oh, man... WAS: Re:is my power supply failing?

[Jamon Camisso]

Madison Kelly wrote:
> phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org wrote:
>>>> I would now suspect that there are bubbling capacitors on your 
>>>> mainboard
>>>> (it's a common problem these days). Look at some of the bigger
>>>> capacitors
>>>> and see if their tops are flat our round/bubbled (often you will see a
>>>> little yellowish hardened 'goop' on the tops, too). If so, you need a
>>>> new
>>>> mainboard. .
>>> nicely done!  in fact this is precisely my situation.
>>
>> Actually, if you are handy with a soldering iron and solder sucker (or
>> solder braid), you can identify the value of the defective capacitors,
>> pick up a bunch of replacements at one of the electronic supply stores,
>> desolder the defective ones, and replace them with new ones. I do know 
>> the
>> tech folks at Ryerson EE department did this for some motherboards they
>> needed to keep running. The replacement caps will cost pennies, so it's a
>> cost-effective approach, but it is time consuming.
>>
>> There is an interesting story around those capacitors, involving
>> industrial intrigue and betrayals in the capacitor manufacturers. It 
>> was a
>> scandal of major proportions in the EE world.
>>
>> Peter
> 
> With long-reaching, high-level consequences... IBM, Intel and many other 
> tier-1 brands and companies got burned over one SOB looking for a cheap 
> buck. I bet the guys who kept the real recipe were laughing themselves 
> to sleep each night knowing what was coming. Stuff movies are made of, 
> frankly.

Dell got burned on their Optiplex line with some bad caps in 2004 (I 
think it was 2004). I've put in a few service requests for defective 
parts and such on a bunch of systems that were purchased at the same 
time. When the phone support tech realises I'm calling about an 
optiplex, they've gotten to the point that they automatically send out a 
replacement without even bothering to try troubleshooting over the phone 
-- perhaps it's the account# with a note or standing service ticket, or 
perhaps it's an internal policy to just replace them without questions 
for fear of loosing customers.

Jamon
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