to replace caps especially if your system is know to ahve failing ones.

Oh, with my soldering skills, it can definitely hurt.

 

Not everything from the early 90's is considered poor and requiring a recap. Nintendo systems and Neo Geo come to mind.

[dudeguy]

3 minutes ago, DJ Clae said:

Oh, with my soldering skills, it can definitely hurt.

 

Not everything from the early 90's is considered poor and requiring a recap. Nintendo systems and Neo Geo come to mind.

I agree with all this. I'm definitely not an expert with soldering. In fact I was just happy that I didnt make the system any worse than what I started with (tends to happen when I try to "fix" things)

[+Black_Tiger]

I can't do any repairs or mods myself, so whenever I hire someone to do either, I ask them to look over everything and refurb based on their opinion.

 

Generally I only ask for recapping for hardware that is known to have cap problems by now.