On Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:43:08 -0500, wrote:

On Thu, 14 Feb 2013 10:40:52 -0800, in sci.electronics.repair you wrote:

On Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:24:03 -0500, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:

I have two of these computers.

I have three of them. However, only one works and I only have one
power supply. The other two are waiting for time to fix, or recycling
(toss a coin).

This model is well known for bad electrolytics. So much so that a
kit is offered for it: http://www.thecapking.com/gx620sff.html

Hi Jeff,

Umm... that was Mike, not Jeff.

The kit, which includes a location of the bad caps (great idea),
is for a Dell GX-620, which is not even close to my Dell Optiplex SX260
mother board's layout. Note: This desktop PC is small and was made
in 2003.

http://www.thecapking.com/sx260.html

Did any of those bad caps have a bulge? Note: I have equipment to
measure and check ESR of caps.

Yes. However, I check every cap with an old Bob Parker ESR meter.
Lately, I've been getting lazy, buying kits, and replacing all the
caps, even if they look and test good. I'm tired of tearing apart
machines more than once to replace the one cap that I missed. However,
the SX260 has 30 caps, 9 of which are inconveniently buried under the
voltage regulator heat sink. I had to replace all 9, and some of the
others that tested bad. I wasn't going to replace 30 caps on such an
old unit. Not fun, but I've done it often enough that I can do it
fairly quickly with my antique desoldering station.
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/crud/pace-desoldering-station.jpg
If I'm in a rush, I'll use the hot air desoldering station, which
melts the solder on both leads of the capacitor at the same time (but
also tends to melt everything around the capacitor).

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558