Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

[Bmann]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

I just had this problem on one of my pc's and three of my cap by the processor blew meaning orange residue on my caps.

[arneson]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

Please look at a small free really cool program called Belarc Advisor.
It shows system sn# main board sn# install codes dates, a lot of inner info.
It's deeper and different than Sandra.
It's become another must have for me.

[moriah]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

Sorry to be a bit off topic, but, what is the thermistat for your office set at? first, and second, is there a hailon system?
Just curious.

Were you referring to me?

The company is a major retailer. The GX270s were in our stores -- manager's workstations, etc -- and in our warehouses. Several were also in the corporate office. As you can see, there were lots of different enviornments. Stores temps usually run 65-70. Warehouses can be up to 95 or 100 in the summer and 40-50 in the winter, although only a few PCs are in the non-airconditioned parts. There are refrigerated areas in the warehouses but the lowest-temperature areas with a PC are about 45 all year long. Corporate is probably about 65-70 as well.

Only place with halon systems are our server rooms.

I don't know if that helps, or if you were even referring to me....

----

BTW: have laptop back from service...

The idiots replaced the heat sink and keyboard only! I pulled it out of the box and powered it on, and it rebooted within 3 minutes. Their little insert said "We have tested this system extensively..." *wry laugh*

I called them back, they said they absolutely will replace the system board and power supply this time. (I'm still confused on the keyboard thingie -- I mean, I know I had worn the letters off of it, but I didn't think cosmetic repairs were covered under warranty....)

Moriah

[arneson]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

Yes thank you that was good information.
Afterwards I realized that Halon isn't really used much anymore.
The temperatures could of course affect the longevity of a system.

[MD Willington]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

Looks like Cnet has this covered...

http://news.com.com/Bulging+capacito...42.html?tag=nl

http://news.com.com/Dells+third-quar...30.html?tag=nl

http://news.com.com/Dells+dilemma--i...6477&subj=news

[japlytic]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

There is a thread called "DELL GX270 Nichicon boards" which is very lightly used. Should this be mixed into the thread "Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures"?

[willawake]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

i closed the other thread. you can repost your last 2 into this thread if you like. the dates are too old for merging the thread totally.

[mela2004]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures !! ALSO GX280

I see your message dates some time back but I'll reply anyway in case someone searches info on GX280.

I work at IT department in a company in sea transport business in Finland

We bought 75 GX280's in Sept/2004 - now seems all are with bad caps. Took some 'armwrestling' with DELL before they admitted the real problem. Now we get a service guy here next Monday to inspect all GX280's, then order motherboards and then come again and install.
We have offices in Estonia, Germany, Belgium and UK, so now I need to be in touch with each of those countries support to co-ordinate same thing there.

Also read today in a Finnish computer magazine, that this problem has caused DELL big losses. Of course other manufacturers are affected too, but DELL is in spotlight now.

[whitewiz]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

i can confirm that many of the early run GX280's had the same cap problem. I didn't think to snap any photo's before we sent them back. I estimate we replaced about 50 in June/July. Our dell rep admitted to us straight out that there was a problem and they would be send someone onsite with replacement motherboards whenever we wanted.

[Dellbert]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

Bad Electrolytic Capacitors on GX270 Mother Boards - What is the Plan?

We have more than 2,200 GX270SFF computers. Of the mother boards that we have inspected (~80), an unacceptably large number of them have at least one defective electrolytic capacitor. The computers that are failing have been in service for approximately 2 years.

The defective capacitors are Nichicon “Ultra High Reliability UHN, UMM series” identified by a black sleeve with copper colored text and “+” style pressure vent. One or more of the capacitors listed below is defective on each bad board:
C55, 56, 111 - 1,800 µf, 6.3 VDC
C117 through 124, 128, 392 and 1,194 - 1,800 µf, 16 VDC
C257 through 259 - 1,500µf, 6.3 VDC
In light of the magnitude of the problem, we are concerned about getting re-worked boards with Nichicon capacitors at the locations described above. We prefer for replacement boards to have no Nichicon UHN series capacitors.

So far we have not seen problems with the capacitors manufactured by the following companies:
Rubycon (K style pressure vent, black sleeve with gold text) - this is the preferred component
Sanyo (K style pressure vent, black sleeve with white text, lower capacitance values)
Unknown company (T style pressure vent, logo is M inside a circle, black sleeve with white text)
KGM (Y style pressure vent, brown sleeve with white text) not normally used in Dell mother boards

To date we have not had problems with the GX280s, but we will be monitoring them too.

See this link for a CNET article related to these capacitors:
http://news.com.com/2102-1041_3-5942...=st.util.print

It is our understanding that Dell will only replace boards that have leaky or swollen capacitors and boards that have already failed. Based on past experience I believe it is only a matter of time before every Nichicon capacitor (at designations listed above) on the GX270 mother boards will fail.
It appears that Dell has set aside a very large reserve to cover replacing these boards, but they have not given us any notice of this problem. We had to find it on our own. I would like to see them be more proactive….maybe a RECALL!!

We are worried that many of the computers will fail after the 3 year warranty has expired (it won't be long). Does anyone know if Dell has a plan to address out of warranty failures of these capacitors?

[willawake]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

i doubt if there will be a recall. it would spark class action.

Nichicon “Ultra High Reliability UHN, UMM series”

are you sure about that or are they HM(M) HN(M).

Unknown company (T style pressure vent, logo is M inside a circle, black sleeve with white text)

sounds like panasonic (ok)

KGM (Y style pressure vent, brown sleeve with white text) not normally used in Dell mother boards

sounds like chemicon (ok)

we are concerned about getting re-worked boards with Nichicon capacitors at the locations described above. We prefer for replacement boards to have no Nichicon UHN series capacitors.

there have been no reports of reworked boards. the new boards had rubycon in place of nichicon

I would like to see them be more proactive….maybe a RECALL!!

you have a lot of boards therefore you can throw your weight around with dell. many boards though - too many to inspect. the only idea i can give you to present to dell the size of your problem and insist on a proactive replacement would be :

The problem is isolated to a specific capacitor supplier which was used in system boards manufactured from April 2003 to March 2004. The defective Nichon capacitors were placed on two manufacturers' GX270 motherboards between 04/01/2003 to 03/20/2004.

whether that was the final date range i dont know. perhaps someone on a dell forum knows how to identify the boards with the bad nichicon from the service tags.

[OpelBlitz]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

Alright, this is an old-ass thread, but I wanted to post because my experiences at my new job required me to refer to this forum

We've got about 800 GX270s (Getting replaced by GX620s) and in just 2 weeks, I've had 40 fail on me already. Seems to be this issue too, the caps are bulgy. They'll POST, and the PC would become unresponsive after ~3 seconds or so after booting.

So basically, this is still a problem!

[willawake]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

well we love our old ass thread. can you give more info about the date range your units were manufactured or what your service tags end in etc. a pic of one of the fails would be nice also.

We've got about 800 GX270s (Getting replaced by GX620s) and in just 2 weeks, I've had 40 fail on me already.

are you buying the GX620s or is dell replacing the GX270 fails with them, that part wasnt clear.

[scarfman]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

I know that the Optiplex GX270 boards had Nichicon caps that were bad, but has anyone seen Rubycons fail on this board? I've seen five boards now that have a Rubycon cap inbetween the RAM slot and the AGP slot that will either bulge or leak.

Has anyone else encountered these Rubycons with this problem?

[Topcat]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

I know that the Optiplex GX270 boards had Nichicon caps that were bad, but has anyone seen Rubycons fail on this board? I've seen five boards now that have a Rubycon cap inbetween the RAM slot and the AGP slot that will either bulge or leak.

Has anyone else encountered these Rubycons with this problem?

I got a corporate batch of about 200 GX270 boards, and I had about 7 with the cap you indicated failing, and it was a rubycon MCZ. My guess for the failure was the HN's that failed, causing the classic chain reaction. I never saw one with a failed MCZ that didn't have the (3) 1800uF 16v mains that had failed as well.

[willawake]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

scarfman : are you also talking about boards with both nichicon and a rubycon fail on the same board?

[Topcat]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

I should have taken some pics, I had one last night............ Yes, they're mixed, some rubies and some nichicons. Its a rare occurance, and its only that one cap right behind the AGP, so its not the fault of the cap. The nichi's always fail in that position, which is no shocker, but on a rare few, I've seen an MCZ in that position fail as well. It had to have been over-volted or the result of a failure further up the line. After recapping them, they came all worked. Out of the 200 or so I recapped, there were no duds.

[scarfman]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

scarfman : are you also talking about boards with both nichicon and a rubycon fail on the same board?

The ones I'm referring to usually have only Rubycons on them. The last 4 that I've replaced were ones that Dell had already replaced the faulty Nichicons with. I think the faulty Rubycons though are dated around 0331 (latter half of 2003).

[kc8adu]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

what may be happening is the failed nichicons no longer clean up the ripple so the next victim on the same line gets to clean it up.grossly exceeds its ratings and poof!
this also happens when the psu's caps are open.
this type of cascade failure can happen with ANY brand of cap.

[scarfman]

Re: Dell OptiPlex GX270 - multiple bad cap failures

I was wondering if it might be more of a heat issue. If you look on these boards right next to that cap are two small black chips, I'm assuming are voltage regulators. If you touch those chips after the system has been running for a few minutes they are very hot. I've even seen many boards where the surrounding area around those two chips is discolored (kind of a yellowish or orangish tinge) instead of the normal green.

Any ideas?