I tend to agree with your hunch.
On 7/17/2015 1:55 PM, Todd Killingsworth wrote: > I suspect part of the "swap'em ALL out" mentality comes from the 90's when > some botched industrial espionage had some of the bottom-tier cap > manufacturers using a dodgy electrolytic formula for their caps. These > caps would have a frequent failure rate.. > > While not an issue for pre-90's electronics, it has fostered the mentality > of full replacement for 'newer' electronics i.e. arcade/pinball machines > > Todd Killingsworth > > On Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 2:42 PM, tony duell <a...@p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: > >>> >>>> It is generally a good idea to re-form electrolytic capacitors in power >>>> supplies, and to bench check the power supplies (under some kind of >>>> load) before actually applying power to the whole unit. >>> >>> It is always a good idea to replace electrolytic capacitors in power >> supplies. >> >> Could you, please, explain why? And how often should this be done? Every >> week, every month, every year, or what? >> >> FWIW, the number PSU elecrtrolytics I have replaced can be counted on the >> fingers of >> one hand -- in unary. Well, perhaps both hands. But it's <1% of all the >> PSU electrolytic >> capacitors I own. >> >> Only 2 cases spring to mind : >> >> The PSU in my 11/44 had a high ESR capacitor on the +36V rail (all other >> caps in the machine >> were fine) >> >> I changed the 2 mains smoothing capacitors in my HP120 not because they >> were electrically >> defective (they tested fine) but because one was bulging a little on top >> and had it exploded it would >> have hit the neck of the CRT with all the problems that would be likely to >> cause. >> >> I do find this witch-hunt against capacitors to be curious, given how few >> I've found to have >> failed. I suspect a lot of it comes from audiophools who think this is the >> way to fix anything... >> >> -tony >> >
