Leaking Motherboard Capacitors

[RVB]

A 15yr old Dell Optiplex 755, used occasionally for running old software on Windows XP.

I opened it up earlier as I wanted to experiment with its RAM, but noticed a pair of capacitors at the front centre of the motherboard are slightly bulged and are oozing a tiny amount of brown slime.

I used the computer for an hour earlier and surprisingly had no problems.

I appreciate it's an old computer and electronics don't last forever, but is it possible that being used only occasionally has increased the chance of the capacitors leaking?

Thanks,
R

[HRL]

Probably just age and cheap parts.

I decommissioned about 300 PC’s a few years back at Bank of America and they were 5-6 year old Dell’s that had been kept in a basement. About 50% of them went pop just by trying to power them on.

[Some Gump]

My old gen ,1 xbox died, leaky caps.
5 new ones from rs components and it's back alive. I have no experience in anything electronic so solder like michael j fox ices cakes. If it does break then give it a go, not like you can break it twice!!

[RVB]

Some Gump said:

My old gen ,1 xbox died, leaky caps.
5 new ones from rs components and it's back alive. I have no experience in anything electronic so solder like michael j fox ices cakes. If it does break then give it a go, not like you can break it twice!!

I have quite a collection of old computers, including a dead Optiplex 755 (c.o.d. wasn't motherboard) which I kept for spares, so I'll have a go at repairing it at some point.