Broken capacitor on graphics card?

Hi everyone, this is my first post, but got no time for introductions!

I recently got a 2nd hand MSI Geforce 4 Ti 4800SE off a friend through the post, but when I received it a capacitor (small one next to the VGA out port if anyone has a pic) had broken off. I installed the card anyway (against good advice and my better judgement :Oops: ) and everything seems to work OK, 3D apps included. I'm just worried that it won't last and that everything's going to go wrong.

One side of me says it may just be for something I'm not going to use, like the VIVO capability and everything'll be fine, but the other side says I'm just trying to reassure myself and being an idiot.

Any advice?

Cheers in advance, you lovely, lovely people :)

Just run it, if it runs it runs :P Have you got the capacitor that broke off? If you can get the details i should be able to source a replacement one for you to solder back on.

Easy as pie:

a) you need to either find a complete card and figure out what value cap it is using or hope that nVidia didn't skimp on silkscreening and read off the value if it is marked

b) get a replacement and solder the sucker on...but as it is working fine right now don't be too worried..I would be worried if the cap the 'fell off' blew off :p

I've still got the capacitor and I'm seriously considering trying to solder it back on myself. The only problem is that I haven't done any soldering since before my GCSEs at school, and then it was just to make a sort of wire sculpture - none of this high-tech electronics malarkey...

What kind of cap is it? The barrel type electrolytics tend to be part of the power supply circuitry, but it's not unknown for there to be some redundancy, and the card may run fine with one missing. The likelihood is that the card won't OC as well and the other caps may wear out quicker as they're under more load, but otherwise if it works I wouldn't worry too much. I have an Inno3D Ti4400 at home (which coincidentally suffers from leaky cap disease, but never mind) and the only real difference between that and the Inno3D Ti4600 is that the 4600 has more power supply caps, there are a couple of empty spaces on the 4400 board. I'm half tempted to bung in a couple of extra ones when I get round to replacing the leaky caps and see if it improves my OC:).

Smaller caps e.g. polythene or surface mount type tend to be used for stuff like filtering signals etc, so it may be that (say) the TV out looks funny or something. Equally though, it may do no harm whatsoever. A few years back people discovered that the picture signal output of Geforce 2s could be improved by removing some of the caps that were used to filter out radio emissions. The picture got much sharper at high resolutions with them removed.

Incidentally, I'm a very amateur solderer, and the one repair I have ever succeeded with was replacing a leaky electrolytic on a motherboard. If you can use a soldering iron and you still have the broken off cap to get the spec, you could have a go at replacing it.

Rich :¬)

Ah, well I did notice that the picture wasn't as sharp as with my old graphics card but put it down to nvidia shoddy 2D... If that's all it is, then I'll leave it as it is...

BUT HOW CAN I BE SURE :inquisiti

In case this helps anybody help me, there's a picture of the card here

http://www.yesky.com/20021218/msi_ti4800se_1217.jpg
(the top one)

http://www.benchmark.co.yu/tests/vga...800se_over.jpg
http://www.overclockzone.com/spin9/r...e/DSCN0115.JPG

The capacitor in question is the one in the top left corner, right by the blue VGA-out port.

So anyway, if I were to solder it back on, you think I should get a new one rather than sticking the same one back?

edited: couple of better pics :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by StixxUK

So anyway, if I were to solder it back on, you think I should get a new one rather than sticking the same one back?

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I would- capacitors cost pennies usually, and if it's been hit hard enough to snap off the board there's a chance it'll have received some internal damage. I'll also be a right fiddle trying to solder to a tiny stump on the bottom of the cap. I'm not sure what that cap does, but I don't think it's a power supply one. It may well have some kind of image filtering function.

Rich :¬)

Quote:

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The capacitor in question is the one in the top left corner, right by the blue VGA-out port.

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if you mean that big round 1 then yes put it back on they are easy to solder

I would also solder it back on. Nvidia don't put them there for no reason. Even though they don't cost much with the amount of cards they make it would be some kind of saving!

I would say buy a new one and make sure its the same and solder it back on :)

I had a voodoo 3 with a capacitor knocked off and it worked fine for a couple of years until i sold it.

easiest way to solder it on - for broken joints - I find rather than burning the traces and making a mess of the PCB, give the cap some height (say 1-2mm long legs)...now solder this to the points on the card. Of course these are electrolytic so you'll have to be carefull of polarity - fix? Get what is called a NP cap....non polarized and work either way....

The diameter of the cap is a clue to the minimum p.d. across it. I.e. a 16v cap is smaller than one that would hold say 100v (or 240v which are the size of a fill roll container - you find these inside your PSU)...

What you need to find out is how many mf (milli farhads) the cap is. Try get some one to take a pic of the said cap through a magnifying glass - I've done this and it works!!

Of course, if they have an uber digicam it makes life easier...

Mike

I know this is a very old thread but I'm in the same situation as the person above. I need a replacement capacitor for my 6800gt. It is labled 330 and 16. It is a surface mount type. Where can I get any?

Photos are here: http://photos.yahoo.com/sanjeevan.t@rogers.com

Have toy tried maplins if there is a local store near you i had a capacitor break on a pld motherboard got one from maplins the guys know there stuf.