A major cause of computer failures is a little, but very expensive problem known as blown caps.
Capacitors (or caps) store electricity and they are used in that capacity in a number of locations on the mother boards that go inside your computer. Capacitors can last for many years and then again they can pop their corks in much less time … although it is unusual for that to happen too quickly.
In this photo you will see part of a motherboard and the capcitors are the tall cylindrical items circled in red and green.
The ones circled in green look quite good - the silver top on each of them appears to be quite flat. If you look at the ones circled in red you will notice that the silver caps are bulging - some perhaps more than others - and that is what a blown cap looks like.
A badly blown capacitor will be leaking brown corrosive fluide down the sides and onto the copper tracks but whether they are mildly blown or badly blown the result is still the same. The computer will begin to malfunction and the motherboard is ruined and needs to be replaced.
In the last week or so Dell announced that they were setting aside $300 million to cover the costs of replacing motherboards with blown caps in swome of their workstations. And now there is a report on Cnet that Hewlett-Packard, Apple and other brands that are using Intel motherboards are all facing similar problems.
