Computer Tech

I’m surprised this box still runs…

I'm surprised this box still runs...

It’s been awhile since I’ve dealt with the capacitor plague. I recently inherited this elderly (1.8GHz Pentium 4, 1GB SDRAM, 40GB hard drive) box from a friend who is now happily rocking out with a new computer powered by a much more modern and power-friendly dual-core AMD CPU. Naturally, the first thing I did (after cackling and rubbing my hands together with glee) was to open the case and shove the ribbon cables aside. Oh. Hello.

I’m surprised it still runs. In fact, as far as I can tell, it runs as steady as a rock, although how a rock can run is beyond me. (After all, a rock has no legs.) Of course, if it had been some of the larger caps near the CPU, it probably wouldn’t be running very long at all.

Time to pull out memtest86+ and prime95.

caps

“When Caps Go Bad…”