Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

[Topcat]

....everything else around them dies!!

I sold this Dell GX745 to a client back in 2010. He called last week and told me it quit. As old as it is, I upgraded him to a Lenovo M90Z I7 AIO I had on hand. I cracked this gx745 open this morning.....the polies held....all the little guys around them died this time!





This is a Pentium-D @ 2.8 with an upgraded NVS295 GPU in it, 4gb RAM. 100% worthless system.....I haven't decided if I'll fix it or not... Case is dusty but in super condition....

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

that thread title is a little misleading there. damn! almost gave me a heart attack there and i was half-expecting to see ruptured/leaking/bulging poly pr0n like a woman with lots of... err... nvm... this aint the vip room! lol!

i guess the autopsy conclusion and result from this gx745 failure is to do a full polymer recap in future with other similar types of toaster box systems. still, the electrolytic caps held up for 9 years before kicking the bucket. so the jap caps were pretty decent lasting nearly a decade in a toaster box system.

the rubycon zl series is a 5000 hour rated series but the 6.3mm diameter parts are rated to 2000 hours in the datasheet and the 8mm parts rated to 3000 hours in the datasheet. the 220uF 10v parts are 6.3mm in diameter from the datasheet so its quite impressive a 2000 hour rated electrolytic lasted 9 years in a toaster box system!

so i guess thats my forensic report on the failure of this gx745 system.

[Topcat]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

Autopsy complete. Both the board and PSU were toast. I replaced the visibly bad caps on the board, and it came back to life. I was leary because of this:



That NB chip has been HOT!! The cause was a completely gunked up front panel fan....the system stopped breathing....but the board pulled through.

Now for the PSU:



Bad teapos....what amazes me more is that they hung in there this long.... I should have replaced those before I ever sold the system!!

[Topcat]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

Chalk this one up in the win column....but considering how worthless this system is, it was a complete waste of a Sunday......but I really had nothing better to do today....so here we are!!

All back together....up & running, installing S2K12 R2.




Inside is cleaned....but the outside will need a good cleaning.


The plastic HDD caddy had gotten so deteriorated/degraded from the excessive heat from the northbridge + clogged fans, it became so brittle that it crumbled barely being handled.


Overall, very functional web browser. With good caps & nice clean power, it runs very cool.....so here's to a Sunday completely wasted!

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life!

I was leary because of this:

That NB chip has been HOT!!

dafaq... burnt nb? is that an intel chipset? i think it uses the q965 express chipset if my web searching skills arent wrong. intel chipsets are known to run hot but i dont expect it to burn the pcb like that!! maybe u're right that its not a good idea to put it back into service or fix it. the chipset may be on its last legs if it ran like that for 9 years who knows!

maybe just suicide it by using it for cryptocurrency mining or some such and see how long it lasts with the burnt nb until it craps out... lol! interesting science experiment to run hehehe!

Bad teapos....what amazes me more is that they hung in there this long.... I should have replaced those before I ever sold the system!!

can i say now that teapos are good caps to last 9 years bulging in a toaster box system? hehehe! trollololol!

The plastic HDD caddy had gotten so deteriorated/degraded from the excessive heat from the northbridge + clogged fans, it became so brittle that it crumbled barely being handled.

^this!^ i got a used radeon 8500le off junkbay. when it arrived, the fan had failed and made squealing noises. i removed the fan and tried to take it apart to service it but the plastic stator of the fan broke apart!

i was demoralised that i broke the fan and had to ghetto mod another 40mm fan on as a replacement. not sure why the plastic was brittle to the touch and broke apart until this post! i guess the gpu overheated with the failing fan and the heat weakened the plastic.

ah well... u learn something new everyday. my computer forensic knowledge just got better now... and i now know how to tell better if something overheated. if plastic is brittle, it probably overheated. problem is, u cant capture brittleness in a picture! u have to touch it to believe it! lol!

[stj]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

i'v warned about rubycon ZL series dropping in value with age before.

and the problem with all dell stuff is they fuck with the bios so you cant control the fans.(among many other things like fucking the usb subsystem intentionally!)

[Topcat]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

i'v warned about rubycon ZL series dropping in value with age before.

Age didn't kill these heat did. Toaster box SFF system stopped breathing.....that was all she wrote. It probably didn't help that it was getting filthy power from the PSU as well.

[stj]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

i have one of those mini units - they fucking cook because of the bios hiding the fan settings.
i cant even put a video card in it because it wont like the heat - fuck dell!

[PeteS in CA]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

ZL is, generally, a pretty tough water-based electrolyte series. Water-based electrolytes tend not to do well with heat, but it took ~9 tears and a dead fan to kill the caps. Not bad.

[Behemot]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

Put some silicone rubber under that nortbridge, it will conduct the excessive heat to the case.

You can get 3,4GHz Pentium D's@95 W of fleebay for a few bucks, that still has enough punch to play most Full HD movies.

[Topcat]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

Put some silicone rubber under that nortbridge, it will conduct the excessive heat to the case.

You can get 3,4GHz Pentium D's@95 W of fleebay for a few bucks, that still has enough punch to play most Full HD movies.

Note to self on the silicone.....I have a good supply of that.

I had a C2D e6700 in the bin, I swapped that out for the pentium-d. Lost 133 in core speed but gained 266 in bus speed.... System browses the web just fine. I'll find a home for it....someone will need it. I put S2K12 R2 on it....but I think it'd run w10 or mint just fine....or heck, throw win7 back on it....

[Uranium-235]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

you can get a used Q6600 on ebay for <$10. should work on this

[Topcat]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

you can get a used Q6600 on ebay for <$10. should work on this

Wow, thanks. I found several for ~$7 shipped. Worth a 7-dollar gamble. FWIW, I did buy a replacement HDD caddy for $4 shipped, that actually has the fan in it. Since putting the C2D CPU in it, there was a BIOS nagger about the fan not being present....

[TechGeek]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

Wow, thanks. I found several for ~$7 shipped. Worth a 7-dollar gamble. FWIW, I did buy a replacement HDD caddy for $4 shipped, that actually has the fan in it. Since putting the C2D CPU in it, there was a BIOS nagger about the fan not being present....

I have my computers setup to refuse boot if the CPU fan isn't detected. Saved me a few times.

[dmill89]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life!

can i say now that teapos are good caps to last 9 years bulging in a toaster box system? hehehe! trollololol!

Honestly they generally aren't too bad in PSUs (definitely better than Capxon, OST, Samwah, etc.) . The only failed Teapos I've seen in PSUs were old and abused (high hour hot running systems). On motherboards they tend to be a different story though (though generally not any worse than the other "second tier" brands).

[BigTroll]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

Wow, thanks. I found several for ~$7 shipped. Worth a 7-dollar gamble. FWIW, I did buy a replacement HDD caddy for $4 shipped, that actually has the fan in it. Since putting the C2D CPU in it, there was a BIOS nagger about the fan not being present....

If I recall the 745s wouldn't complain with a pentium 4 or d with the normal hard drive caddy however put in a core 2 duo and they want the hard drive caddy that has the fan built into it, I have many of these lying around still. Also I would advise against the q6600 in the SFF case, dell never sold it with that CPU and allthough it would work, the computer would never ramp up the fan at all and would easily get in the 70c range after a few minutes of stress testing. however with speed fan I could change the fan to max speed and the q6600 stayed cool then.

[Wester547]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life!

Honestly they generally aren't too bad in PSUs (definitely better than Capxon, OST, Samwah, etc.) . The only failed Teapos I've seen in PSUs were old and abused (high hour hot running systems). On motherboards they tend to be a different story though (though generally not any worse than the other "second tier" brands).

Eh... I would deem Teapo a couple notches lower than “not too bad”, or “second tier” even in lighter applications. An example, here’s a video demonstrating how they’re capable of failing (visibly) even whilst just sitting in storage at room temperature for many years (akin to certain Fuhjyyu and 6.3V KZG). In the case of this video, an unused, ten plus year old Huntkey unit with four vented 10mm Teapo SC:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF82U9h7Jzo

From the same channel, a twelve plus year old Lite-on with a few swollen OST on the secondary... but even the primaries failed in this one. I wonder if that Lite-on had an ADDA sleeve bearing fan which needed lubrication and maintenance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmySRfLpOK8

I can think of at least a couple members who agreed years ago that Teapo are known trouble makers. That said, there’s probably no right or wrong answer to this because (as has been said before) the biggest problem with the Chinese/Taiwanese brands (and to a lesser extent the Korean brands) is the lack of QC and subpar materials, which results in wildly and erratically inconsistent quality. Regarding the topic of the thread itself, I don’t blame those Rubycon ZL for failing. They’re a fairly tough aqueous series, on par with the likes of Chemi-con KZE, Panasonic FM, and Nichicon HE, but no liquid electrolytic will withstand the sheer might of a gunk’ed fan in a SFF computer, within the long term.

[Behemot]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

Oh yeah, I thought it had older chipset but not, so it should take Q6600. Look for the latest stepping, that one has 95W TDP.

[Topcat]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

you can get a used Q6600 on ebay for <$10. should work on this

6 bucks well spent, thanks for the tip... I wouldn't have researched this since it already had a C2D in it....

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

i have one of those mini units - they fucking cook

Sounds just like my GeForce GTX 960!
I must crank up that squirrel cage fan, or it will easily reach 80 C or similar!
(I turned up the fan with MSI AfterBurner, IIRC)