Caps in overly heated (browned) areas are much more prone to failure. An ESR
meter can ususally be used in circuit - in part that's what they were
designed for.

Mark Z.


"chris C" wrote in message
...

Thanks to you both,
I had suspected a cap. I'll have a more thorough look at the power
supply area of the board.

Other than looking for obvious signs of failure should I be checking
with a capacitance meter? I don't have one, but I've been meaning to
upgrade my DMM for some time. Will a capacitance meter give a
reliable reading of a cap which is in circuit?

I have a very basic CRO adaptor which plugs into my PC's sound card.
It's got a 10x probe so I'll have a look for ripple as well.


--
chris C