Dell Motherboard Capacitor Failures
The IT organization where I work has been experiencing a rash of system
board failures in Dell OptiPlex GX270 systems. As of yesterday
(February 14, 2005) a Dell technician admitted knowledge of a recurring
problem with "swollen" capacitors on some of these systems. This seems
like it must be related to the similar failures on name-brand PC
motherboards that have been occurring at least since 2003.
I am adding some photos of boards I have encountered that show this
problem. If I have the opportunity to photograph more boards I will add
the photos as I take them. Eventually I hope to add more information
(such as capacitor date codes and warranty action, if any, taken by
Dell).
2005-04-27:
I received info
a while ago from Dana Ralston, a technician working under contract from
Dell. Between about December 2004 and April 2005, Dana replaced (or had
calls to replace) no less than 50 motherboards at a single location; in
this case, all of the service tags ended in 31.
Also, below are
some photos forwarded by another network administrator who asked to
remain anonymous:
2005-02-16:
Dell technicians replaced 12 (twelve) failed boards today, and they all
looked pretty much like the ones below. There are some interesting
patterns, though:
- All of the
affected systems so far (except one) have service tags ending in 21, making them very early-model
GX270s.
- System
boards on later GX270s, including the replacements included today, all
have Rubycon caps where the Nichicons are on the older boards.
- Some
boards have a mixture of bulging and normal-looking caps that otherwise
look exactly the same. Like this one:
Click the photos to
download the full-size (1600x1200) versions.
Notice that only the near capacitor is swelling. It's possible (however
unlikely) that the rubber bung on the bottom is swelling instead, but
Dell won't let me keep the board and rip caps off it. Too bad.
2005-02-15:
Several photos of swelling (not yet burst) Nichicon caps (1500µf
and 1800µf) on OptiPlex GX270. Most of the caps seem to be
immediately around the voltage regulators, but one is farther away,
near the end of the DIMM slots.
Two GX270 system boards exhibiting similar problems (visible swollen
caps marked with a < ).
Blandon
Ray - blandoonatgmaildotcom
