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Bought a used PC - a few bad caps. What can I do?

Loagster
By Loagster
in CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory
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Posted

Hey, this is a fun story.

I just went to a local thrift store and picked up an old Dell Optiplex GX520 SFF. Tested it beforehand without looking to deep into it, but I was able to get into the BIOS setup and play around with it for a moment. After getting it home and looking a bit deeper, I noticed that 4 caps on the motherboard were shot - leaking electrolytic fluid out the top vents. If the board did successfully POST with these caps already shot, am I able to rip off the capacitors without replacing them for a while? I got it very cheap and it's not a critical system, just something I wanted to play with. I'd appreciate any help - thanks!

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I think figuring out how to replace the caps and repair the hardware would be a valuable experience.

I WILL find your ITX build thread, and I WILL recommend the SIlverstone Sugo SG13B

 

Primary PC:

i7 8086k - EVGA Z370 Classified K - G.Skill Trident Z RGB - WD SN750 - Jedi Order Titan Xp - Hyper 212 Black (with RGB Riing flair) - EVGA G3 650W - dual booting Windows 10 and Linux - Black and green theme, Razer brainwashed me.

Draws 400 watts under max load, for reference.

 

How many watts do I need? ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 spec, PSU misconceptions, protections explained, group reg is bad

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Just now, fasauceome said:

I think figuring out how to replace the caps and repair the hardware would be a valuable experience.

It definitely wouldn't hurt to fix it, and I do have the ability, though I spent the last of my money on this thing and I have a couple more weeks to wait before being able to buy new caps.

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13 minutes ago, Loagster said:

It definitely wouldn't hurt to fix it, and I do have the ability, though I spent the last of my money on this thing and I have a couple more weeks to wait before being able to buy new caps.

well since it's not your main rig you shouldn't operate it without the caps

I WILL find your ITX build thread, and I WILL recommend the SIlverstone Sugo SG13B

 

Primary PC:

i7 8086k - EVGA Z370 Classified K - G.Skill Trident Z RGB - WD SN750 - Jedi Order Titan Xp - Hyper 212 Black (with RGB Riing flair) - EVGA G3 650W - dual booting Windows 10 and Linux - Black and green theme, Razer brainwashed me.

Draws 400 watts under max load, for reference.

 

How many watts do I need? ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 spec, PSU misconceptions, protections explained, group reg is bad

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Replacing caps shouldn't be that hard, especially if you have some experience with an iron.

 

 

REMILIA Mk.IIIE CPU: Ryzen 9 3900X, Cooler: Arctic Freezer II 240 (Noctua NT-H2), RAM: 4x 8Gb sticks of Patriot Viper Steel Series 3600 CL17, Mobo: AsRock X570 Taichi, GPU: Inno3D RTX 3080 iChill x4 10G, Storage: 1TB Intel 670p NVME SSD boot drive, a few 1TB and 512gb SATA/NVME SSDs for game storage, 6 hard drives 1-4 TB, PSU: Corsair RM750 MY2019, Case: Cooler Master Mastercase 5 MC500 (with add-ons, Noctua NF-A14 and Arctic P14 fans), PCIE Cards: Cheap Chinese Marvell 88SE9215 4 port SATA card, Sonnet Allegro USB3.2 Card Monitors: ViewSonic Elite XG270QC (165hz, 1ms MPRT, 1440p, VA, Freesync PP, pneumatic stand), Hp Z27n (IPS, 60hz, 1440p, 8Ms), iiyama G2530HSU-B (75Hz, Freesync, one in landscape, one in Portrait, all on pneumatic monitor stands).

 

Mic: iSK UPM-1 USB XLR interface with Neewer NW700, Audio: Sabaj A3 160W DAC/AMP + Wharfdale Diamond 220 + Mission MS6 Sub, ifi Zen DAC v2 + ifi Zen CAN, Littledot Mk.II (w/ Soviet Power tubes and British Mulard M8100s/Soviet Voshkod 6JP-EV/ American General Electric JAN 5654W dependent on mood), Sendy Aiva (Primary), Beyer Dynamic DT990 250ohm Black Special Edition, Audeze EL-8 Open Back, Sennheiser HD598SE (modified to be a headset, snapped headband held together with gorilla tape), Mouse: SteelSeries Rival 600, Keyboard: Glorious GMMK ISO with Mengmoda MMD Tactile (main) and Kailh Box Navy (Function keys), Tribosys 3203 brush lubed, Taihao Green forest caps.

 

KOAKUMA Mk.IB (24/7 Folding Slave PC made of spare parts): CPU: Core i7 4770, Cooler: Some small antex cooler with 80mm fan, RAM: 2x 4Gb Sticks of 2400Mhz DDR3, Mobo: Asus H81i-Plus, GPU: R9 390 Nitro+ (barely fits in case), Storage: 256gb Korean no-name SATA SSD, PSU: Corsair CX550 (Gray label), Case: Antec ISK600 ITX case. [Given away to friend]

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In the end, I opted to just clean up the electrolyte to make it look nice. I'll grab some caps as soon as I can and get them replaced. I'm already quite handy with a soldering iron so I'll be fine. Thanks for your guy's input though :P

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