Well, we did 12 boards today, and we have 6 more to call in. I spot-checked some of the bad caps, and they all seem to be Nichicons with the same lot numbers and about the same date range (early 2003). All the replacement boards that were installed had Rubycon caps instead.

I did notice a few boards where, while the caps looked identical, not all of them were bulging. There is a picture of this here: [url]http://www.monkey.org/~blandoon/gfx/caps/[/url]

I'm starting to agree with the idea that this is Nichicon's own quality control problem, rather than the same batch...

Very interesting... I think there might be something to that theory, because my perception is that Dells are getting cheaper (quality-wise) by the day. They're no doubt putting tremendous pressure on their suppliers.

Did you happen to get the lot numbers or date codes off those caps? All the failures I've seen have been on ones made in the first half of 2003. The other thread at [url]https://www.badcaps.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=469[/url] has more on that.https://Very interesting... I think ...etting cheaper

Yes, all the ones I've seen are HN(M). I did notice they seem to have the same colors, etc. as the bad Nichicons I saw elsewhere.

I found a page on how to measure ESR using an oscilloscope and a signal generator, but unfortunately my 'scope went belly up before I could try it out.

The Dell tech will be here today to swap out the boards... not that I couldn't do it myself, but they cover it, and I don't have that much time to screw with it anyway - I just have to make sure I get a look at the boards before he takes them back and throws them in the Dell gulag.

Well, the plot sickens... we're still compiling information but so far all of the affected machines are relatively early-run 270s, all with service tags that end in 21 (newer ones end in 41).

I don't think the GX280s are likely to be affected, and even when I opened a later-run GX270 I found all the large-value caps in the same locations were Rubycons.

Of the boards I've seen, they all have six caps that exhibit visible bulging. It's not that extreme, and none have burst yet, but each PC has already been showing signs of instability. Here's the data on the swollen...