Thanks for the link Brandon.  I was placing the soldering iron too high on the capacitor lead.  Fixed that issue, soldered on the new capacitors, wired the sling box back up, and I'm back in business!  This is absolutely awesome for multiple reasons. My slingplayer mobile will be working in time for Thanksgiving travel, I got to learn how to solder, and I didn't have to pay those money grubbing b*tches at Sling Media a dime to fix an issue they know about and refuse to address.  Thanks to everyone on this forum for figuring out a fix to this issue and sharing it with us all.

An interesting point, my issue with the slingbox was a bit different than others in that mine wouldn't even start up.  From what I gather, most people on this forum would experience freezing after a few seconds of normal streaming. Mine would get stuck in the "connecting" phase of log on, not even making it to the "starting" or "optimizing" steps.  

A few notes about the replacement process for others who are newbies to soldering (like me): Watch the above linked videos about soldering.  Also, I ended up buying both a soldering iron and a desoldering iron with vacuum bulb (also from radio shack).  I tried to remove the rosin holding the factory capacitors in place using the soldering iron (40W) and desoldering braid, but I just couldn't get enough heat with the iron to melt the rosin.  Using the desoldering iron with vacuum (which melts the rosin into liquid and sucks it up) worked really well for me.  I also bought a little $2 printed circuit board and a $1 5-pack of resistors on which to practice my soldering.  I highly recommend doing so if you've never soldered before.  I used the 470 microfarad, 35 V radio shack resistors that others have had success with, and used a 60/40 rosin.

Lengthy post, I know, but I wanted to pass along my experiences for those that are considering giving this a try. If your slingbox is out of warranty, its been made clear on the official sling media forums that they're not going to do anything but direct you to pay $30 to call their tech support (which won't do crap for a hardware issue).  Take that $30, get the parts you need, mark "soldering" off the bucket list, and get your sling box back!

Thanks again to everyone!

Hi all, this is probably a classic case for the most part, where the SOLO feed freezes within 0-30 seconds of each connection, and I'm remote (duh!) and can't fix it.  But just fyi, and it gets weird here – if I manage to get through the menus to get playback on a recorded program started from my Dish DVR, it will typically run uninterrupted for the length of it (often for the length of a hockey game)!  If I'm watching live stuff from the very same Dish DVR, I get the hangs very quickly.  So it's a race to get into and through the menus to start the recorded item.  I cannot fathom why.  And I've watched at least a dozen recorded programs successfully in the last 1-2 months, with either no hangs or very few and none recently.

Also FYI, it seems that controls from the virtual remote still work even after the hang (or at least for a while after), as I'm able to turn the box off, or even go through a well-remembered sequence to delete a recording in frozen/blind mode.  And it can be seen that the action has indeed completed when next connecting (if there's enough time before the imminent hang).

Given that I'm also now having the "Slingbox is controlling your router" problem (with no assistance forthcoming), I'm also a former HUGE fan of the product/company and now, well, not so much….

GRR

This worked for me thanks

thanks so much for posting this information. I haven't opened my slingbox up yet, but I am sure this is the problem. Of course the warranty period on my box just expired!

Hello all I too was a victim of the bulging caps…. I had never soldered in my life and never desoldered either… I took the chance and attempted the repair. I was successful and just wanted to point out what others may need to complete the job. Get some desolder braid, 40w iron (the solder used by Sling is very resistent to heat, I got a desolder iron with vacuum although you don't have to just helps. I used .022 rosin core solder and worked great. I bought everything at Radio Shack and although it has some upfront costs I am proud of making the repair. Desoldering is the toughest part in my opinion. Any questions feel free to ask as I said I was a complete rookie at this stuff and it still worked…so easy a cave man could do it?

thanks so much for posting this information. I haven't opened my slingbox up yet, but I am sure this is the problem. Of course the warranty period on my box just expired!

Okay… If you could see my solder repair job, I could easily win the "worst solder job". I had trouble getting the old ones off, and trouble getting the new ones in. I prevailed, and it works. I had the 2 buldging capacitors just like the pictures showed. I've posted links to this site over at Sling support (on a couple of threads), but they have been deleted by the moderators. Thank goodness for google for bringing me to this site. I'm back in business. Thank you thank you thank you.

Looking for a little clarification before I open up my Solo to check the caps. — All of the symptoms posted here fit the description of what I am experiencing with my Solo… but ONLY when I am on a Remote/Internet Connection. These slow/stutter/disconnect issues occur for me ONLY when I'm connected remotely (with a confirmed, good, hi-speed connection). However, when I am connected to my local/home network (via WiFi), the solo stream is fast (2000+) and crystal clear, without issues.

I have not seen any posts above distinguishing between local and remote connections. So, I thought I'd ask for some clarification/help before diving into dismantling the box. Any feedback would be great appreciated!