Would it be wise to replace the other 17 tantalum capacitors with new ones, to minimise the risk of similar failures – or are tantalum failures not largely age related? Or perhaps I should just remove them? I’ve seen other backplanes with no capacitors – so perhaps these aren’t really all that important?
Old tantalums are notorious for failing rather forcefully. It's not a bad idea to replace them all. I don't know how good an idea it would be to remove them without replacing them, but it does depend on the current draw (and bypassing) of the boards installed. Check the rails with a decently fast scope if you're unsure.
There are better solutions than tantalums these days (like some of the newer niobium ones), though they're not always a drop-in replacement.
- Dave
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