I've just spent an afternoon getting to the bottom of a networking performance problem that randomly afflicted various systems on my LAN. The common denominator turned out to to be a two year-old Netgear GS 608 gigabit switch. There were no outward signs of problems, and all connected machines were negotiating a gigabit connection. But inspection of LAN stats on connected machines showed a high error rate in all packets forwarded by that device, so that it was lucky to sustain an actual data rate of 10 Mbits, let alone a gigabit.
Upon dismantling, it was apparent that a couple of electrolytic capacitors were bulging and fit to burst - which is a common sign of failure. I happened to have some suitable low ESR caps in my components cupboard and, after replacing the bulging capacitors, the switch is performing perfectly again. Satisfying, yes, but it shouldn't have been necessary. And the majority of people would have just forked out £40 or more for a new switch.
This is the second time a bit of Netgear kit has failed prematurely on me with bulging capacitors - the first was a DG834GT router. I'm aware that electrolytic capacitors are notoriously unreliable at the best of times, but the problem can be reduced by purchasing high quality (higher cost) items, or by 'over-specifying' the temperature rating - capacitor MTBF is related to temperature, so by using higher temp ratings, they can be made to last longer.
Earlier in the year a PSU failed in one of my Linux-based set-top boxes, at just over a year old. It was an unknown chinese brand, in a non-standard enclosure (MINI ATX), so although a dead PSU would normally just be discarded and replaced, component-level repair was the only option. There again, all that was needed was replacement of no less than eight bulging caps. The majority of folks on that occasion would have probably have resorted to replacement of the entire PC, losing several hundred pounds.
What a shame the manufacturers won't spend an extra buck and install better quality components. There's only three caps in total inside the switch I just repaired, so they really would have added very little to the cost.
Anyway, I just thought I'd have a bit of a grump about it all.