PCs plagued by bad capacitors

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As more systems started failing, Dell began replacing the motherboards with "no questions asked," Ray said.

Members of Dell's Community Forum pages also spotted a bad capacitor problem with Optiplex machines in February 2005. The faulty machines caused "intermittent shutdown, thermal shutdown, and video failure."

Of the $300 million that Dell will spend to fix the problem, Wilkins estimates that half of that figure will go to replacing the motherboards entirely. He attributes the rest to the logistics of determining whether a system is in need of replacement.

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Paul Kamberis, who owns a small computer repair operation in Virginia, started seeing problems with PCs in January. Frequent "Blue Screens of Death" and random programs that crashed on new systems raised red flags until he opened up the back of the computer.

"The only common factor was the blown capacitors," Kamberis said. "I could wipe out the hard drive and do systems rebuild and still have that problem." Kamberis noted that he's seen three other boards with the same problem this year.

Faulty capacitors were attached to Intel D865GBF motherboards, which are sold to computer manufacturers and in some electronic retail stores, Kamberis said.

Intel spokesman Bill Kircos declined to comment on the chipmaking giant's motherboards, noting that "capacitor problems are not new, can occur frequently and can be a result of an almost infinite amount of scenarios or environmental things...and are not unique to any single manufacturer, semiconductor maker."

Intel, which regularly updates its reseller partners, has acknowledged previous problems within the capacitor manufacturing industry and has an advisory posted on its site talking about electrolytic capacitor leaks on some 875-based and 865-based desktop motherboard products.

Representatives with Apple also declined to comment on any reports of capacitor problems found in its iMac G5 line.

In August, Apple issued a limited recall of some of its first-generation iMac G5 models sold between approximately September 2004 and June 2005 featuring 17- and 20-inch displays with 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz G5 processors. The official cause was blamed on an unnamed "specific component failure."

Oliver Kreuzenbeck, who bought his original iMac G5 in the end of November 2004, said he was baffled as to why his iMac display flickered every couple of seconds--until he read postings on Apple's forums and decided to open up the machine.

Similar complaints discussed on Apple discussion boards and computer enthusiast sites blamed bad capacitors for scrambled or distorted video, as well as power problems. Apple did not disclose any financial output to deal with the problem.

Hewlett-Packard took its own steps to rectify the problem. Company spokeswoman Nita Miller said HP found a small number of its PCs with similar capacitor problems.

"As of March 1, 2004, HP suspended shipment of all products built with this capacitor, and purged all inventory of the capacitors in question. No systems built after March 1, 2004 will be affected," HP said in a statement. The company did not report any capacitor-related expenditures in its last two earnings statements.

While replacing the individual capacitors and even the entire motherboard has proven an effective way to solve the bad-cap problem, experts say it is critical to make sure that you not misdiagnose your motherboard. Doing so could lead to permanently damaging your computer.

Ultimately, if there is a problem with your capacitor, William Walsh, a forum moderator at BadCaps.net, suggests that you check your warranty and contact your computer company.

[Linuxiac38]

A major issue here, is that millions of used PCs are donated to Non Profit organizations, such as GiftfromGodComputerFoundation.org, inOviedo Florida, for FREE recycling with Linux, to students from pre-k through college, About a third of the donations now received are diverted to the waste bin as un-usable.

Without warranty, non-profit organizations have great difficulty finding suitable components and skilled volunteers to repair these Intel, MSI, ASUS, and other maker's boards.

Visits to the Technical Support sites, and phone calls placed to their Support numbers are always answered with the comment that can best be summed up as "screw off, you have no warranty"!

As a computer engineer, I find this to be an un-ethical situation, which does affect the retail sales of those products, because word of mouth is the pre-eminent form of advertising, and "XXXXX-sucks" can affect both the bottom line, and the stock value, of major publicly traded corporations like Intel, Dell, Apple, MSI, ASUS, and others.

I am looking at about 1000 un-used computer donations this year, at GiftFromGodComputerFoundation,Inc., due do the failure of capacitors, and the ruin of motherboards, processors, memory, and Power Supplies.

Mouser, Digikey, and other sources seem to be "OUT OF STOCK" for replacement caps, even if we had the money to purchase them. The entire computer industry has earned a black eye.

[PDBTech]

Well, seems like I found out about this problem just today when my Optiplex gx270 from Ebay just arrived and I turned on and no video, and the power light is amber and blinking. Any suggestions?

[TheCapKing]

Try www.thecapking.com for the replacement capacitors and color coded guides of the affected motherboards. badcaps.net also sells the kits but they are overpriced.

[atran6]

Recently, thousands of used Dell PCs are sold on eBay from all over the country (USA). Most of them are Optiplex PCs, and amongst them, most are GX270. Most of the PCs are degraded or missing RAMs and Hard Drives. The price is about a hundred and fifty dollars each, and the price is declining for there are more used Dell PCs coming.
Used components from Dell PCs are also increasingly sold on eBay. This is a dishonest practice, and wee need to think about that.