Pressler2904   2165 pts.  |   Jan 23 2008  3:27PM GMT

The Dell Gx 260 series, along with similar systems from HP and IBM (and possibly other manufacturers) were plagued by capacitor issues (the capacitors would swell and sometimes burst): this was due to a bad batch from the original capacitor manufacturer in the orient. The issue has been resolved for those systems (a new motherboard with different capacitors altogether solved the problem), but I’ve not heard of similar issues for or on the Gx 520′S

Have you done any testing on the power supplies? Does this issue affect only certain systems or all of your 520’s? Does it seem to appear at a certain point in their usage cycle (ie: after 200 hours)? Have you checked to see if there is a BIOS update for your systems (Dell is pretty good about posting updates which address all sorts of “minor” issues such as this - notice the quotes around “minor”).

Although in past history Dell was only marginally responsive in even acknowledging that there may have been a widespread issue with one of their systems or components (and I can support this statement with two first hand experiences, so this is more than just hearsay), their (Dell’s) support reputation has gotten a bit better recently, so I would continue to work with them on this issue (especially if the systems are under warranty).

Keep the board posted - there are lots of 520’s out there, and who knows, this may be (one of the) first reports of a widespread issue… Let’s hope it’s not.

Aszumilo   10 pts.  |   Apr 14 2008  8:01PM GMT

I have approximately 400 OptiPlex 520’s in the company, all are between 1 and 3 years old, and have replaced close to 100 of the power supplies. Dell won’t admit to anything, but, are more than happy to replace the P/S. With the GX260/270/280, they wouldn’t admit a problem for quite some time. I have not seen any 520 have a problem with the capacitors as of yet and believe the issue is restricted to the power supplies, as replacing them seems to fix the issue (at least for now)

Lonewolfbw   265 pts.  |   Apr 15 2008  1:52PM GMT

In my previous employment, I replaced probably close to 100-150 power supplies from the Dell GX-60s that we leased from 2004-2005. Just as mentioned above, they never would admit to anything, but were always happy to replace it without any fuss. We had just 2 of the 520s, so if there was anything going on with those, I never had enough opportunity to see it. But based on my experiences, I would not be at all surprised.

Pressler2904   2165 pts.  |   Apr 16 2008  3:21AM GMT

Did a bit of research, and it seems that there are a somewhat higher level of issues with the power supplies on this system (GX520) than other systems in its’ class. Some discussions in the datacenter ITKE board, as well as a strange issue with a text message received on a nokia phone placed near the CD ROM drive (which is close to the power supply) putting the system to sleep and requiring a hard reboot to continue.

From my experience with Dell, if you cam document a high rate of failure (say about 20% more or less) you have a good case for having Dell come out and proactively replace all the P/S’es on your systems. We had issues (25% failure) with HDD’s on the Latitude L400 series and were able to arrange replacement of drives for all remaining systems (about 150). Good luck….