Yes, very true Yogesh! Many thanks for your observations!

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Many thanks dear!

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This kind of thinking deserves only respect Parasuraman! And you sincerely have mine, as "you've read my mind" in your 1st paragraph. My thinking is in line with yours.
Criticism can be both: destructive to a relationship (if it is baseless, dishonest and not sincere) or constructive (when there is a basis for a honest and sincere discussion and exchange of ideas, when logic arguments are present). It all depends upon the intention of both sides and it needs "cool blood" in order to interpret that correctly. Unfortunately, in many cases, this is interpreted as a personal attack without any attempt of analysing the attitude of "the other side", that is, to question oneself "why is he saying what he says" or "do his arguments stand on a solid base". And here exactly, the "cold blood" should be talking in order to put out the correct answers to these questions and save the otherwise destroyed relationships...!!
As for your second paragraph, there is no problem with impedance imbalance with these capacitors under discussion, as these two high value resistors, which are always present, being connected each one to each cap, serve exactly this purpose. To equalise any asymmetrical voltage distribution between the two (in series connected) capacitors (:half bridge topology), which is due to unequal leakage currents within each one of them (a fact which is always there even when these caps belong to the same production batch). The restriction only says "do not use caps with different capacitances and voltages". So, you shouldn't bother about that at all. You only need "to kep the rule" and by every chance verify that the values of these two resistors are equal, providing voltage symmetry.

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Many thanks! Unless we accept others freedom and rights, we cannot have our own! Accept, admit and adjust (and if necessary alter our attitude) are three watch words to live peacefully in a complex world! In our life everyone and everything you see (or interact) has something or other to teach us. All are professors in their own way. So, let us keep our eyes and ears open and sharpen our intellect to absorb what we can learn as much as possible! I follow this as my motto!

I value your opinion about not replacing all the caps. I do it as a preventive whenever these are quite old enough to replace. Fresh caps from fresh batches will go well when put together and there might not be any impedance imbalance is what I strongly believe from my experiences!

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Yes, this type of repair is not professionally acceptable at all! I am fully aware of that too!

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I definitely understand your point Parasuraman, as I have faced the same problem many times up to this day.
Simply this type modification (which sometimes I am also forced to use) is for me “the desperate man’s choice” and by that I mean that I would have come to a similar solution only after having been left without any other alternative.
For sure, if the original caps were within their tolerances in terms of capacitance and ESR, I would prefer not to replace them until I had the proper ones at hand.
Anyway, the point is always to bring a dead equipment back in life and under this light the repair (all what had to be done) is done.
Just for better understanding of my point of view: if one of my technicians (in the telecom company I’ve been working in the past) would do a repair in this way, the Quality Assurance department would had him immediately fired, no matter any of his claims for a successful repair. And I admit that this thought affects my view on such repairs...

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Many thanks for your expert comments! There is space constraint in ATX SMPS. We cannot find another place for fixing these. Even for accommodating slightly larger caps, we need to shift the surface mounted components to underneath. That is the situation!

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You are right! We have no choice except to use what is available in the market! Many thanks for your expert comments!

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