Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

[4tified]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

I order a lot of Dell refurbished monitors. Many of these have had caps replaced in the power supplies. I see them using Panasonic 90% of the time. The soldering work isn't pretty, but it's functional.

I don't usually get refurb desktop boards from Dell. I get lots of laptop boards, but they usually lack electrolytic capacitors.

I've never seen any component come from Dell with tape saying it's been factory tested. New or refurbished, the parts usually just come in a plain brown box and an antistatic bag. It doesn't normally indicate whether the part is new or refurbished, and sometimes it can be hard to tell. This only applies to components, I've seen Dell systems with refurbished/tested stickers.

After recapping about 150 of these boards myself, it's easy to spot refurbs when it comes to motherboards. You pick up on subtle details here and there. In the case of desktop motherboards however, the easiest way to tell is that they apply a new sticker with the serial number on the board itself. Another way to tell is by comparing the date codes on caps. Most of the time, only the "problem area" caps are replaced, no doubt as a way to make the board last just until the warranty runs out (plus it's cheaper to use less caps, the common IT tech wouldn't know the difference).

I will say this though. The very last batch of board's I've RMA'ed have come with every single cap including and abouve 820uf 6.3 v replaced with brand new Panasonic caps. They must change 3rd party refurb companies twice a month.

[yyonline]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

I order a lot of Dell refurbished monitors. Many of these have had caps replaced in the power supplies. I see them using Panasonic 90% of the time. The soldering work isn't pretty, but it's functional.

I don't usually get refurb desktop boards from Dell. I get lots of laptop boards, but they usually lack electrolytic capacitors.

I've never seen any component come from Dell with tape saying it's been factory tested. New or refurbished, the parts usually just come in a plain brown box and an antistatic bag. It doesn't normally indicate whether the part is new or refurbished, and sometimes it can be hard to tell. This only applies to components, I've seen Dell systems with refurbished/tested stickers.

[4tified]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

4tified, how exactly did you acquire this board? Any way of confirming that it was infact a dell refurb? I doubt that it is....but it would be hilarious if it were...

I actually remember these coming in the last few months last year before the extended warranty ran out and thinking "Ruby's never looked like this!". I say I got maybe 15 or 20 like those in and that was it. One thing I remember is that they came with a green tape around the box that said "factory tested" or something like that. It did come from Dell though, but your guess is as good as mine as to who did the rework.

[4tified]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

During the last 2 or so years of receiving refurbished boards from Dell, I have seen a large variety of rework done. Most boards had only the 2200uf caps replaced with Rubycon or Nichicon, while others had only caps that failed replaced. I've gotten boards back with Teapo and Suncon caps. Up until today, I've only seen authentic caps on these boards. Cheap and half-assed work, yes. But never fakes. I'm sure Dell is unware of this, but I'm also pretty sure they don't give a crap. They don't want these boards to last and they don't care about giving decent support for the companies who use re-up their warranties. Their focus is on getting everyone on their new products.

I remember the first 35 GX620's that died, I had to send a "sample" board to Dell because they did not believe the caps were going out on them. Even today, they WILL NOT admit that there is a problem with their GX620 mini-bake oven.

[Topcat]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

^
Me either..... they get them direct from the manufacturer. I'm not sure what the exact chain of command is for one that Dell is responsible for refurbing, so I'll take your word there....you're probably right....and I also agree (never disagreed) that Dell would wouldn't use fakes... This leaves 2 things..... 1) some cheese dick fly by nighter got it and recapped it (most likely scenario, as I mentioned), or 2) Dell/intel/foxconn farmed the repair out to some smaller company, which is also possible. Corporate greed makes people/corporations do strange things.

4tified, how exactly did you acquire this board? Any way of confirming that it was infact a dell refurb? I doubt that it is....but it would be hilarious if it were...

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

REALLY don't think Intel or Foxconn would miss fake caps.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

Doesn't work like that.
Dell shits them back to Intel who usually shits them to Foxconn in China.

[Topcat]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

^
If it was recapped under their extended warranty, then dell did do it (or had it done)....but if that were the case, like I said before, I just can't see them using fakes. I concur that it was done by some fly-by-nighter buying knockoff crap caps from fleabay

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

Dell didn't do it you twit.
#1: Intel makes the boards, not Dell.
#2: GX620 is an older i945 based system.
It's obviously been recapped and probably by someone that buys eBay caps.
.

[Topcat]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

No Mistake that those were fakes, cheap ass bungs. I'd be curious as to what they really are.... They have to be rated atleast for 16v to have lived so long in that board.... I'm more curious as to who rebuilt it. Dell has been burned so bad by the cap plague, I don't see them using fakes in any way. However, if they farmed out the refurb to some cheese ass outfit in china (not unlikely), then that certainly explains it.

[ratdude747]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

WAY TO GO DELL!!!!!

wow. epic fail on this one. duuude, you got dell'd!

i wonder which bogus refurb place did this...

[4tified]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

Wow, you guys called it. I thought that by the recent date code and "K" vent on top that maybe Rubycon had just changed their font style a little. I'm usually good about spotting fakes but how blind I was. The Gener-i-bung was a dead giveaway. These were the replacements sent by Dell, but now I'm wondering who is doing the work for them? The rework on the motherboard was spotty too.

[yyonline]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

Rubycon does seem to use two slightly different font variants. Both caps in the attached image are genuine Rubycon. The original poster's caps match neither style...fishy indeed.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

I have benches in 4 different rooms and I'm forever hauling my meter off and leaving in another room.
My last place had a better layout.
This place is nicer but smaller.

[Topcat]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

HAHA! The meter is always in the drawer next to the bench, and it was all too coincidental that there was a box full of gx620usff boards sitting here waiting to be shipped back. took less than a minute to light one up and measure.

I was thinking along the lines of Rubycon fakes.... They should be 10x20.... Lets see the bungs and the vents on those caps. I can tell by the lettering already that they're fakes. Look at the number '3' in the 6.3v and compare it to a known real one.... You'll see that it's much smaller than the number before the decimal on real ones, atleast any that I have ever seen. If it were refurb'd by Dell and not farmed out, I doubt they'd use fakes. Looks like some shit shop somewhere needs to be exposed....but regardless, if those caps were truly 6.3v, they wouldn't have lasted 3 seconds in those positions.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

WOW, 6 minutes flat!
Usually takes me longer than that to remember where I put the meter.

My little on-line measuring chumpie pegs those as 10x23mm which isn't a stock MCZ size.
.

[Topcat]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

just measured a customer's GX620USFF, there is 12v present on all 3 of the 1500uF 16v caps. I thought there was, I remember checking this when I did the poly kit....and I remembered right.

[Topcat]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

^
I remember measuring those for the polymod on the 620USFF, there are indeed 12v present on those caps iirc. I was hoping it was lower, just to see what I could get away with, but it was 12. I will double check though

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

It's doubtful the actual circuit voltage is 12v there.
Case of using the higher voltage caps for the larger cans to get lower ESR and higher Ripple.

I just checked all the voltages on an old AOpen dual Tualatin board.
Has 7 1800uF 16v and 4 2200uF 16v caps.
Not a single one is on more than 5v and some are on like 2v or less.

I was thinking I'd use higher grade 6.3v caps but there simply aren't any 6.3v in those uF with ESR and Ripple specs as good as the 16v with their larger cans.

I've seen the same deal on many boards, even socket 775 and 771.
The AOpens I'm working on are just fresh in my mind.
.

[4tified]

Re: Dell refurbishing "oops" on GX620 motherboard

those should have burst within seconds of being powered up if there's 12v put on a 6.3v cap....they go POOF really quick and really loudly. They wouldn't have lasted 3 minutes let alone 3 months.

Well, two possbilities come to mind here. Either these Rubycons aren't truly 6.3v, or the actual voltage for the 16v area is far below 16v.