Swollen capacitor in Panasonic DMR-EH775

[rgr]

How much of a concern is this? It's the only capacitor like this.

[pandy]

Well... it means you need to replace it - strangely this is ELNA cap but obviously failed... as it is rated 6.3Vthen it may be on 5V line or on 3.3V line, both looks like digital supply rails so capacitor fail it may be not so obvious as probably there are some capacitors located on main board to provide additional filtering for digital power lines.

[Sharc]

Replace it if you can. Even though it may not be ultimately critical for the functionality of the equipment there is a risk that it will begin to leak over time, and the leaked electrolyte may cause more damage (corrosion) to the board.

[cholla]

I agree with Sharc specially on the corrosion.
Capacitors are also cheap.When I ordered some the shipping was more than the capacitors.
I did this in an old IBM PC but this is almost the same thing.

Main tools are a pencil type soldering iron, some fine gauge resin core solder. & a solder vacuum tool.
Then whatever tools to remove the circuit board.

Or quicker & dirty method: Cut the capacitor wires as close the the old capacitor as possible.
The solder the new one to those. Pay attention to the polarity of the old one.
Taking some notes never hurts.

[rgr]

Thanks for the replies, for now the device is going on the shelf anyway. As I don't like soldering...


"This isn't a safety-critical failure, but it's still worth replacing C1402 proactively along with its neighbor C1401 (1200uF 6.3V) — technicians routinely replace both together since they share the same age and operating conditions.

Location on the schematic
In the original service manual (Power Supply Block/Schematic Diagram) for this platform, C1402 is labeled as:

C1402 — F2A0J331005, 6.3V, 330uF [JG]

It sits near L1270 (choke), LB1270, D1270 (rectifier diode), and the larger C1401 (F2A0J122002, 6.3V, 1200uF) — together they form the output filter on one of the secondary low-voltage rails, right before connector P1102 that feeds the Main P.C.B.. This is the exact same output filtering section visible on your VEP71118 power board photo.

If you're planning a replacement, use low-ESR capacitors rated for the same or higher temperature (105°C) — cheap general-purpose caps tend to fail the same way again fairly quickly."