Graphics Card Repair Guide

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

  1. sheltem

    sheltem Newbie

    Hey, my friend tried fixing my Geforce 7900GT. Unfortunately he tore off the black plastic piece that goes before the capacitor. Now the area around the capacitor shows brown marks (see picture attached), since I tried booting with the capacitor attached. Is my video card screwed?
     

    Attached Files:

  2. empire23

    empire23 BRB. Attacking Russia

    The black piece of plastic or what is called the "seater" can be easily put back onto the capacitor, just put the legs of the cap back into the holes and then bend the legs. After that you can try again i guess. Remember that to insert the legs back into the seater, they should be at 90 degrees downwards (straight down), then after they're back in the seat, push the legs to 180 degrees so they're level with the board.

    You can try resoldering without the seater, but it makes like a little harder because the seater keeps things level. But it is possible.
     
  3. sheltem

    sheltem Newbie

    Okay so my friend was able to attach a brand new capacitor to my broken 7900GT and the card still shows visual artifacts when booting up. He tried 2 other different capacitors and they all exhibit the same problem. What else could be wrong with the card? The card was working fine before I broke off the capacitor.
     
  4. empire23

    empire23 BRB. Attacking Russia

    First off, you can't just cocok in any capacitor and expect it to work, capacitors to be used in graphics cards should have low ESR, tangent loss and such. Generally what i'm saying it, try to win the Le Mans 24 hours in kancil isn't exactly the best idea ya :p

    Here's my recommendation depending on brand

    Sanyo - SEPC series
    Sanyo - SVP series
    Rubycon - MCZ series
    Nichicon - HZ series
    NipponChemicon - KZG series

    all the above should be able to take the place of the broken cap but i do recommend the Sanyos above the other due to the high mArms values capacitors in graphics card are subjected to.

    And one last thing, sometimes even the best of us get the polarity wrong, remember the black bar on the capacitor (or marking) always points away from positive.
     
  5. The_YongGrand

    The_YongGrand Just Started

    I'm not sure about that, but could my friend's Radeon 9800 card is already not working at all be revived by replacing the caps? :D
     
  6. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    I don't think so. :mrgreen:

    It depends on the problem. If he fried the VPU itself, there's not much point in changing the capacitors, right? :D
     
  7. sheltem

    sheltem Newbie

    Hi, I was unclear in my previous post. What I meant was that I ordered 5 of the same capacitors and my friend tried 3 of them. My friend made sure that the capacitor matched up with the one he was replacing. However in light of your previous statement, I am not sure if the replaced capacitor are adequate for my video card. Could you take a look at the capacitors that I ordered? I really appreciate all the help you are giving me.
     

    Attached Files:

  8. empire23

    empire23 BRB. Attacking Russia

    The capacitors you bought are throughhole, meaning they have legs that need to go through holes in the board and if the picture you posted above is correct, you might need to reorder SMD versions.

    And make sure you don't get the polarity wrong, i can't stress this enough, plug in the polarity in wrongly and it might just fry your card or burn out the other capacitors in parallel or series with the wrongly placed capacitor.
     
  9. BSharp

    BSharp Newbie

    Broken :(

    Hello all, i was wondering if anyone could help me with a little problem of mine, i'll tell my little story to what happend.

    Ok, so it was the day that i decided to fix a problem with my harddrives head controller, i noticed that i needed a star screwdriver to be able to fix the problem, so i popped out to get a tool set, when i got back home my pc was packed away in its case again along with the harddrive, when i opened it up to my shock i saw the harddrive lent on my graphics card :o, i took a look to see if i could see any damage, and i couldn't believe what i saw, a tiny little piece so very small had broken off, i booted up to see if it would work but it did not, it gave a little beep :(, i still have the little piece that broke off, but it has a little damage one of its legs come off, look at the pic below to know what i'm talking about because i don't know what that part is called.

    i hope u can help me :(.

    Below is not my graphics card it is similer, also the mettalic strip off the board seams to have ripped off along with it and as i said before one of its legs has torn off :(.
     

    Attached Files:

  10. empire23

    empire23 BRB. Attacking Russia

    You mean even the metallic strip on the board (which contacts the board to the legs) has been torn off? That's what we call a board pad and yeah, they're pretty fragile and hard to repair. But i guess there's still hope.

    Before you start on anything, rememeber that you want to connected the board to the component without touching anything else.

    Add a blob of solder on the pad or the metallic strip (once you replace it in position), hold the broke leg with a tweezer and push it into the blob of solder. Pull back the iron and let it cool while holding the leg in place. Once the joint has cooled, bend the leg back into the body of IC, then solder the body to the leg, making sure none of the other pins have been touched by your solder work.

    Hope it helps :)

    It's probably an aluminium organic electrolyte capacitor (SMD style), because IIRC the GX2's caps don't have vents.

    The rating should be
    180 uf @ 16 volts tolerance

    Although i can't really give you the exact replacement part (63D doesn't seem to be a known series number/designation to me, but i bet it's nipponchemicon)

    But try this part number

    APXE160ARA181MHA0G

    Try mouser.com/Alliedelec.com/digikey.com , for the parts.

    It should work just fine as the capacitor above follows the 8mm diamter size as the one on the GX2 (do help me confirm the diameter of the broken cap in mm.

    Hope it helps :)
     


  11. Are you sure about the part number? I haven't been able to find it so far. But I do appreciate the help.
     
  12. BSharp

    BSharp Newbie

    Ahhh

    Ahh yes but, the strip that tore off was also in the same position were the leg tore off, and the leg that came off of that little piece i couldn't find it :( so all is lost ? unless i can find the leg, i will post pics of my card when i get back home ;)
     
  13. fantoms

    fantoms Newbie

    need help too.

    Hi,
    I need help too.
    I have a Sapphire x1300le/HM videocard. I think that the TVout is damaged. Please advice what to do to check if it is true and how to fix it.
    Tanks,
     
  14. OK. Installed the new capacitor. Card boots up fine but shuts down after about 10 minutes. The cap installed is rated for 105 degrees, I couldn't find one meeting my needs rated at 125 degrees. Do you think that temp. is the issue?
     
  15. empire23

    empire23 BRB. Attacking Russia

    Temp usually isn't the issue, it but the ripple rating, but usually a lower temp infers a low ripple rating, so try a cap with a higher temp rating might do the trick, but here's a few other probable causes.

    1. Bad solder joints (make sure they look neat and are as small as possible)
    2. Graphics card might just be clocked too high for the new capacitor (some cards come preoced so lower the frequency and see how it goes)
    3. Temp might be an issue as the GX2 is a damned hot card (so try putting some air on it and see how it goes)
    4. Improper seating ( a badly seated cap can increase instability)

    Hope it helps.
     
  16. pothead13

    pothead13 Newbie

    Hi

    I have also broken a cap (A 63D 180 16V) of my Point of View Nvidia GeForce 2x 7950GX2 and not sure what one to order.

    can anyone help me on which one to order


    ps i have not noticed any problems since the cap snaped off but have not tried a game or dvd video as yet. can the card still run 100% with one of the cap missing or do i need to replace it.

    many thanks

    I am based in the uk
     
  17. empire23

    empire23 BRB. Attacking Russia

    You should try resoldering it back on because finding the exact cap is a labourious process.
     
  18. Y0da

    Y0da Newbie

    Hi,

    I recently recieved an XFX Geforce 7600 GS 512mb AGP card, which was damaged in the post.
    It appears that only two components are damaged I would greatly appreciate it if someone would help me identify suitable replacement components for these.

    [​IMG]

    The first component (labelled 1), which I believe to be an inductor has been bent over and the magnet inside the loop has snapped.

    The second component (labelled 2), has snapped off (I think it was a capacitor).
    The text on top of the component labelled 2 is:
    PS 66k 330 16V

    [​IMG]

    I think this capacitor maybe ok as a replacement, but the legs are 3.5mm apart instead of 5mm will this make any difference if i just bend them?
    http://rswww.com/cgi-bin/bv/rswww/searchBrowseAction.do?N=0&Ntk=I18NAll&Ntt=315-0451

    thanks in advance for any help.
     
  19. empire23

    empire23 BRB. Attacking Russia

    The capacitor you chose is in my view insufficient as a replacement. Although the FC is pretty well regarded, i would recommend a proper Polymer or Organic Polymer electrolyte based capacitor (or known as a solid capacitor). I suggest you find something with the same leads as bending legs on noise sensitive boards may introduce some nasty effects. I suggest you try the Sanyo SEPC or SVP series or a few of Nichicon's offerings (IIRC your broken cap is a nichicon) as a replacement.

    For the inductor, well that's generally generic, but since you probably don't have and LCR meter on hand you'll have to generally guess via formula the inductance needed.

    Since it's a toroid inductor, the formula is
    [​IMG]
    From the looks of it, your core seems to be either powered ferrite or moly permalloy. (Be sure to verify this with a magnet on hand). Knowing the metal used in the toroid is important because you need to know the permitivity to complete the formula and get an end value.

    Just use the formula to get something with about the same induction. Most power sections aren't too terribly picky about the inductor so as long as it's of spec and fit, you shouldn't have too much of a hard time.
     
  20. Wanda

    Wanda Newbie

    Gigabyte GeForce 6800

    Ok, if this is all beyond you and you don't have the the tools available; where would one look to find a place that will do the repairs?
     

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