Any Major PC maker doing better than Dell for continuing issues with bad caps?

[Warwagon]

I want to know if HP is doing any better than Dell in the last 5 years for getting 6 years out of a system without having cap guts splattered all over the inside of the PC? Maybe another major brand is doing well?


I have been through the pain of swapping GX270 boards out, then the video cap popped, and finally other caps near the NIC popped on the 3rd go around. All the 270's and 280's have been purged from our company, but, the issue continues...


The bad news is the Ultra Small Form factor "microwave oven" systems that replaced the 270's also failed with blown caps around 3 years. We quit going with that small case and still have popped cap issues with Optiplex 620, 745, 755, 760, 520, and Precision 490. The failure times are 3-6 years on these systems. I would like to see 6 years out of the systems without the 50% or greater failure rate the damn Dells give us. Even with a 5 year warranty I really can't get the 6th year out of the Dells. We are hitting an 80% failure rate on visual inspection on anything over 5 years old.

Our systems are powered on 24/7 to get updates, however, most are not used very hard. Office, internet, etc.

Pics of the 620-745-755 systems below that are 5 years old.

[smason]

Re: Any Major PC maker doing better than Dell for continuing issues with bad caps?

Wow, you must have the ultimate in bad luck.

I've been doing the IT for 2 companies for over 10 years, and purchased nothing but Dell hardware. Had 3 270s with bad caps repaired under warranty. No other cap issues on any other system, and had a crap-ton of 260s 270s 745s etc. I'm still running several 745s as utility boxes 7x24 2 of which are in a non-cooled wiring closet. Stable as anything.

[Warwagon]

Re: Any Major PC maker doing better than Dell for continuing issues with bad caps?

They make cap kits for these models for a reason... So it isn't luck: it is the shoddy Dell cooling design and cap selection. Lets take hot air off the CPU to cool most of the MB...

The CPU fan needs to exaust from the case (rather than intake like most systems are) or be completely separate airflow without heating up the rest of the PC case.

We also add upgraded video cards so I am sure that adds some extra heat to the case.

Even the 490's were warrantied by Dell NQA in the 4th year as they have known cap issues. But after 5 years the warranties are done. We get 5 year warranties on everything since the UFF's died early.

Canada, Eh? Little warmer here although AC is on for the systems it hits 121 degrees in the summer outside.

[retiredcaps]

Re: Any Major PC maker doing better than Dell for continuing issues with bad caps?

A friend gave me 4 Dell SX270s last year. I opened them all up and all had blown Rubycon caps. I didn't bother replacing them and salvaged the hard drives and some other components.

[Warwagon]

Re: Any Major PC maker doing better than Dell for continuing issues with bad caps?

The Ultra Small Form Factor Microwave ovens were OptiPlex GX620.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Any Major PC maker doing better than Dell for continuing issues with bad caps?

to this day lots of OEM's are still using shitty caps. A customer of mine bought a new dell about 6 months ago. Full of UCC KZG's

[Topcat]

Re: Any Major PC maker doing better than Dell for continuing issues with bad caps?

I see a lot of later model IBM/lenovo's and HP's.....and of course Dell. Every couple years theres always a new wave of different model boards.

[c_hegge]

Re: Any Major PC maker doing better than Dell for continuing issues with bad caps?

The caps in this these Dell PCs are rubycons, which are normally very reliable. The problem is that they just run far too hot and cook them. The only way you're gonna stop it getting bad caps is if you polymod it.

If there's one brand I've been seeing with bad caps lately, it's HP/Compaq. I've had A LOT of MCP61PM-HM boards (which are used in Compaq Presario SR5___ PCs) with busted TK caps. I've got one which I re-capped a few days ago sitting right here beside me stress testing away as I type this, and another one which I've yet to get around to recapping.

[shovenose]

Re: Any Major PC maker doing better than Dell for continuing issues with bad caps?

Have yet to see any Core i3/i5/i7 computers (OEM or custom) with bad caps on the motherboards...
Still see tons of HP and Dell PCs with bad caps, but those are all based on Core 2 or Phenom (not Phenom II)...

[Uranium-235]

Re: Any Major PC maker doing better than Dell for continuing issues with bad caps?

Have yet to see any Core i3/i5/i7 computers (OEM or custom) with bad caps on the motherboards...
Still see tons of HP and Dell PCs with bad caps, but those are all based on Core 2 or Phenom (not Phenom II)...

this guy had an I believe watered down amd fusion board, polymer vrm output but kzg input, as well as kzg on most of the other other vrms

[klkmalik]

Re: Any Major PC maker doing better than Dell for continuing issues with bad caps?

Hello for members.
When you need to recap m/borad first clean pcb ,power supply, check fan airflow. system case in,out air hole.( 2) recaps for bulging caps (use low esr 105 degree,)(3)remove cpu apply new thermal grease. It will work fine .

[Wester547]

Re: Any Major PC maker doing better than Dell for continuing issues with bad caps?

The caps in this these Dell PCs are rubycons, which are normally very reliable. The problem is that they just run far too hot and cook them. The only way you're gonna stop it getting bad caps is if you polymod it.

Well, with the huge scad of failures Topcat found with select batches of Rubycon MBZs and with EIBM's Rubycon MCZs failing before the (well-cooled) KZGs and MBZs on those boards, I believe there are in fact bad batches of MCZ/MBZ out there. They might not be quite as bad as KZG but I do believe they will eventually fail, but some batches are probably worse than others (there was another thread about MBZs failing in the VRM circuit of an eMachine on here, I believe it was MSI-7207 version 1.0, or K8NGM2-L). The fact that all low impedance Rubycon capacitors are completely aqueous doesn't help - that sort of electrolyte wears out considerably with heat and added to that all three series of those capacitors are rated for a load life of 2,000 hours @ 105*C, so they do have rather finite life even without faulty electrolyte.

But yeah, it sucks that almost every brand is making certain that KZGs are included on their motherboard, it results in certain failure over time...

[Warwagon]

Re: Any Major PC maker doing better than Dell for continuing issues with bad caps?

Looks like the plan of Minitower cases or one step below that, still larger cases sizes, is the best solution for longer life simply by running cooler. At this stage of the game it is has to be a heat related end of life event. High hours and high heat esp. with the additional heat from the video card. The minimal life components do not help.

We recently implemented WOL and power save software. This will sleep the PC's and likely result in longer life as the systems will be cool for 50% of the time or better now.

Regardless there is no longer the ability to give surplus working PC's to employees, community, etc. anymore. We did prior to the 270's and haven't had enough working PC's models after 5 years of use since.

[cheapie]

Re: Any Major PC maker doing better than Dell for continuing issues with bad caps?

Looks like the plan of Minitower cases or one step below that, still larger cases sizes, is the best solution for longer life simply by running cooler. At this stage of the game it is has to be a heat related end of life event. High hours and high heat esp. with the additional heat from the video card. The minimal life components do not help.

That sort of stuff is why I just run all my fans on 7v instead of letting the MB and PSU decide. Those things hardly spun on the controller.

[severach]

Re: Any Major PC maker doing better than Dell for continuing issues with bad caps?

Have yet to see any Core i3/i5/i7 computers (OEM or custom) with bad caps on the motherboards...

KZG is all over the Intel 6 series boards that aren't polymer. Don't have enough 7 series board to know if KZG is there too.

The Dell's may be hot but it doesn't help when they continue to use the weak Rubycon MCZ and the very bad UCC KZG KZJ caps. What burns me is that Panasonic and Sanyo don't cost any more yet they continue to spread the orders around--as if they were all equal.