Debate: do you replace the whole motherboard or just the bad capacitor on an old Dell?

I had a Dell Optiplex 7010 come in last week with three bulging capacitors near the CPU socket. Cost to recap it would be about $8 in parts and maybe 45 minutes of soldering, but a used board runs $35 on eBay with a warranty. I went with the recap to save the customer money, and it fired right up after I replaced them. But now I'm second guessing myself on that call for reliability. What do you guys usually do for these older business machines, replace or repair?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugo_ellis16d ago

Is it just me or did you check the actual failure rate on recapped boards vs. buying used? I have an old HP that I recapped like two years ago and it's still running fine in my garage as a file server. Meanwhile I've bought "tested" used boards that were dead on arrival or died within a month. Maybe it's just luck but I kinda trust my own soldering more than some random seller's word.

william91716d ago

Does recapping fix the yellow capacitor goo issue on those old Compaqs too?