Re: [tlug] Buy a computer with a potentially faulty condensor?

[Lyle H Saxon <llletters@example.com>]

On 12/25/05, Dave Gutteridge <dave@example.com> wrote:
> Today I was in Akihabara, and at one used PC shop they had these decent
> Pentium 4 PCs for a slightly better than reasonable price.
[snip]
>         So... my question to the hardware inclined...
>         Is buying a PC with a condensor that could fail in the future a poor
> risk to take?
>         And/or... how bad is it really to fix? Could I get a guy to do it? Do
> it myself?

About used computers.  I'm a rank armature for too many things about
computers, but used hardware is one thing I know a little about. 
Could you mention the manufacturer and the price?  With that
information I could probably offer some advice.  (If you don't want to
publish that information, then send it off-list.)  Some models from
some manufacturers are worth more effort than others....

As for repairing computers - keep in mind that the circuit boards are
not made by human hands any more, and not being made by humans, they
are not easily repaired by humans.  When manufactures repair a machine
with a circuit board in it these days, they treat the circuit board as
a singe part and don't even attempt to fix individual parts on the
board.  So... if manufactures don't do it, then you could wonder if
it's a good idea to spend your own time on it.

BTW - we're not talking about Dell Dimension-C computers are we?  Dell
sold the Dimension-C in the Japanese market - apparently OEM
manufactured by Acer.  The design leaves much to be desired - from
difficult hard drive access to easily disconnected CD-ROM plugs, but
the really serious problem with them is that they were not properly
ventilated, with an undersized fan in the power supply pulling air out
the back that could only be replaced from the front via the openings
for the CD-ROM and floppy drive!  (I've seen some with holes drilled
in the bottom, but not many - the ones I have I use with the covers
permanently off.)  The machines chronically overheat - causing the CPU
fan to run at top speed all the time, which might have been (sort of)
tolerable, except they used cheap high vibration fans that - over time
(six months or so) vibrate the CPU pins so much that they start
mis-conducting and causing (no surprise once you know what's
happening) weird problems.  Dell's short-term advice from tech support
(no joke here, I was on the phone to them personally) at the time was
to take off the heat sink, release the lock-down clamp on the pins,
pull out the CPU, and then reseat it - which reestablished good
contact with all the pins.  In the meantime, they mailed a better heat
sink and cooling fan which was replaced by Omron under contract to
Dell.

This is an old story - from the year 2001 - but I still see those
bloody Dimension-C's land in used shops from time to time.  I saw a
small mountain of them at one shop - initially selling for something
like Y8,000, but a couple of days later they were marked down to
Y2,000 when they had a good look at the circuit board and saw
ballooned capacitors on the circuit board....  So... was it only due
to a bad batch of capacitors, or was it also heat damage?

Lyle