Dimension 4700 blown capacitor

ReidGuthrie

Dell does not make any of detailed motherboard specifications, or schematics available.

You can have the capacitors replaced here, or buy a Dell OEM 4700 motherboard from here

Bev.


===================================================
Please don't send me questions about your system by DCF Messenger.
Post the issue in the appropriate Board, where they will be answered.

Some of the capacitors are redundant.  Likely why it's still working.  The value of the cap is printed on it, unless it's destroyed itself to the extent you can't read it.  If you go to have it repaired, the repairer will be able to tell the value.

 

Bev's link above seems a good service.  They replace ALL the caps, for $50 + $25 shipping.  You send them only the board, not the case, so you'd have to take it apart.  It's not hard.  I think you'd find commercial repairs like Best Buy start at more than $75, and they only replace the bad part.  Thing is, if one went bad, and they're all the same age, the others can't be far behind.

 

On the other hand, $75 might be a substantial portion of the cost of a whole new board from Dell.  Price service vs. replacement before you decide. 

You could buy a new Dual Core Dell for $299, so why would you want to spend money on an obsolete/broken 4700?

$299 Dell

shesagordie --- Thanks for the links.  I don't really pretend to understand why Dell wouldn't publish schematics for "obsolete" computers. 

 

x_lab rat --- I'd rather try to fix it myself after 3 bottles of Sam Adam's finest than take it to Best Buy.  :smileyvery-happy:  I'll have to pull the cap before I can read its specs due to its location.  Service vs. replacement seems a wash.  Would a replacement have more bad capacitors?  I wonder....

 

Chuck in Austin --- It does exactly what I need it to, so if I can fix it for $100, I already saved $199 + S&H.  I hate to trash an "obsolete" but functional computer just for a broken $10 part.  I just checked, and your link came up as $399 when I clicked on it, so I'd actually be saving $299.  And not having to deal with Vista.  :smileyhappy:  Savings and extended useful product life are significant considerations for a one-income family.

 

At any rate, if I decide to fix it, I'm looking at being down for a week or more if nobody can tell me what capacitor I need to order by before sending the board somewhere for repair or pulling the cap myself and placing an order online.

 

If I send the board off for repair, it seems I'd be spending as much as I would to just order a refurb board from somewhere.

 

This is starting to sound like the $100 repair I had to make to my $100 weed trimmer when the knot securing the handle to the rope starter came loose and the whole thing had to be disassembled to get to the rope to reattach the handle.  Ugh.  :smileytongue:

Chuck in Austin --- If I remove the default monitor from the system you linked it does come up at $299.

You have soldering equipment?  Tried this on a 6-layer board before?  The repair link site above has instructions for doing it yourself.  You'll need all the help you can get, unless you do this sort of thing all the time.  By far the most practical/least expensive.  The cap itself is probably $2.  You may not have to mail order it, unless you live in a remote community.  Metro areas have parts houses.

 

As for the part value:  Find other caps on the board the same size that you CAN read the value on.  They don't go strictly by size.  But computers tend to use many of the same value/size.  If all the ones that size you can read say the same thing, confidence is high.  You could also exacto the plastic sleeve off, leaving the part in place.  If there's goo on the cap, keep hands away from face and wash thoroughly afterward.

 

4700 wasn't notorious for bad caps, like say GX270 was.  But indeed, all the motherboards in Dell's stock have the same brand and age caps, and caps age whether they're in use or not. When I worked there (~2001), Dell rigorously purged parts known to have mid-term reliability problems.  I gravely doubt they do that now.  GX270 replacement motherboards often failed just like the originals did.

 

It used to be much more clear cut whether there was more value in repair compared to system replacement, when you could expect 7~10 years out of a new system.  New systems today however, come very close to being throwaways the day the warranty expires.  (Coincidence?  I think not.) 

The Dimension 4700 has good caps, the issue I've always found is the 1000uf 10v cap directly below the PCI Express slot goes.  Even though it's a Rubycon cap, I believe the issue stems from the fact that the passively cooled Radeon x300 simply gets too hot and the cap dies from the heat.  Bad design on Dell's part.

4700's that use the integrated graphics rarely have the capacitor problem, due to that area not heating up.