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The Capacitor plague (also known as Bad Capacitors, Bad Caps or Bloated Capacitors) involved the common premature failure of certain brands of electrolytic capacitors used in various electronics equipment, and particularly in motherboards, video cards, CF bulbs, and power supplies of personal computers.

An incorrect electrolyte formula within a faulty capacitor causes the production of hydrogen 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.

Incidence

Faulty capacitors have been discovered in motherboards as old as Socket 7 and have affected boards manufactured up to the present day. The motherboard companies assembled and sold boards with faulty caps sourced from other manufacturers (see below). This is also not a phenomenon that is specific to PC based equipment; the first release of the iMac G5 appears to have suffered as well (see these photos). The problem has apparently been rectified on the updated model of the iMac released in May 2005. Apple has also introduced an extended free repair program for early iMac G5s suffering from the problem . Some eMac computers were affected as well, and there is a similar repair extension program for it.

While capacitor plague largely affects desktop computer hardware, this problem is by no means limited to that area. These capacitors can also be found in some cameras, network switches, audio equipment, DVD players, and a range of other devices. Even some car electronic control units have been found to have these same brands of often-failing capacitors. However, computer components are by far the most common location of these capacitors.

The fact that these failure-prone capacitors are still being used has angered many people, especially in cases where a motherboard populated mainly with high quality capacitors has one or two of the bad capacitors on it, leading to accusations of planned obsolescence on the part of motherboard manufacturers. Indeed, a strong case can be made that these capacitors (which often fail in 6 months or less) are still being manufactured, and are still being chosen over superior components by manufacturers to use in their products.

As of May 2005, some evidence shows that the failing Nichicon capacitors on the iMac, Intel, and Dell boards are due to a different problem (capacitors overfilled with electrolyte) than the one discussed on this page (faulty electrolyte formula). However, both the effects on the system and the physical appearance of the capacitors are the same as the other failing capacitors, as is how to identify them, and the required repair. (This affects the HM and HN Series capacitors only.)

Read more at Wikipedia.org