Re: Working on a //+

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

On Sat, 22 Sep 2001 07:51:02 -0400, Tom Zuchowski wrote:
 
> Ralph, don't waste your time testing the capacitors. If they are ten
> years old, they should be replaced. Heck, for these older caps that
> we are discussing, they should generally be replaced when they are
> six years old

My experience agrees with Paul's.  The lifetime of an electrolytic
depends much more on operating temperature than on operating
time (though, of course, both are a factor).

In a computer power supply, it is quite common for one or two
capacitors to be in considerably hotter environments than the
others--those are the one(s) that need replacing.

(Of course, if you consider that your time spent removing the
power supply, disassembling it, reassembling, and re-installing
to be the critical resource, then by all means, replace everything
in sight!  ;-)

-michael

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