Hello,
I was wondering if anyone knew of a reseller of Dell parts, motherboards specifically, that was located in NJ. I work in the IT dept. for a school district and we still have quite a few GX 270s and GX 280s with potentially bad capacitors on the motherboards. We also have a growing "bone yard" of these models ever since the recall expired back in January. The quote we received from Dell parts was a little steep and searching around on Google just returned sites about resellers being angry at Dell.

Thanks!

About the only economical solution would be to send one over to one of your electronics lab/classes and replace the faulty caps,
this seems to work for similar problems seen in abit boards

Old motherboards die more often than cpu's or ram and end up in scarce supply, it's often better to scrape for parts than replace when anything gets over 3 years old.

Personally, I think that is a great idea! Replacing fixed components on multi-layered PCBs - printed circuit boards - takes a skilled and steady hand with a hot soldering iron - so motherboards make excellent training and practice opportunities - and that keeps the board and its precious metals and other eco-unfriendly materials out of the landfills too.

But, depending on the skill of these trainees, (or school policies/liabilities issues) you may not get a serviceable board back - there's a lot more required than good soldering techniques needed when doing component level maintenance - ESD precautions for one, not to mention ensuring the new replacement parts are suitable substitutes - that is, they have the correct capacitance and current carrying values to meet the circuit requirements. The proper tools and facilities matter too.

Before someone says something, no, capacitors are not ESD sensitive devices - but there are many on the motherboard - memory modules, processors, and other integrated circuits (chips) are particularly sensitive, so precautions must always be taken whenever handling, or even approaching motherboards, or any circuit board, for that matter.

That said, there are, on the contrary, several (relatively) economical solutions to buying an expensive Dell replacement motherboard.

You can replace the motherboards with another brand motherboard, but since OEM licenses for Windows are typically linked to the motherboard, and not the end-user , unless you use an exact Dell replacement, you may be forced to purchase new Windows licenses, or go to an alternative OS. And, since replacing the motherboard results in several hardware devices being replaced at once, you cannot just replace the board, connect the drives and put the PC back in production - Windows will choke on the first boot, as it will not recognize the built-in network card, drive controller, sound, and other I/O interfaces. New drivers will have to be installed, then to top it off, Windows will think you are trying to steal a copy, and will require re-authentication. And even in the best circumstances, a complete fresh install of the OS may still be necessary on some of the PCs. None of that is hard to remedy, but it is time consuming and often a real PITA.

It has been a few years since I dealt with licensing with education institutions - but MS is generally more liberal with schools - licensing may not be an issue, once you explain your situation. That said, finding motherboards to support older CPUs, RAM, and graphics cards gets harder (and more expensive) as the state-of-the-art advances.

In that regard, I agree with DaChew - since those computers are pushing 4 years old, I suggest you ask your Business department/class to work out a strategic (long-term) economic feasibility study. My bet is the study would show taxpayer's money would be better spent by "attempting" to phase those PCs out, and replace with new. I say attempt because having worked for and with local, state and federal governments for many years, money comes in spurts, I am fully aware you do what you can with what you got, and when you got it.

Any qualified electronics technician - that is, someone formally trained in "applied" electronics repair - will be able to recap your board - don't take it to your local backyard neighborhood mechanic/builder. Let's face it, 3rd world slave-labor factories have proven "assembling" computers is so easy, small children do it, many times in one day . And sadly, many computer assemblers with a few builds under their belt feel they are electronics technicians as well. Building computers and setting up Windows, and even being excellent at troubleshooting PCs and Windows is quite different from doing "component level" repair on motherboards with soldering irons. So, because of the extreme potentials for collateral damage, removing and replacing soldered components on multi-layered PCBs should be left to someone qualified for such repairs, and someone you can hold accountable, should they make matters worse!

Recapping kits cost anywhere from $10 - $30 - depending on the number capacitors, and quality used. It takes a good 1 - 2 hours for a skilled technician to recap a board. So you are talking around $75 - $150US, parts and labor - assuming no other hardware damage was done when the old capacitors failed, or OS corruption if leaky caps caused hard crashes.

Alternatively, you can send the board to a place that specializes in recapping boards, such as BadCaps.net. I have never used their repair services, but others I trust have reported complete satisfaction with their services. They also sell recapping kits, pre-packaged for specific motherboards (which they do a lot for Dell's) for folks who want to try their soldering skills. They also have an excellent how-to guide as well.

That said, for $60 per board with shipping - that's a good deal to just let them do it. Discounts are offered if more than 3 boards need recapping. These guys do it all the time, so they are quick, but do quality work - and great prices. You might compromise and send some off to Badcaps for repair, and send some to the training labs.

Fortunately, newer motherboards use much higher quality caps, and the better boards use solids, so leaky caps will never be a problem.

Ah - just verifying the link, I see in Red on the opening page, Badcaps.net is addressing those specific Dells too. Good, but sad it is such a problem.

you might be able to replace with a new generic board since it's socket 775

this would be an excellent learning opportunity for a computer lab, however you would need a qualified and experienced teacher, one with hands on experience

This post has been edited by DaChew: Apr 4 2008, 08:37 AM

Interesting post Digerati and what an interesting and informative site (badcaps.net)
They really seem geared up for the job and WOW! 25 mins to do a complete recap, I reckon thats Olympic class work.. Takes me 3 times as long at least.

I have stopped doing this type of work now, mainly because of time taken (and charges that need to be made just to cover expenses and potential for damage) compared with cost of new units, but I see that they will accept jobs from the UK so I might just post off the next couple of recap jobs that come in.
Thanks for the info
regards
paws

Me too - but then my clock starts with the PC on my bench - their 25 minute clock starts with the bare (cpu and RAM removed) motherboard on the bench - with everything all laid out in front of them. But still, I remember a day when my soldering station was plugged in in the morning, and unplugged at night - now, with everything (almost) being modular, I may go days or longer without plugging it in at all. Soldering on miniaturized circuits is a learned skill that must continually be honed to stay sharp and precise. WIth heat being the bane of all electronics, sticking a 350°F (~175°C) metal poker into the heart electronics is something to be taken very seriously. These guys do this all the time, their skills remain sharp - I suspect they would be fun to watch whip through a board recapping - if you appreciate that sort of thing.Exactly. When cost to repair is more than cost to replace, replace.

That said, last year, I had one of my Gigabyte boards that was 4 months past the 3 year warranty when it started rebooting out of the blue. A visual inspection of the board revealed a couple leaky capacitors. I sent their tech support a note and they sent me a repair RMA. It took about 30 days but, they recapped the board, no charge, except the cost of shipping to Gigabyte. So worth a try. That said, since Dell announced they would no longer support those specific computers mentioned by Smiley, seeking warranty repair is not an option.

True, but whether no-name, generic, or, as mentioned above, another brand replacement, the existing installing of Windows on the current boot drive will choke at the first sight of the major hardware change on first boot. With planning and a little luck, a repair install may align everything up with no fuss - but the chances a complete Windows reinstall will be needed is high enough that folks should plan for it.

One trick I use that increases chances for smooth cutover to a new motherboard is to uninstall any non-generic Windows drivers before shutting down the old for last time. Of course, if you are replacing because the old won't boot, then too late.

running xp as a repair disk in this case might be the best option since the computer is broken and won't boot, also showing hidden devices after the new load is another trick

Of course there might be an option to do a clean install depending upon the specific department's systems.