MSI Response to bad capacitors

Question

I finally heard from MSI......
Not good news.
I cannot establish where the board was obtained or even the date. I was told it was about a year old but maybe it's an old board that sat for awhile before my friend bought it. Anyhow....MSI said that if it was under warranty then I could send it back to where I bought it....otherwise "I'm on my own"......exact words.
Sooooo...... with that kind of response and customer service, even though MSI boards allow overclocking features and a somewhat reasonable price, I've decided to use other mfg's boards.
Bad business decision by MSI, I think!  This is obviously a manufacturing mistake and the capacitors aren't lasting as long as they are supposed to. MSI should really step to the plate and address the problem. From the article I read ABIT is taking care of the problem. I guess I wouldn't be so upset about it but I got a glimpse of MSI revenues and Lelon revenues from last year and they are making a killing.....selling junk.
Anyway...they lost my business....
I don't want to take a chance in the future in buying sub-standard materials from a company that doesn't stand behind their work.

Answer 1

Hi,
The capacitors are failing prematurely because of a faulty electrolyte.
Here is a brief synopsis:
Electrolytic capacitors (elcos) are made from 2 sheets of aluminium foil, separated by an insulator impregnated with electrolyte, rolled up into a cylinder.
Elco manufacturers buy the electrolyte from electrolyte manufacturers.
Elcos in switch mode power supplies operate at high frequencies, with large current flows, and must have low Effective Series Resistance (ESR), and a special electrolyte.
Elcos operating under high stress conditions can generate hydrogen gas unless the electrolyte is designed properly.
Gas build up causes the end of the capacitor to bulge out, and eventually the safety seal at the bottom blows, causing the electrolyte to leak and the capacitor to fail.
The story is that a scientist from a Japanese electrolyte manufacturer was hired by a mainland Chinese enterprise to develop an electrolyte manufacturer. He took a secret electrolyte formula with him.
Some of his team then defected to Taiwan, taking most of the formula with them, but leaving out the magic ingredient which suppresses hydrogen generation.
The Taiwanese company then made large amounts of defective electrolyte, which it sold to Elco makers (presumably at a much cheaper price).
Billions of Elcos were made with defective electrolyte, and sold to various customers including MSI.
MSI (and others) loaded these Elcos onto mobos and shipped them out through the normal distribution channels to end users.
Several months after the defective Elcos were first used, they started to fail. In the meantime, billions had been installed into mobos etc. So there are lots of little time bombs waiting to go off!
So, the failures are due to defective materials (electrolyte), not due to normal wear and tear. If the failure had been, say, the hydraulic fluid used in shock absorbers made by a couple of automotive component manufacturers, and used by several car makers, then in most countries the car makers would have to do a product recall, and change all of the defective shock absorbers - but ultimately recouping the cost from the hydraulic fluid maker (maybe via the shock absorber maker). In my opinion, the mobo makers should be doing a product recall on all the equipment they made using the suspect parts. Now, I don't think that is going to happen, but they should at least be prepared to replace the defective components free of charge, even if the equipment is out of warranty. Remember, the difference is that the components fail because of defective manufacture, not due to normal wear and tear.
As far as I know, very few companies have publicly acknowledged that there is a problem, much less instituted a recall program.
Anyway, I suggest that if you talk nicely to MSI, and remind them that it is a well known component defect, that they might agree to replace the faulty Elcos. (Make sure they replace ALL the suspect capacitors, not just the obviously faulty ones)
Cheers