I cleaned the machine's inside and out, until there was not a spec of dust. I ensured that all fans worked and airflow was moving properly. After doing some research and reading all kinds of similar reported problems, I came upon a few rare cases that had been caused by bad capacitors.
I went ahead and took off the heatsink so I could see the capacitors near the CPU, and sure enough, they were popped, and leaking. Soon after I decided to see if I could order the caps online, and not let the machines go to waste. I looked around, and found a perfect premium grade capacitor set for Dell Optiplex GX270's, that I ordered from badcaps.net, the order was smooth, the service was great, and I had the 19 capacitors that I needed in no time.
I went ahead and got to work.... I'll let the pictures do the rest of the explaining, enjoy!.
Machines $45
Caps: $25
Getting down and dirty: Priceless
Comments
Btw, I think we need some bbcode for those image modals