Recapping your old Macs

[TrailMyx]

I've done LOTS of retro restorations, but it seems the worst of the worst has to be the older Macs.  These were released at a time where it seems the electrolytic capacitor manufacturing quality was very poor.  Probably the worst are the surface-mounted electrolytic.

Do yourself a favor before you dust off your old computers from the attic - open them up and see if you have any one of the following issues BEFORE you turn them on.

• Obvious bulging from either the top of the capacitors
• Look at the base of the capacitor to see if there is a liquid between the cap and the board
• Put your nose close to the board where you find a capacitor and sniff (no really).  If you smell something "fishy" then you might have a leaky capacitor

Of the old Macs, I've found probably the worst problems exhibited in the Mac LCx line of computers, especially the little power supplies.  So far I've done 10 restorations, and every one of them required a total re-capping of the little power supplies.

These above steps can be useful for most older computers '90s and earlier, but can be useful for computers both older and newer.  Even an older OG XBOX exhibited leaking capacitors from around the 2003-era.  Those weren't even the notorious "clock" capacitors found to leak as a common fault.