How to fix a PSU

Assuming you have awareness of electronic safety and basic soldering skills this is very easy. If you want to know about soldering and electronic safety I'm sure you know how to use google.

So my mother in laws Acer dual core pentium D computer was acting up, from slow operation, to intermittent freezing and hangs. I said id have a look for her. After cleaning out all the dust it was still a bit flakey. So i opened up the PSU to have a look, low and behold a bulging capacitor >



I removed the psu circuit board and tilted it on its side so i didnt have to remove the fan or anything. Take note of the markings and polarity of the old capacitor. This one was 10v 1000uf at 105 degrees C. So I removed it and replaced it with one i had around the workshop rated at 16v 1000uf at 105 degrees C. Its ok to replace with something of higher voltage just not lower, either way the new capacitor was exactly the same size so it fit just right. Removing the old capacitor I used pliers to grip it and held the soldering iron to the legs to melt the solder and wriggled it out. Inserted the new one and cut the legs to size. The next image shows the new cap soldered in place, the 2 shiny solder joints are the legs of the new cap.



Heres a pic of the new cap in place



Now the old PC runs flawlessly and all for about 15 mins work and what was probably a 10 cent capacitor. I know this article is not very comprehensive at all, it was just to show you it can be done without too much knowledge, and without a lot of effort. There are plenty of more detailed articles around if you want to look into doing this yourself one day. I also suggest practising removing and re-soldering capacitors from an old motherboard or something before you attempt this.