(no subject)

[mtupyro.livejournal.com]

We just had our fifth video card fan fail in about 2 week time span. This isn't looking good. The comps are still under warranty so we can get Dell to send out new cards, but if this trend continues we're going to be replacing ~200 video cards. Where are my student employee minions, they have work to do.

Comments

[falnfenix]

welcome to 2 days ago for my workplace. we had 400 video cards to replace in one day of work because the boxes weren't able to handle our imaging software. wee!

[mtupyro.livejournal.com]

When we ordered these machines (brand new from dell) we had to install all the upgraded video cards ourselves because Dell didn't want to. Yeah, that was fun.

[falnfenix]

eeww.

these boxes aren't even in our dept, but because other depts are now using our system we're getting replacement cards from Dell. i don't even want to think about how much that's costing us.

[nem0.livejournal.com]

That happened at the university where I used to work, but with motherboards. What a total pain in the ass.

[altorogue.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know! I had to go around to just about every computer on campus, open it up, and make sure one section of the motherboard wasn't melting. Pain in my ass.

[nem0.livejournal.com]

Indeed. 9_9 Nothing says fun like a board full of leaky capacitor guts.

[lightforce.livejournal.com]

Had something similar happen at the university I attend, but with power supplies. I used to work in the computer labs, and one of the hardware techs once told me "If you find a machine with a power supply that has $feature, let us know right away. They have a tendency to explode."

Unfortunately, I never got to witness it happening.

[mattcaron.livejournal.com]

I once saw someone plug a box with the PSU set to 110 into 220... that was fun. Dialectric capacitor goo all over the box.

[cirobi.livejournal.com]

i feel your pain. at my old job (approx 3 yrs ago at this point) we had a batch of Dell PCs - the mini GX280 ones - that came with bad motherboards. some of the capacitors on the boards had the wrong mix of chemicals in them and after a while would over heat and bulge out at the top. in some cases they'd start oozing their chemicals a bit. we started off only having a few extra boards in stock as the machines would run into issues here and there, but eventually did a huge blitz of hunting down all the machines in that batch and replacing them. this was fun times trying to get in touch with and get permission to enter law professors' offices while they weren't there. so many rules and regs at that job. i'm so glad i'm out of there.

[mattcaron.livejournal.com]

Well, that's what you get when you buy cheap capacitors... the way I hear it, the Chinese ripped off the Taiwanese to get their dielectric goo formula.. problem is, they didn't get the stabilization component, so their caps off-gassed hydrogen, thus building pressure, ripping the tops off, breaking, oozing, catching fire, etc.

[cirobi.livejournal.com]

ah China, land of the cheap, the ripped off and the lead infested. XD

[ptstech.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we called it Chinese Capacitor Disease. I logged an assload of miles changing boards for that crap...

[cirobi.livejournal.com]

i hated my job at the time so i never came up with anything amusing to call it. the best i could come up with was "another addition to my worst nightmare." haha.

[vxo.livejournal.com]

Get your minions ready... unless Dell will be nice enough to send out service personnel (unlikely. they're fuckin' Dell.)

When you get a new card in, before installing it, hit the fan bearing with some oil (http://www.dansdata.com/fanmaint.htm). I've used a synthetic oil, the Radio Shack one that comes in a little 'precision dispenser'.. I'm guessing something like Mobil 1 20w-50 would work well too, dispensed with a syringe or an old inkjet refill bottle.

A lot of sleeve bearing fans just have the bearings dry out, and that leads to the moaning, groaning, painful "please put me out of my misery" sounding failures.

My personal record: 8 years on a small sleeve bearing fan on top of a AMD 5x86/133. Yes... it is wrong that I had a 5x86 running for eight years.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

Get your minions ready... unless Dell will be nice enough to send out service personnel (unlikely. they're fuckin' Dell.)

Depends on who you talk to, and what sort of warranty or service agreement you paid for, and what sort of org you are. I replaced an average of two GX270 mobos a day for 18 months, and PSUs for half of those. For schools, Dell did replacmenets even after the warranty period was over, I guess they didn't want the kiddies to get electrolyte on them, and with the machines being turned off for three months during the summer, the schools were some of the last ones to have the caps burst.