Graphics Card Repair Guide

Discussion in 'Reviews & Articles' started by Dashken, Apr 20, 2007.

  1. Dashken

    Dashken Administrator!

    If your expensive graphics card ever pops a capacitor after its warranty expires, is that the end of the road? Fear not! All is not lost.

    Let Empire23 show you just how you can turn your dead card into a fully-working graphics card. All you need are a few cheap tools and some chutzpah.

    [​IMG]

    Link : Graphics Card Repair Guide
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2007
  2. peaz

    peaz ARP Webmaster Staff Member

    Wow. That's some serious precision soldering action dude! ;)
     
  3. The_YongGrand

    The_YongGrand Just Started

    Great article! A suggestion too, make an article about cap-replacement in motherboards! :thumb:

    Personally, I did that on my victim - a K6-2 motherboard and replaced only a few (too bad I didn't replace the others 'cause of no matching capacitors available - must order from Farnell perhaps!!).

    If you can get hold of a dental-pick, that'll be very easy to scrape out solder from the holes. Remember the PCB are multilayered, so you gotta be very precise about removing all of the residues out of the hole before putting a new cap in.

    Another best way of de-soldering it is vaccumming. Well, that's pretty expensive option, but the quickest way. I thought of using a DC-powered vacumm cleaner, and its end modified with a small nozzle. :shock:

    edit: Safety - if you have a small plastic container (skip this if it's a video card - the cap is facing directly onto the casing instead), please cover around the replaced caps on the motherboard when you start the comp - sometimes it might burst maybe of wrong polarities, or an unlucky occasion of bad cap.
     
  4. empire23

    empire23 BRB. Attacking Russia

    Great Idea lol. Now i just need a board with el cheapo caps or something and somebody to supply nice caps. Then it'll probably only be a day's work writing such an article.

    For removing solder residue from holes, nothing really beats the wick, because solder has a high surface tension, it readily absorbs into the wick most of the time. Why most modders don't use this? Well i dunno. But it does have a high cost of about 15 bucks for a small reel. Just wet the board with some flux and then use the baby.

    OR, the 100 percent and effective cheap method. Cut one of the capacitor's legs reaaaly short. Blob the solder on the pad, straighten the capacitor, hold the soldering iron's the pad and push long cap leg into the hot solder as far as you can. Then just heat up the other pad and bend the cap in, and slowly see saw the capacitor in a repeat of the above steps until it's firmly seated. Cheap, and Effective. Although the getting burned part and holding a capacitor, soldering iron and a motherboard at 90 degrees all at the same time may not appeal to some lol.

    Enough practice and you can easily finish a capacitor in 30 seconds.
     
  5. Thunderstroke

    Thunderstroke Newbie

    Thnx for good guide:)

    Hi there

    I just wonder,,where can i buy parts for my card, it is a radeon 9600XT 256mb ddr (128bits).
    What I miss is one of the tiny, tiny,,reeeal tiny part beside the memorythingy :p Its componentnumber on the card is R867 and the number ON the missing part is 560, and is located on the left corner on the opposite site of the fan,,(backside),,btw all the 8 memorythingys have this component. Seems like you ppl know what you are doing so you probably know what this components name is to :).......(like capasitor is one partname).

    Oh one more thing......ATI have just given out a new driver (included ccc) and its supposed to support overcloking this time (it wasnt on the betaversjon) for VISTA.
    It can be found here:
    http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/vista32/common-vista32.html

    Once again Thnx for a great guide on how to fix damaged cards. :D
     
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2007
  6. The_YongGrand

    The_YongGrand Just Started

    You can try replacing caps on old and cheap boards first. Normally a Sanyo or Nichicon works well if you want high-quality caps.

    How about MOSFETs replacement? They are not that easy, judging by the components shapes and systems. :thumb:
     
  7. empire23

    empire23 BRB. Attacking Russia

    A bit hard, but here, the quality of a good pair of tweezers becomes invaluable. I for one prefer EREMs and OKs, long ones with very fine tips. The Idea is to heat the solder pad holding down the sink on the MOSFET, and then use the tweezers to prop it up while it's hot. After that it should be a cakewalk.




    R should mean Resistor. C should mean Capacitor. L means Inductor. EC means Electrolytic Capacitor and so on. So i figure that you're probably missing a resistor.

    560 should mean 560 ohms. For example if the resistor reads 56R2, the number behind R should indicate the the amount of zeroes, and thus 56R2 should be 5600 ohms. So the part you are missing is a resistor of 560 ohms.

    Ok, now to get something that fits. Generally size doesn't really matter as long as you can mount it, and it's 560 ohms, don't worry, it should work fine.

    You can purchase SMD resistors from Mouser.com, Digikey.com and Alliedelec.com. Make sure you measure the resistors, and get one which size matches. Measurements are usually in mm.

    When you wanna solder it in, use the slide method of soldering.

    1) Blob on side of the pad with a little solder
    2) Put the resistor on the surface of the board (not on the pad)
    3) Heat the pad and at the same time while the solder is still liquid, slide the resistor into the pad.
    4) Solder the other side.
    5) Enjoy

    Now that wasn't too hard right?
     
  8. Thunderstroke

    Thunderstroke Newbie

    Ok, thnx for the answer, this made it a kind of easier since it's not a "special" part. You know theres alot of weird things on this boards nowadays:) But the resistor, They we find all over :p I can actually go downtown to a tv rep and get that part. :D
    Ill be back to say if i managed to fix the card or sent it straight to heaven:p
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2007
  9. empire23

    empire23 BRB. Attacking Russia

    Planning an Addition to the article teaching SMD replacement.
     
  10. tweakstur

    tweakstur Newbie

    I'm also in need of help!

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    only had my webcam handy, sorry for the bad pics.

    Capacitor Reads:

    A 56D
    180
    16v

    What kind of capacitor is this and what are its specs? I tried searching around but had no luck what so ever.

    PS: Great guide, I will be using it soon as I find the capacitor I need!
     
  11. empire23

    empire23 BRB. Attacking Russia

    ^
    I'm seriously not too sure on what that brand is or it's series, but i do believe that it's a United Chemicon. But in the world of capacitors, as long as you replace it with something of the same spec, the board doesn't care because simulation software and CAD for the PCB just runs the numbers.

    Should be a 180 microfarad 16 V solid organic eletrolyte capacitor. If you wanna buy a new one i can suggest a few brands but try United Chemicon's Part numbers APXH160ARA181MJ80G or APXA160ARA181MJ80G. IF IT IS SMD. (Meaning that the legs are mounted on the face of the board)

    For Throughhole (meaning that the capacitor's legs go straight through the board), try this part number from Vishay, 94SP187X0016EBP.

    For the actual purchases, punch these numbers into sites like Digikey.com, FarnellNewark.com, Mouser.com and Alliedelec.com
     
    Last edited: May 1, 2007
  12. Thunderstroke

    Thunderstroke Newbie

    still some problems

    Hi there again, I went to the local tv-repairshop, and bougth the resistor 560 smd. and have now put it in its place (solded)
    That was as u said real easy. But still i got some graphic problems. I can run windows vista without any trouble, and nothing seems to be wrong, but when i open pictures i have some vertical stripes. in like tree couloumbs .In games aswell, then its even more. like all over,,but when i "walk" some spots is turning normal, untill i walks further. Do you have anny sugestion what causes this? and what i can do, or is it best to just forget about the card and toss it?
    btw:i cant english to well, hope u understand it anyway:)
     
  13. empire23

    empire23 BRB. Attacking Russia

    You forgot to tell me where you live :p, because standards are different around the world, forgot to remind people of that. That 560 here in Asia (we don't follow European EIA standards) would mean 560, but in other places it could mean 56 ohms. So why don't you try 56 ohms and see if the nasty stripes go away. If it doesn't try boosting the voltage.

    Sorry for not reminding you of it, even i forget stuff too :(
     
    1 person likes this.
  14. Thunderstroke

    Thunderstroke Newbie

    hi again,
    ok, i c, :) same as we have another measurements for hight's and mass.
    I am gonna try the first suggeston first- change the resistor to a 56 ohm(but since we import all computer-hardware from other countries (usa, taiwan,china and so on)i guess the card pritty much is a "standard" card.)
    The card is a kind of damaged as it is so im not afraid of trying other solutions like boosting the power, if i only knew how.
    one more thing, do you know where i can find forums (ive been loooking for 3 hours myself) for solving how to get a hp flashcard I/II (5-pinns connection) to work in a standard pc, i know there is a "usb to 5 connectors" cable, but dont want to try that unless i have "talked" to someone first.
    I'm from Norway, scandinavia btw :)
    AND THANX alot for helping me here :)
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2007
  15. Thunderstroke

    Thunderstroke Newbie

    Give up

    Hi, I just wanted to say that i gave up on the card.
     
  16. 6800

    6800 Newbie

    Hi everyone:wave:
    This is my first post here, I'm from Croatia and you have to excuse me for my english
    I have broken PixelView 6800GS PCI-E
    As you can see the SMD capacitor is broken and I can't put it back
    Now I must find replacment for him but here where I live there is no shop where I can find SMD, only "regular" (I hope you know what I mean)
    The problem is that these leters and numbers on capacitor (BH 100 ETZ) mean nothing to me and I was hoping that you can tell me how many volts and farads must be replaced with
    I hope that U have inough info to help me, if you dont just ask
    THNX
     

    Attached Files:

  17. empire23

    empire23 BRB. Attacking Russia

    You see the two extra holes in the middle of the pad? i pretty much figure that you can replace the SMD compoent with a throughhole one by using that hole.

    You probably need around 5-8 volts @ 100 uF. Becareful to select low ESR, DCL and loss capacitors.
     
  18. 6800

    6800 Newbie

    one more question
    what this ESR and DCL mean
     
  19. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

  20. Dashken

    Dashken Administrator!

    Graphics Card Repair Guide Rev. 2.0

    The article has just been updated! :wave:

    If your expensive graphics card ever pops a capacitor after its warranty expires, is that the end of the road? Fear not! All is not lost.

    Let Empire23 show you just how you can turn your dead card into a fully-working graphics card. All you need are a few cheap tools and some chutzpah.

    Quote from the article:-
    [​IMG]

    Link : Graphics Card Repair Guide Rev. 2.0
     

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