Date   : Wed, 28 Dec 2005 12:51:15 +0000
From   : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: Guess age from serial number? - Holy smoking Beebs,

Annihilannic wrote:
> David Hunt wrote:
>>>> They both look healthy from the outside?
>> Yeah, I remember I had the same thing happen to me, I knew it wasn't a
>> critical component because the Beeb was still working with smoke 
>> jetting out
>> from underneath. The filter caps were my first port of call. They looked
>> fine, but when I prodded them with a screwdriver they promptly fell to 
>> bits!
> 
> Once again you guys have proven that you know your onions; when I 
> finally disconnected all the power leads and manoeuvred the PCB out I 
> could see a bulge on the side of the 0.1µF cap; I desoldered it and sure 
> enough it looks like there's been some serious volcanic activity in there.
> 
>> Cycled down the road to Cambridge Maplin and got another, only a few 
>> pence
>> see SC93B and SC89W respectively at ...
>> <http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=26584> ... these are 
>> rated to 100 Celsius rather than the old part that is rated at
>> 85 degrees Celsius.
>> As this is a common problem loads of people have taken pics of the 
>> offender!
>> e.g.
>> <http://8-bit.summerfield-technology.co.uk/varia/repair/bbc/bbc.html>
> 
> Here's mine to add to the collection:
> 
> http://galaxy4.net/misc/beeb_capacitor.jpg

I'll add to that the photo I took of my Apple /// following such a capacitor 
death:

   http://www.patooie.com/temp/apple_3_cap_explosion.jpg  (185KB)

... that smoke in the recess where the PSU normally lives hung around for a 
long time after I'd fetched the camera, unscrewed the PSU and taken it out. No 
idea what's in the smoke (probably something rather nasty!), but it seems to 
stay densely in one place unless there's a fan about to blow it around!

> I realise that's probably pricey for a Beeb, but just in case... my 
> guess is that it's not worth putting on Ebay with those shipping fees?

Someone in France might like it surely? So possibly worth trying to sell it...


cheers

Jules