The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • Dell U2711 Monitor: FAIL

    My landscape monitor, a six-year-old Dell U2711, died after a few days of flickering and failure-to-start. As you’d expect with any old electronics, particularly from Dell, it’s the electrolytic caps:

    Dell U2711 Monitor - failed caps
    Dell U2711 Monitor – failed caps

    All of the black-cased caps on the board had bulged cases:

    Dell U2711 Monitor - failed FOAI cap - detail
    Dell U2711 Monitor – failed FOAI cap – detail

    They’re (allegedly) made by FOAI, for whatever that’s worth.

    They’re not really capacitors any more:

    Dell U2711 Monitor - 100 uF 5 ohm cap
    Dell U2711 Monitor – 100 uF 5 ohm cap

    I replaced all of them with cheap eBay caps to no avail. Spot-checking the other (“brown”) caps on the logic board showed they were still good, but the power supply board is firmly glued in place and I can’t get to the HV cap.

    A new monitor arrived two days later and it’s all good again.