Hi everyone

I need to replace a capacitor that decided to blow up on an extremely
old XT 8088 motherboard. This capacitor looks like a tantalum
capacitor and has the following markings on it: 106 16. As far as I
know that means 10 microfarad and 16V (can anyone confirm ?). But
there is something weird. This capacitor has three legs instead of
two! I looked around the Internet to find an identical one, but
tantalum capacitors with three legs don't seem to exist. Does anybody
know what type of capacitor this is ? Is the third leg there just to
hold the capacitor in place, or does it actually do something ? Any
idea where I can find a replacement ?
Thanks to everybody in advance.

"Flavio" wrote in message
...
| Hi everyone
|
| I need to replace a capacitor that decided to blow up on an extremely
| old XT 8088 motherboard. This capacitor looks like a tantalum
| capacitor and has the following markings on it: 106 16. As far as I
| know that means 10 microfarad and 16V (can anyone confirm ?). But
| there is something weird. This capacitor has three legs instead of
| two! I looked around the Internet to find an identical one, but
| tantalum capacitors with three legs don't seem to exist. Does anybody
| know what type of capacitor this is ? Is the third leg there just to
| hold the capacitor in place, or does it actually do something ? Any
| idea where I can find a replacement ?
| Thanks to everybody in advance.

Did you meter it out? Are two legs connected together?

N

"Flavio" wrote in message
...
Hi everyone

I need to replace a capacitor that decided to blow up on an extremely
old XT 8088 motherboard. This capacitor looks like a tantalum
capacitor and has the following markings on it: 106 16. As far as I
know that means 10 microfarad and 16V (can anyone confirm ?). But
there is something weird. This capacitor has three legs instead of
two! I looked around the Internet to find an identical one, but
tantalum capacitors with three legs don't seem to exist. Does anybody
know what type of capacitor this is ? Is the third leg there just to
hold the capacitor in place, or does it actually do something ? Any
idea where I can find a replacement ?
Thanks to everybody in advance.

I have occasionally seen a 3-legged capacitor where the middle leg is just
for mechanical strength.

Norm

In article , flav75
@libero.it says...
I need to replace a capacitor that decided to blow up on an extremely
old XT 8088 motherboard. This capacitor looks like a tantalum
capacitor and has the following markings on it: 106 16. As far as I
know that means 10 microfarad and 16V (can anyone confirm ?).

That is correct.

But there is something weird. This capacitor has three legs instead
of two! I looked around the Internet to find an identical one, but
tantalum capacitors with three legs don't seem to exist.

They exist, but I don't know of anyone carrying onesey-twosey
quantities for repairs. The idea is for mass production it
is impossible to install wrong. Unless the board designer
did something really stupid like use the end legs' connection
to form part of the circuit, you can replace with a standard
2 lead capacitor.

On 31 Oct 2004 03:57:33 GMT, Ol' Duffer wrote:


They exist, but I don't know of anyone carrying onesey-twosey
quantities for repairs. The idea is for mass production it
is impossible to install wrong. Unless the board designer
did something really stupid like use the end legs' connection
to form part of the circuit, you can replace with a standard
2 lead capacitor.

Sorry for the silly question I am about to ask but I'm a newbie
when it comes to electronic components If I replace it with a
two-legs capacitor, how do I know which leg of the old capacitor is
the one to be "ignored" ?

And by the way, could it be a double capacitor ? Do double tantalum
capacitors exist ?

Thanks again

On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 18:11:37 GMT, "NSM" wrote:


Did you meter it out? Are two legs connected together?

Sorry I don't know how to do that What do I need ?

Thank you again.

In article ,
Flavio wrote:
On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 18:11:37 GMT, "NSM" wrote:

Did you meter it out? Are two legs connected together?

Sorry I don't know how to do that What do I need ?

tongue-in-cheek

"Meter it out" is a technical term: It's when you use a meter probe,
and apply too much pressure to a leg of a component while taking a reading,
resulting in the component coming out of the board. Possibly in more than
one piece ...

At which point, the answer to second question is "Not any more ...."

\tongue-in-cheek
--
--------------------------------------+------------------------------------
Mike Brown: mjb[at]pootle.demon.co.uk | http://www.pootle.demon.co.uk/

"Flavio" wrote in message
...
| On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 18:11:37 GMT, "NSM" wrote:
|
|
| Did you meter it out? Are two legs connected together?
|
| Sorry I don't know how to do that What do I need ?
|
| Thank you again.

Use an ohmmeter on the lowest range. See if two legs are connected together.
If so, use a jumper wire to replace them. ISTR there were some safety
capacitors like this.

N