Graphics Broken capacitor on GPU card, please help!

Make sure you get the polarity. Make sure the legs for the old cap is removed.

And tbh you can use regular caps as long as the legs go through the holes in the PCB. It's probably easier that way too seeing as solid caps would be a PITA to place in.

Note that if you were to get a normal capacitor, get one with slightly higher values, it's a bit of a safeguard there.

 

Yeah its got the positive mark so ill be sure to get it right

the original was mounted on the surface of the board sitting on a plastic seat, ive got that and if the capacitor is the same size ill use it, as long as the holes on the board connect to the original surface solder mounts its all good i guess

Im going for the £6 ebay linked one, if there are any others preferably on ebay please link them.

Thanks.

 

I suggest removing the plastic seat and removing the broken legs (assuming they are there) with a soldering iron and just soldering another capacitor into the holes. It's much cleaner this way.

 

Ive removed the old capacitor, the legs are out off, you can kind of see in the first pic of the last post, photobucket has killed the quality of the image... but although the solder is a little rough its clean for the new capacitor, ill just get the one in the ebay link and solder it on

Not sure if it will work after, the capacitor was broken on one leg, i bodged it back on, but when trying to power the card on with the card and bodged capacitor the pc wouldnt power on, so i put it down to the crap bodge job and put my old card back in, not sure if this will work but worth a shot.

 

Ok the new cap has come and its the same size and looks perfect, im not sure this will work but ill give it a shot, seems the capacitor it ment for a mini RC car...

Anywho seeing as im abit of a noob, does the coloured side of the capacitor top mean positive?

Right, this is how the old capacitor was mounted, legs where on the surface solder



Now i want to mount the new capacitor through the holes do i meet the colored side of the cap (thinking its positive) to the + sign on the PCB?



Like that?

 

Now looking at the PCB from the last pic where the plus is on the bottom right... the capacitors coloured side was facing the opposite, so is the coloured side negative?

Been briefly searching and cant find an answer!

Edit: ah what a dope, longer leg is positive, so coloured side is negative! live and you learn (slowly in my case) so the way im holding it in the last pic i will switch it round so the colour is facing the other way!

Any confirmation would be good but ill crack on now.

 

Yes the coloured side is negative. Looking forward to seeing the result!

 

Right, due to the poor tip on my solder iron i could not get it to solder through the hole, the gold ring around the hole on the other side just would not take the solder with flux... so i resorted to using the old plastic seat, bending the legs sideways and soldering the cap to the surface like it was before, it was hard with the crap flat tip i had (must invest in a better soldering iron)

So i got it seated ok, and tried it... with the 6 pin PCI-E plug in... attempts to power, a very slight move of the fan... nothing does not power...

After some umming and arring and going over the graphics board looking for breaks i plugged it back in without the power plug...

Powers ... but obviously it has no power so i have an ear breaking beep coming from the card...

Now... im guessing its a power issue? i have a Cosair 450w PSU, the board is taking power using i think the 8 pin plug, also running 1 cd drive, 1 IDE hard drive, 3 SATA hard drives, and one fan controller... Thats all !!

Surely the PSU can cope with that?

Help please !

 

Yeah 450W is ample for that, easily.

I think once you've done what you can by replacing the cap, there's really not much else you can do unless the problem is very obvious. Eg, if you are certain that the cap is soldered properly and is making good contact at each terminal, and if the polarity is correct, I can't think of anything else that might be wrong with that particular part of the card (that you can fix!).

 

Yeah thats what im thinking... i had another thread on here... i bought a brand new card after this one being faulty... the other card used the 6 pin and ran fine... but i was having glitches with coloured screens and it over heating, now im wondering if the power is ok...

I think all i can do is buy another new card and just hope it works, if not i know my PSU isnt good, i dont have another pc to try it out on at the moment.

It does power without the 6 pin so i guess its just an on board graphics power problem

 

One thing before you call time on this card - have a very careful look at all the components around where the power connector goes and just check there's nothing else obviously broken, detatched or scorched/burnt.

Also, if you can lay your hands on a multi-meter, or better still a PSU tester, check the voltages on the PSU are what they ought to be - both loaded and un-loaded. So many times PSU's turn out to be not up to the job.

Good luck.

 

Around the 6 pins behind the power port on the graphics card there is one stem that is ever so slightly "bubbly" where the solder is, not 100% id say, i could try resoldering that... on the rear of the card looking at the same 6 pins going into the card they are all fine though.

Pic explains rear pins, middle pin...

i do have a multi meter however i would not have a clue how to use it to test, another flaw of mine!



My solder of the new capacitor was abit **** ill be honest, i might try and re seat it, need a pointed solder tip instead of flat i think.

 

You could try re-flowing the joints around those pins - with a little bit of new solder for good measure (but not so much that you bridge across the pins!).

When you solder, make sure the tip of the iron is clean (wipe it on a damp sponge/rag) and push it firmly onto the pad AND the leg of the connector, so that they'll both accept the re-flowed solder.

Given the look of those joints I'd seriously consider baking it to re-flow all the joints, especially if you're considering binning it anyway.

Good luck.

 

Yeah i will resolder that funny join and see what happens

With the baking process what hapens? surely the plastic bit around the dvi port would melt?

Yeah i will try a lot before i do bit it, it will go on ebay for parts most likely if it doesnt work...

Thanks.

 

Looks like a dry joint for sure, in which case you'd need to completely redo it. You could maybe do the others while you're at it (especially the brown one lol) but I'd definitely get a better tip for your iron first. As well as keeping your iron clean, make sure it is well tinned too - will make your life so much easier.

 

Re soldered the dry joint on the power port... made sure all the joints for the power where soldered correctly.

And reseated the capacitor this time i was happy with the seating...

But no luck, powers without power plug but beeps, so i guess its an graphics board power thing... and hoping its not my psu...

Ah well nothing more i personally can do

 

That's a shame. Maybe put it in the FS section for somebody who likes to dabble in that sort of thing? nothing to lose, and possibly a few £ to make instead of binning the thing!

 

Thanks, yeah i might do or put it for sale on ebay as faulty for spares... thanks for your help mate.