There are a set of tantalum capacitors which have failed, and the replacements she’s using turn out to have problems too. They’re a period part for a project of this age, but we might have ...

A capacitor made out of the precious metal tantalum. The silver-gray tantalum beads, in the form of compacted powder, can store a lot of charge relative to their mass. This enables smaller ...

However, although the computer might have functioned even with the capacitor fitted the wrong way around, enthusiasts replacing it with a tantalum capacitor might find themselves in trouble.