QL PSU worth recapping?

[Marcel_X]

Hello everyone,

I'm in the process of testing and fixing my old QLs that were boxed for several decades. One of them is working (two more to go...), but I was wondering about the quality of the caps inside the PSU. I opened one up and it looks quite crusty inside. Especially the two 3300uF caps sandwiched between the board and the heatsink. They are not bulging yet, but the ESR or capacity may be out of spec after all these years.

I read on this forum that the caps inside the QL itself are less likely to fail, compared to a ZX Spectrum.

But what about the ones in the PSU? Worth recapping?

[tofro]

Hello everyone,

I'm in the process of testing and fixing my old QLs that were boxed for several decades. One of them is working (two more to go...), but I was wondering about the quality of the caps inside the PSU. I opened one up and it looks quite crusty inside. Especially the two 3300uF caps sandwiched between the board and the heatsink. They are not bulging yet, but the ESR or capacity may be out of spec after all these years.

I read on this forum that the caps inside the QL itself are less likely to fail, compared to a ZX Spectrum.

But what about the ones in the PSU? Worth recapping?

I'm not saying you shouldn't, but I've yet to see a QL PSU failing electronically. Yes, connectors break, and wires develop bad contact, but none of my QL PSUs have failed, even though they used to be switched on basically all the time.

[Marcel_X]

Ok, thanks for the reply! I'll leave them for now.
My first QL is running for about an hour now and so far so good..!
I might change them in the near future, just to make sure they will survive another few decades.
Two more QLs to go!