Unstable Crystal Oscillator

Do you know that the crystal oscillator use in the electronic circuit board could become unstable or have problem when it gets hot? It could also cause intermittent problem and shutdown the function of microprocessor in electronic equipment. Problems like missing On screen display (OSD) in Monitor, intermittent appearance of the OSD, Computer motherboard “hang” and etc are just some of the problem cause by defective crystal.

As for the crystal problem when it gets hot, in fact you can use the hair blower to point at the crystal and observe the problem. Although we rarely replace crystal in electronic equipment, this doesn’t mean that you don’t need to check on the crystal. Get the same frequency value and replace and retest the set again. If you have the crystal tester or checker, then it would be easy for you to test out the crystal. In some digital meter, there are also a feature to test the crystal frequency while it is operating. If you get the exact frequency then you know the crystal is working fine and if the result is different from the value printed on the crystal body then get a replacement. The picture shown above is a 4 Mega hertz Crystal Oscillator.

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8 Comments

1. 

   Roy

   June 28, 2009 at 6:16 am

   Question, Have you studied free energy technology?

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2. 

   admin

   June 28, 2009 at 10:58 pm

   Hi Roy,
   Sorry, i did not study the free energy technology.

   Jestine

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3. 

   daniel

   January 20, 2011 at 3:30 am

   I need a circuit diagram of an unstable oscillator

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4. 

   admin

   January 20, 2011 at 8:44 am

   HI Daniel,

   Sorry, there is no unstable oscillator diagram

   Jestine

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5. 

   john b

   February 23, 2011 at 1:06 pm

   Hi Jestine! Great site!

   can i replace a 27mhz osc with a 25mhz osc?

   it is for a graphics card that i am fixing.

   nvidia 7300 GT which became dead.

   and also i just relied on the idea that if i get no continuity reading
   using an ohmmeter the osc is dead. so i think i got a broken osc.

   thanks!

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6. 

   admin

   February 23, 2011 at 10:19 pm

   HI John,

   Crystal can't be test using ohmmeter. The best is to use a scope or a frequency counter. If you install a 25mhz crystal, I'm afraid the card will hang because it is running on a wrong frequency.

   Jestine

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7. 

   Humberto N. Rdguez.

   March 6, 2014 at 8:40 pm

   I own a diagram to test the crystal, it does not show the value in MHz, or KHz, only if crystal works fine

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8. 

   Humberto N. Rdguez.

   March 6, 2014 at 9:09 pm

   Please, refer at: http://www.ea4nh.com/articulos/cuarzo/cuarzo.htm.
   It's in Spanish

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