I’ve been using a small Chinese mini-PC as a Proxmox Backup Server for quite some time.
Nothing fancy:
- 8 GB SO-DIMM RAM
- M.2 SATA SSD
- Intel Atom CPU
- Low power consumption, always on
Until one day… I found it turned off. No LEDs, no signs of life at all. Pressing the power button did absolutely nothing.
At first, I suspected the usual suspects:
- External power supply
- Power button
- RAM or SSD failure
The power supply was fine, and disconnecting all peripherals changed nothing. The board was simply dead.
After opening the case, I did a quick visual inspection. No burnt components, no obvious damage, no blown electrolytic capacitors.
I powered the board briefly and scanned it using a thermal camera, almost immediately, one component stood out: a small tantalum capacitor was getting hot very quickly.
Tantalum capacitors are known to fail short-circuit. When they do, they can pull down the entire power supply and prevent the system from starting at all.
I removed the faulty tantalum capacitor and replaced it with a new capacitor of the same value and a slightly higher voltage rating, cause I was able to find a 6.3V one.
Before reassembling everything, I powered the board again and checked it, pressed the power button and the BIOS appeared, Proxmox booted normally, and the server has been running stable ever since.
Notes
- read risk disclaimer
- excuse my bad english