Capacitor plague

The capacitor plague was a problem related to a higher-than-expected failure rate of non-solid aluminum electrolytic capacitors, between 1999 and 2007, especially those from some Taiwanese manufacturers, due to faulty electrolyte composition that caused corrosion accompanied by gas generation, often rupturing the case of the capacitor from the build-up of pressure.

High failure rates occurred in many well-known brands of electronics, and was particularly evident in motherboards, video cards, and power supplies of personal computers, leading to premature failure of these devices.

Faulty capacitors have been a problem since capacitors' initial development, but the first flawed capacitors linked to Taiwanese raw material problems were reported by the specialist magazine Passive Component Industry in September 2002. Shortly thereafter, two mainstream electronics journals reported the discovery of widespread prematurely failing capacitors, from Taiwanese manufacturers, in motherboards.

These publications informed engineers and other technically interested specialists, but did not give the issue wider public exposure. That changed when Carey Holzman published his experiences about "leaking capacitors" in the overclocking performance community.

The news from the Holzman publication spread quickly on the Internet and in newspapers, partly due to the spectacular images of the failures — bulging or burst cans, expelled sealing rubber and leaking electrolyte on countless circuit boards. A lot of PC users were affected, and caused an avalanche of reports and comments on thousands of blogs and other web communities.

The quick spread of the news also resulted in many misinformed users and blogs posting pictures of capacitors that had failed due to reasons other than faulty electrolyte.

Most of the affected capacitors were produced from 1999 to 2003 and failed between 2002 and 2005. Problems with capacitors produced with an incorrectly formulated electrolyte have affected equipment manufactured up to at least 2007.

Major vendors of motherboards such as Abit,IBM,Dell,Apple, HP, and Intel were affected by capacitors with faulty electrolyte.

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Wikipedia