| I've been using my GW server for a few years now as my email server. It has chugged along quite reliably up until last week when it inexplicably locked up. Ever since then I couldn't get it to run for more than a few minutes without locking up or OOPSing. When I started looking at the motherboard (Acorp 6PLEF) I noticed that about 6 or so of the 1000uF green caps were bulging. With not much else to lose, I pulled 8 of the capacitors that looked suspicious. Of these 8, 3 were just plain open (no electrical connection), 3 had values of less than 150uF and 2 were fine. There are only about 12-14 of these capacitors on the board and 6 of them were not working. Its amazing that it went as long as it did.
I went to mouser.com and ordered 10 replacement caps for a whopping $1.70 + shipping. After installing these new caps, I'm happy to report that all appears well.
The actual repair probably took about 30 minutes to complete and wasn't too difficult. Its important to replace all of the caps that are bulging or even look a little distorted. My capacitance meter showed that every capacitor with visible distortion has less than 15% of its specified capacitance. I used Mouser part number 647-UVZ0J102MPD. These caps worked fine but may not actually be the best replacement because their ESR probably isn't as low as the originals. If you can you might look for caps which are 1000uF, 6.3V, 8mm diameter, 105C temp rated and specified as low ESR. Its difficult to find 8mm caps in this value so don't worry too much if you have to use the ones I mentioned (their ESR is 0.15 ohms). Before you attempt this repair, make sure that you have some solder wick and some flux (available at RadioShack).
Good luck,
-DC | |
