On Sun, 09 Feb 2020 16:43:30 -0000, alan_m wrote:

On 09/02/2020 16:06, Brian Gaff (Sofa 2) wrote:
Stop excessive crosposting...

I suppose cos they can get them el chepo. I also have found toward the end
of the 90s, those little tantalum caps that look like blobs of resin
coloured blue tend to go leaky and damage the rest of the circuit.
Nothing is supposed to last any more.
Brian

I remember working on (expensive) test equipment in the 80s and a common
failure mechanism with the tantalum bead capacitors was a short circuit
taking out other components.

Were those visibly obviously damaged? It's just I've never seen one fail, and was wondering if I could tell from a visual inspection. The electrolytics have clearly failed when they bulge or burst - I see it all the time in old/cheap motherboards, or inside TVs.