<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div></div><div><br></div><div>Add the collaborated stories from my colleagues here in Pittsburgh and on the Apple Consultants Listserve ( private professional discussion board ) to what I have experienced with my own clients and here is the situation you should know:</div><div><br></div><div>( paraphrased from an ACN member )</div>The <b>China Capacitor Syndrome </b> or <b>Capacitor Plague</b>, the story goes, an engineer was poached from a rival firm and the formula for the capacitor electrolyte he brought with him was lacking the vital ingredients to keep it from eating its way out of the capacitor shell in two years. Then Apple bought a *BIG* batch of those faulty capacitors and installed them in iMac G5's and eMacs which then started to display really weird display issues along with reboots and/or kernel panics. The story goes that HP and Dell also had the same issues so I guess it truly was a *BIG* batch. It resulted in necessary extended repairs outside of warranty.<div><br></div><div>(from Wikipedia)</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 25px; "><div style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">The <b>capacitor plague</b> (also known as <b>bad capacitors</b>) involved the common premature failure of certain brands of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolytic_capacitor" title="Electrolytic capacitor" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 43, 184); background-image: none; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; ">electrolytic capacitors</a> used in various low quality electronics equipment, and particularly in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_motherboard" title="PC motherboard" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 43, 184); background-image: none; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; ">motherboards</a>, video cards, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp" title="Compact fluorescent lamp" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 43, 184); background-image: none; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; ">compact fluorescent lamp</a> ballasts, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCD" title="LCD" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 43, 184); background-image: none; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; ">LCD</a> monitors, and power supplies of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer" title="Personal computer" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 43, 184); background-image: none; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; ">personal computers</a>. The first flawed capacitors were seen in 1999, but most of the affected capacitors were made in the early to mid 2000s, and while news of their failures (usually after a few years of use) has forced most manufacturers to fix the defects, some bad capacitors were still being sold or integrated into designs as of early 2007.<sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague#cite_note-0" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 43, 184); background-image: none; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: initial; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; "><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a></sup></div><div style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">An incorrect <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolyte" title="Electrolyte" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 43, 184); background-image: none; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; ">electrolyte</a> formula within a faulty capacitor causes the production of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen" title="Hydrogen" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 43, 184); background-image: none; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; ">hydrogen</a> gas, leading to bulging or deformation of the capacitor's case, and eventual venting of the electrolyte. In rare cases, faulty capacitors have even been reported to pop or explode forcefully. Although modern manufacturing techniques normally ensure they vent safely rather than explode, manufacturers have been known to omit the key safety features that allow this.</div><div style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">A serious <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_control" title="Quality control" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 43, 184); background-image: none; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; ">quality control</a> problem is that good and poor quality electrolytic capacitors will often have identical electrical performance when newly fitted. Only extensive accelerated life testing involving abnormally high <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_current" title="Ripple current" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 43, 184); background-image: none; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; ">ripple currents</a> and high operating temperatures can identify inferior components. This contrasts strongly with most electronic components which are much less subject to spontaneous failure after assembly.</div></span><div><br></div><div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague</a></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></body></html>