Bad Caps on GX270

[sedrosken]

I will say that I probably should've seen this coming, seeing as how it was sold right in that era of Dell computers being struck with bad caps. My board has a couple caps next to the processor corroded over, and one directly below it bulging. I should be thankful the board still boots. I'm double pissed about this because it's a. out of warranty and b. the replacement agreement (Dell supposedly said that if your board was struck with bad caps, contact them for a replacement, much in the fashion of Intel replacing FDIV-struck first gen Pentiums) is well past over. I know that it's just an old Pentium 4 and all, but seriously! Why didn't ANY of the previous owners (especially the place that re-sold the computer to begin with) notice this? Did they seriously not bother looking inside the case?

Also, why doesn't it have any standard USB 2.0 pin headers?! All of my other ones did, although on the P4B it was in a very odd spot (next to the PCI slots). I wanted to put a combo reader in the spare bay but I COULDN'T FIND ANY PIN HEADERS! In fact, that's the only reason I noticed the bad caps in the first place! I was looking high and low for a USB pin header.

Also, I think I'm hearing the HDD grinding. Curse my luck.

 

[Mercutio]

Dell desktops don't have standard parts because they're Dells. That's how they are. You might as well be annoyed with the sun for rising in the east for all the good it does. The people who buy machines like that know full well that the systems are going to be disposable and they will act accordingly. Which includes passing down marginal hardware to young people when they think there might be something wrong with it. It works for cars. It works for computers. It's a time-honored tradition.

 

[sedrosken]

Meanwhile, my AXP just needs more RAM and a discrete sound board (onboard one died) and it's golden. I might just decide to switch my little sister again. After posting in the for sale/trade section about the sound board, and 2 x 1 GB ddr-400 dimms if anyone has them.

 

[Mercutio]

I'll keep you in mind next time I do a pass at my spare parts bins.