On 08/10/2016 11:18, "Rob Jarratt" <robert.jarr...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> I have an RD53 disk drive. When I plugged it in the other day something blew > up, smoke etc. I found that it was a tantalum capacitor on the motor control > board that had gone. I suppose I am wondering if just replacing it is a good > idea, could the failure be a symptom of another problem, could it have > damaged something else? I realise that without a schematic it may be > difficult to comment, but I suppose it is more a question about what can > cause these caps to fail? > I plugged in the power supply from a NASCOM2 the other week and one of the tants exploded but the supply still worked so I just replaced it and all was well, similarly with the floppy drive in an IBM5150 a few years ago. I was told they can go short-circuit when they fail so explode in a similar manner to fitting one in reverse polarity. (*innocent whistle*). -- Adrian/Witchy Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
