Computer Downtime Due To Leaky Capacitors On Dell GX270

Submitted by Khalid on Fri, 2005/11/11 - 22:39.

Miscellaneous

I have been use a Dell Optiplex GX270 at work for almost 2 years now. This has been a very stable machine, powered on 24x7.

Last week, the machine just shut itself off by itself. After powering it on, the colors on the monitor were off (no greens nor yellows). I notice that if you wiggle the monitor cable the colors will change, although the green/yellow will never reappear. The machine has an nVidia video card with DVI output, and a connector for DVI to VGA.

After calling Dell, they said they are going to send the video card and "cable". Overnight, the machine powered itself again. And then again every night afterwards. Then it would only stay powered to the login screen only, then power off.

Upon receipt of the video card and "cable" two days later, the cable was wrong (not DVI).

The local PC repair guy (Jeff) said it is not the video card, and probably a motherboard issue related to leaky capacitors. The field engineer (Tyler) said that he replaced dozens of motherboards in the lab for GX270. They opened my PC and looked at the capacitors and found that they are bulging.

They called Dell on my behalf, and asked for a motherboard. Dell said that they will not ship the mothernoard since I have another part on order (the video cable), and it is their policy not to partial ship. Jeff cancelled the cable, so we can get the motherboard shipped ASAP.

The new motherboard fixed the reboot issue, but the colors were still off. Jeff replaced the DVI to VGA connector, and everything was fine.

As for the root cause, it is known that many motherboards suffer from electrolyte leaking from capacitors, and they bulge or even explode.

Links and Resources

BadCaps.net: a web site on leaky capacitors, providing technical solution by repairing the motherboards.
Research report on leaky aluminum electrolyte capacitors (PDF).
ZDNet article on Dell planning to replace motherboards on GX270, but no general product recall.
CNet article on Dell's leaky capacitors, causing Dell to announce a $300 million charge for the quarter. And a Slashdot discussion.
Slashdot article on Taiwanese capacitor leaking and exploding 3 years ago!

leaky caps?????

Submitted by JaY3Dee (not verified) on Fri, 2007/03/02 - 20:56.

The reason your colours were changing was due to wires breaking in your monitor cable, the wires are weak and will eventually fail on most cables, you should have known it was the cable by the tell tale signs of the colours changing as the cable was moved, obvious really, if you do bend the wire or twist and bend the right way, the wire will eventually re-connect and bring back all 3 colours R.G.B, this same breakage can occur on any other wire cable ie headfones hence only one speaker working, PSU's joypads ect. i can't beleive a supposed PC profesional told you you had leaky caps lol dodgy mobo ect and cancelled the correct item that was your problem. Atleast you got your dilema solved in the end tho.

Under warranty

Submitted by Khalid on Fri, 2007/03/02 - 21:01.

This was fixed under warranty from Dell, so I paid nothing.

Also, the capacitors were noticeably bulging, and there were intermittent reboots.

So there were two problems, not just one.
--
Khalid Baheyeldin

GX 270's Do have this problem

Submitted by Khalid on Mon, 2007/05/07 - 16:15.

On behalf of a Jeff:

There were two problems with the PC. The reboot is due to the capacitors failing. This is a very common problem with Dell GX270s. The solution provided was firm and correct.