Capacitors are an inexpensive little component on a PC motherboard, but they can be a costly headache for manufacturers when a whole bunch of them go bad. Last week, Dell announced it was going to take a $300 million financial charge on its earnings to cover costs associated with the replacement of motherboards with faulty capacitors in some of its Optiplex workstations. The Dell system boards in question were manufactured from April 2003 to March 2004, according to several contract computer repair firms that are starting to replace the systems. The Round Rock, Texas, computer maker is expected to provide more details during its quarterly earnings call on Thursday. When capacitors go bad, computers get crippled. Faulty capacitors have caused video failure and periodic system shutdowns in some Dell PCs, first-generation Apple iMac G5s and other computers.

More stories on hardware problems. As Dell executives deal with the fallout from the bad capacitors, they can at least take some comfort in knowing they are hardly the only big PC makers to have dealt with the problem. In fact, PCs from Hewlett-Packard and Apple Computer and other PCs using Intel motherboards have all faced similar issues, according to the companies, contractors and several online bulletin boards. At issue are faulty capacitors on motherboards that store power and regulate voltage.
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Mainland China's film capacitor industry on track for 10 percent growth in 2007

Electronic Components, Film capacitors, China watch, ROHS – Over the past few years, film capacitor output has achieved steady annual growth rates of 12 percent, reaching a total of 22.5 billion units in 2004. The country's output for the segment is estimated at 24 billion units in 2005, and 26.4 billion units in 2006, up by 10 percent, according to the China Electronic Components Association (CECA). Demand drivers inproducts, electronic ballasts, consumer electronics, automotive electronics and telecom devices. Many large-scale international makers such as Arcotronic of Italy, the EPCOS Group, Vishay of Germany and Panasonic of Japan have built their production bases on the mainland, speeding up local film capacitor production. In turn, foreign companies have strengthened the competition, resulting in local manufacturing shifts to small-sized high-end products with high capacitance, higher operating temperature and higher reliability capacitors.

Today there are over a hundred film capacitor manufacturers who are handling operations in this line, most of them located in the Pearl River and Yangtze River Delta regions. Most local film capacitor makers supply polyester and polypropylene film capacitors. In order to maintain their edge, many makers, production equipment and raw materials are developed in-house.
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Capacitor + Nanotubes = Superbattery

Current event by Brandon on 04 August 2006, tagged as technology, research, and ecology. Modern day batteries use chemical reactions to provide over 25 times more energy than capacitors, but they slowly lose their energy potential after being recharged over and over. Capacitors, a 300 year old technology, use an electric field between two metal electrodes to create less energy, but can be recharged very quickly 'perhaps hundreds of thousands of times.

Researchers at MIT are resurrecting the 'old' capacitor technology and coupling it with nanotechnology to make a superbattery. By covering the electrodes used in the capacitor with millions of nanotubes, their surface area is increased significantly resulting in a battery that has the best of both worlds: short charging times (seconds, not hours), long life (indefinite?), and high power density (like chemical batteries of today). The impact of the technology could be huge for devices ranging anywhere from hearing aids to automobiles, in addition to reducing the environmental impact of discarded batteries.
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Makers raise capacitor production targets amid rosy forecast

Global production of capacitors is predicted to continue its upward trend through the next four years, according to estimates from Paumanok. The market-research firm forecasts production to reach 811 billion units in 2006, 865 billion units in 2007 and 961 billion units in 2008. The forecast is also consistent with optimism sweeping across Asia. Since last year, makers in Asia have ramped up production capacities, expecting an upsurge in demand. In Taiwan, Darfon Electronic Corp. added a production line for 0603 (0201) chip capacitors, anticipating robust demand this year, says Z.C. Chen, vice president.

Armed with a rosy forecast of 15 to 20 percent market growth, Yageo Corp. raised its monthly capacity from 2.5 billion to 4 billion chip capacitors. Overall, the company produces 8 billion units if production of its offshore units is taken into account, says Julia Wang, deputy manager. Mainland China makers are not to be outdone. Ningxia Xingri Electronics Co. Ltd targets annual output of 1 billion units by next year; that is more than three times its current production capacity.
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Capacitor problems hit Dell earnings

Dell has lowered its earnings guidance for its just-ended fiscal third quarter, citing costly failed computer parts and sluggish growth. The company's goal of hitting $US80 billion ($A107 billion) in annual sales within three to four years may be drifting out of reach. "This is not a company that's on the ropes, but I think it's struggling to maintain the growth targets it has set for itself," Cindy Shaw, an analyst for Moors & Cabot, said on Tuesday. The firm downgraded Dell's stock to hold from buy. Dell still tops the industry with 18 per cent of the personal computer market. But late on Monday, the company said it would take charges of $US450 million, or 14 US cents per share, related to restructuring and a defective computer component.

The bulk of the newly disclosed charge, $US300 million, is to fix faulty capacitors on the motherboards of older OptiPlex business desktop PCs. A spokesman said Dell wasn't recalling the machines but would replace the circuit boards on those that fail. Advertisement
AdvertisementThe rest of the charge covers excess parts and severance payments to an undisclosed number of workers whose jobs were eliminated in consolidation moves. Spokesman Jess Blackburn would not say how many jobs were cut other than that they affected a "small percentage" of the company's 55,000 workers, at its Texas headquarters as well as facilities in the UK and Asia. Blackburn said Dell would not comment beyond the press release it issued on Monday announcing the earnings forecast.