Extremely long Startup

[kevin4174]

silly question

so as Patio has indicated earlier, the mboard is pretty much gone. now i have to see what i am going to do.

so as i have never seen this before and don't know why/how this happenes,  I am curious, what would cause the capacitor to bulge and leak? Power supply? power surge, insufficient cooling?

[ChrisXPPro]

Kevin .... quite a few factors can affect caps .......

It is always possible the chosen components are not rated high enough for op voltage - and so over time they can suffer.  Electrolytics are polarized and function in DC circuits and so if a voltage on one is nominally 5V let's say - the cap should be rated a bit over that - maybe by 100% to play safe.

Many if not most electrolytics act as ''smoothing'' - a buffer if you will to let them either smooth a DC waveform and/or also, serve as if you will - a mini battery.  Thus helping maintain a steady supply to a board section.

Temperature is another factor as well - and while most electrolytics should run quite cool, if they suffer over voltage then degredation can occur over time.  Small surges are usually OK but again assuming rating is adequate.

Finally I guess too - is quality control.  These things are churned out by the thousands and so not so sure that on occasions they are as robust as intended.  Electrolytics also tend to display an inevitable ''leakage'' and if construction not good enough can suffer thermal effects.