Dell Dimension 4550 bad caps

[heyitsbenaiah]

Lately my dell computer (dimension 4550) has been playing up so I checked it out only to find bulging caps on the board and even in the PSU. I don't have any 16v 3300uf caps laying around so the question is, Can I use 2200 uf caps? Does anyone else have this problem with this model?

[lti]

Re: Dell Dimension 4550 bad caps

Are you sure they're 3300uF 16V? The one Dimension 4550 I have seen used 2200uF 16V and 3300uF 6.3V caps, but no 3300uF 16V.

If the PSU has Arcon caps, they're junk. If the caps are any other brand, make sure the fan still works. The Dimension 4550 I saw had Asiacon caps, and they failed because the fan stopped working.

[heyitsbenaiah]

Re: Dell Dimension 4550 bad caps

Sorry meant 6.3v caps. I got a broken board yesterday and it has working 6.3 volt 3300uf ost caps so they are replaced. However there's another cap that's even more obscure. Its 6.3v 820uf to the right of the north bridge. All the caps on the board are united chemicon and yes the psu does have asiacon caps but they're all bulging. The fan does work though. I can't see the rating on these caps because there's a forest of wires in the way.

[lti]

Re: Dell Dimension 4550 bad caps

I think those caps between the northbridge and RAM are killed by the ripple from the PSU. On the board I saw, they were Nichicon VR series and both caps next to the northbridge were blown.

There is a thread about those PSUs and tons of information about them. The Dimension 4550 I saw used a Dell HP-P2507F3C PSU. The HP-P2507F3CP is identical, aside from the addition of passive PFC. The values of the caps should be the same, but the four big Asiacon caps are a custom size.

Look here for more information (and my first few posts in this forum):
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=8411

This is actually my parents' computer, and it's still stable with all those bad caps.

Nichicon HM, Rubycon MBZ, or Samxon GD are exact replacements for the 3300uF 6.3V caps.

[vince88]

Re: Dell Dimension 4550 bad Nichicon HM caps

Opened an old & dead Dell Dimension 4550 model DHM manufactured 102502 that had been used as a COM server for a long time. Found 4 faulty caps alongside the CPU (P4 2.6GHz) with 2 oozing and 2 bulging. The 4 are Nichicon HM(M) 3300micF 6.3V 105degC marked H0238.