Yeah, as I understand it, the "Great Capacitor Plague" was in full bloom between about 2005/6 and 2008, with a few isolated incidents as early as 2002 and as late as 2010.

According to Wikipedia, my assertions are more or less correct.

I hope this clears things up a bit.

c

EDIT: I read the article, and the production of these bad capacitors did indeed start in 1999, so Tempest is right I think.