On 01/12/2012 02:17 AM, Michael J. Mahon wrote:
Since it is not particularly difficult to gain access to the caps, my preference would be to replace only the failed one. Time will tell whether that was enough for the next few years. And replacing any component on a PC board entails some risk of further damage. I'm not a big fan of "shotgun" part replacement, since you never find out which component was the actual problem or whether the replacement of the other components was really worth the trouble and risk.
Amen. As they say here in Vermont: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It!.I have seen a respectable number of pacific-rim electrolytic caps dry out and go "open". But, such failures are not even on the same order-of-magnitude as 30+ year-old tantalum caps. During a recent resurrection of a late-70s audio noise reducer, I ended up replacing every last tantalum bypass cap in the entire unit (the one between +15v and Gnd at the power supply regulator output was replaced 2x, due to the silk-screen on the PCB being incorrect <g>).
Steve