On 29 Mar 2006 12:42:04 -0800, "
wrote:

Just tried powering up an old (386) PC, and was greeted with an acrid
smell and a puff of smoke; one of the motherboard capacitors had blown.
I'd like to try replacing it, but my main concern is: what rating
should I buy as a replacement? The surviving originals are all marked
"10+ 16J".


That's a 10 uF 16 volt tantalum cap. They tend to be very reliable,
but when they do fail, they short and smoke. A tantalum cap would be
best, but any decent 10 uF 16 v cap should work in that application.

There's no need to replace any other caps if only one failed. This
isn't like the more recent motherboard that were made with dozens of
defective caps.

As a quick test, you can try removing the cap. Chances are the PC
will at least POST without it.

When you replace it, note that the stripe on a tantalum cap identifies
the positive side, but most other caps have the stripe on the negative
side.
Andy Cuffe