Starting in the early 2000s, reports emerged of abnormal numbers of PC motherboards with leaking or even popping capacitors. A victim said in a newspaper interview that he turned on his computer one morning and suddenly heard a loud POP, like a distant firework. Other reports mention a weird, fishy smell in the air. The OS goes black and the computer fails to reboot. Most inexperienced people have no idea what to do except to bring it to a repair shop. Open it up, and inside you might find that a little cylinder on the board had swollen or even burst. This happened a lot. Why? In this video, we look at the infamous Capacitor Plague. We will never know what exactly happened, but let's try.
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