An epidemic?

[Train]

" I have a nasty suspicion that this will put the electrolytic capacitor problems of the last few years in the shade "

<SHUDDER> !

[bistro]

Whiskers.....so THAT'S why my face short-circuited yesterday! I forgot to shave!

One whisker can carry about 30mA - more than enough to cause havoc in digital circuits

Yup....that would do it alright....

[usil]

I'm afraid so. And this is just the start of what could indeed become an epidemic, your thread title is particularly apposite. I have a nasty suspicion that this will put the electrolytic capacitor problems of the last few years in the shade

Funny, I didn't mean the the title to be taken seriously (although I have seen a big increase of similar cases). Little did I know that Tin Whiskers will cause such a huge problem and that this really is a serious issue for consumers and technicians alike.
So have you guys also been experiencing an increase in the mysterious deaths of motherboards lately?

[SpywareDr]

NASA's Tin Whisker site:
http://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/index.html

Basic Info/FAQ
http://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/background/index.htm

Photo Gallery
http://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/photos/index.html

There's more, much more ...

[Tuttle]

I haven't noticed it in motherboards, but we did have to replace our server room floor a couple of years ago because the zinc coating under the tiles was growing. The whiskers would get stirred up by the ventilation, sucked into the servers and eventually build up somewhere enough to fry something.

Sounds far-fetched I know, but replacing the floor dropped our hard drive / power supply failure rate down from about one failure per rack per week to almost nothing.

[SpywareDr]

What amazes me it that it causes so many problems, to the tune of $Billions, but yet you hear so little about it.

Just though of something. Wonder if it's one of the reasons "Bestec" power supplies fail . . . and more often than not, take the motherboard with it? It may be the reverse, whiskers somewhere on the motherboard causing a short . . . which takes out the power supply?

[usil]

Can a motherboard take out a power supply?

[SpywareDr]

Don't know. Would a dead short on the motherboard do it, (to an el'cheapo PSU)?

[SuperSparks]

I think that a cheapo PSU with no overload protection could easily be taken out by a dead short - it would fry the voltage regulators at the very least.

[SpywareDr]

Been there, done that. It wasn't caused by tin whiskers though. eMachine sitting on the floor with a wireless mouse dongle hanging out the front USB. Someone apparently stepped on/bumped the dongle with their foot, (mangled USB port). Instant dead eMachine. Took a new motherboard and PSU to get it running.

[jenae]

Hi, long before lead was removed from solder one of our older clients (Sir Frank as He is known) told us he was selling gas to the Chinese. He explained that heat and it's control were the vital ingredients. Sir Frank is Croatian although he spends quite some of his time here. He is perhaps the wealthiest person I will ever meet. Last time I spoke to him was late 2007 and he told me of this issue, he also said he had the solution and was selling it to the Taiwan Chinese and soon to the mainland. Apparently the University of WA (Western Australia) in association with the gas giant BOC had made a breakthrough with controlled heat in Gas and Sir Frank was off to China to sell it. Lets hope it works.