[UNCLASSIFIED]RE: [clug] a NIC to avoid

[Antti.Roppola at brs.gov.au]

Bob wrote: 

> On a slightly related thread, and more as a heads-up, note that there have been problems with cheap
> Taiwanese capacitors blowing up and frying motherboards.  The problem's due to the 'defection' of a
> scientist from a Japanese firm that made capacitors to its Taiwanese competitor - he took the formula
> for their electrolyte but didn't get all of it. 

That was what afflicted the AirPort basestation I received (from Brad I think). Happily a quick
trip to Jaycar and 50c for new caps revived the basestation (though I had to poke a hole through
the RF shield to fit the new ones):

http://www.elder-gods.net/hastur/pics/lj/2005/airportbare.jpg
http://www.elder-gods.net/hastur/pics/lj/2005/airportrf.jpg

(the tops of the bad caps bulge up noticeably, they should be flat)

AFAIK, there was a spate of dodgey equipment, but (I hope) manufacturers pretty quickly learned
that saving a few fractions of a cent per cap were not worth the many warranty returns.

Even good caps can go bad, many Amiga 2000's have been killed by a leaky cap.

Antti
P.S. If someone's going to copy a NIC, why don't they at least copy a *good* one instead of a Happy Crab?

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