this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2025
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retrocomputing

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Vintage 3dfx Voodoo 2 cards may inevitably fail due to pyroelectric capacitors — retrocomputing channel investigates and recommends preventive maintenance (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 6 days ago by misk@piefed.social to c/retrocomputing@lemmy.sdf.org
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/53157024

It's not a matter of if; rather when.

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[–] Triumph@fedia.io 7 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Aren't bad caps a thing in pretty much everything? I've got a TV I had to replace caps on, too.

[–] cryptiod137@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

Most likely thing to fail, yes

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Yes and no. There was a period of time where they were particularly bad. If you go back to some earlier eras (like the 1970s and even earlier) you can find many capacitors that are still good.

It also depends on the materials. Electrolytic capacitors naturally dry out and then fail. Many kinds of ceramic capacitors should last an extremely long time if they’re kept within a reasonable temperature range.