Graphics Card Repair Guide

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

  1. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Someone with a soldering iron and some soldering skills should be able to help you with it. :think:
     
  2. boggy98

    boggy98 Newbie

    Took a while and finally found this forum. Hopefully you guys could help out with a problem I have. A cap broke off my video card and is lost... Any idea where I can find a replacement online?

    The other caps read and should be the same type and look like the attached photo:
    1 J
    220
    16V

    thanks
     

    Attached Files:

  3. DaveRL

    DaveRL Newbie

    I have a XFX 8600GT with several blown cap's. I've looked out on the
    mouser.com and other sites but I haven't been able to find the same
    markings.

    Two Types:
    FZ74 1500 6.3V
    FZ74 1000 6.3V

    All have pins through board

    Also the printing on the cap is light blue (not black)

    Thanks in advance for the help figuring out the correct
    replacement parts.
     
  4. empire23

    empire23 BRB. Attacking Russia

    If you can find the broken off one, you can just solder it back on and it should be fine if your solderwork is decent.

    You can find a replacement online from Mouser.com

    The charateristics i can give you are
    - 8mm pad SMD
    - 220uF
    - 16 Volts
    - Low ESR

    Good brands, Nippon Chemicon, Nichicon, Rubycon, Elna, Vishay Roederstein or Cornell Dubilier.

    Try searching with those stats, if you still can't find em, if i'm not too busy i'll run by mouser.com and see if i can look for anything.




    FZ, seems like cheap china sacon capacitors to me. I assume they're through hole mounted and not SMD capacitors from what i recall about them.

    Generally you can replace them Panasonic/Matsushita FM series of capacitors. You can grab em at Digikey.com if i recall correctly.

    It should 1500uF 6.3v and 1000uF 6.3v with a diameter of 5mm. If the FM series doesn't have the correct diameter, try the FC series of capacitors.

    Which reminds me, maybe i should write an article regarding IDing capacitor charateristics.
     
  5. sstott

    sstott Newbie

    I have a capacitor that broke off my video card. The legs broke off or I would put it back on.

    I have been trying to find one online but have not found anything

    A 4N1
    180
    16V

    Can someone help me find one of these?
     
  6. tirsojrp

    tirsojrp Newbie

    I have this card and I want to fix it. It seems the previous owner broke a capacitor and a choke.

    Can some one tell me the details about the missing capacitor? And where can I get both components?

    XFX GeForce 9600 GT 512MB DDR3 Standard (PV-T96G-YHFB)


    img692.imageshack.us/img692/5720/fullfk.jpg
    img685.imageshack.us/img685/1244/p1000708.jpg
    img683.imageshack.us/img683/673/choke.jpg

    I have all the necessary tools.
     
  7. empire23

    empire23 BRB. Attacking Russia

    Taking in certain assumptions, because i'm not sure what parts were there before, here's my observation and general assumption regarding the components.

    Capacitor - It's a Radial lead capacitor, seeing as to how all the other radial leaded capacitors are 6.3V 1500uF post regulator, i believe it should have the same spec. The other capacitors are vented, thus this capacitor should be an aluminium electrolytic as well.

    You will have to find a Low ESR replacement from a capacitor brand of your choosing. Depending on where you are this can vary greatly. So if you fill me in on a location i might be able to help you source something.

    Also, you'll need to give me the physical distance between both the holes. This is called the "pitch" and it's very important. It's near impossible to tell from a picture.

    Inductor - 1R0 should mean 1 uH, but it's extremely hard to tell what self resonance and impedance it should work on, but these can be generally guessed.

    The main problem as with the capacitor above is the pitch and knowing the distance between the pads as it tells alot.

    Once you get me all the info i need i should be able to help with the capacitor. As for the inductor, more work may be required on my part.
     
  8. zy

    zy zynine.com Staff Member

    Hope this helps.
    Time to enhance the image.

    [​IMG]
     
  9. zy

    zy zynine.com Staff Member

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    more!
     
  10. tirsojrp

    tirsojrp Newbie

    Thanks ZY.

    I have a PCCHIPS motherboard with a few capacitors and they have the same value, but they looks way cheaper than those on the video card.
     
  11. jlk69

    jlk69 Newbie

    Repairing a Galaxy Nvidia 7950GT AGP.

    My card blew two capacitors. One had FZ57 470 16V on the top and a distance between the pins of 5mm (10mm cap diameter). The other one had FZ6C 470 16V on the top and a distance between the pins of 4mm (8mm cap diameter). Can you help me find these capacitors?
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Nov 25, 2009
  12. asiff6000fx

    asiff6000fx Newbie

    Gigabyte GTS 250 1 GB Damaged capacitor

    hi all i bought a GIGABYTE GeForce GTS 250 1GB vga card 1 year ago it worked so good and preformed well i have played so many games in it with all set to high settings and never had a freeze or low frame rate or any other performance problem i these are few of my games with i played recently with no problem battle field bad company 2,metro,mass effect 2 ,command and conquer 4,saboteur etc etc

    but few days back my computer suddenly stooped working with no display so i cheek the pc and fund that my card fan is not running so i unplugged the card and se what happen than i saw one of the smd capacitor is blown up:(:(

    now i have some questions and want to know and understand what went wrong i am a noob in electronic stuffs

    1 - what do this small capacitors do(smd capacitor) i mean what is ther job
    2 - what can cause a capacitor like this to blow
    3 - will the damage stops from that blown up part or it might also damaged other parts

    is there a way to fix this type of damages( in your guide the damage is caused by human fault so u know exactly if we change that thing it will work but in my case its deference hope u understand)

    i have atched the images for your varification

    Thanks
     

    Attached Files:

  13. Crismaister

    Crismaister Newbie

    weird

    Hello guys, my 8600 gt stoped working after I connected the computer to the TV. :wall:
    I checked it for bad caps and from the measurements I found some capacitors that acted as they were short circuited. I took them of the board and replaced them, but to my surprise after the measurements the new caps acted exactly the same, and the ones I took off acted just as a normal capacitor should. :nuts:
    Does anybody has a clue what might cause this behavior and what could I do to fix the problem? Thank you
     
  14. empire23

    empire23 BRB. Attacking Russia

    Capacitors can act as a short circuit depending on the circuit they're placed in, that's the wonder of electronics, you can even turn transistors into fake capacitor banks with a capacitance multiplier, or a resistor with a cascoded transistor pair. Electronics is sometimes a black art especially when you aren't totally privy to the design and layout. Best you can do is guess, rule things out, follow rough guidelines and like a doctor, come up with an educated diagnosis.

    The best most people can do for a diagnosis is to put the card under a magnifier and look for anything out of place, this is the basis for troubleshooting, look for the obvious stuff first. Then comes the more advanced stuff like checking the voltages of the card to see if the regulators are working and so forth. Unfortunately, looking for anything other than pure component physical damage is hard and is card specific, plus it's one of those things i don't recommend unless you're totally surehanded with those probes.


    The basic electronic set is made out of a few elements, generally R, C and L, R being resistance, C being capacitance and L being Inductance. All components no matter how complex can be boiled down to these 3 primal factors. Capacitors are one of the primary components. Basically they hold an electric charge and resist a change in voltage, while inductors are the opposite and resist a change in current.

    Capacitors can do so many things, they can smoothen voltage, they can stabilize circuits, reduce oscillation, dampen systems, compensate in feedback loops, form filters, remove DC components. Too many to describe actually. We can only guess what that capacitor was doing there without the schematics, but usually on the part of the graphics card you have given, because it's near the power supply FET/Regulator, i will assume it is a stabilizing or compensating capacitor. Like I describe above, EnE is one of those things you don't do without a healthy amount of guesswork.

    Whether the damage stops or not again is hard to say. A blowing capacitor is like a blowing switch. The basic law of electrics states that when you cut the flow of current in an infinitely short time (like a capacitor blowing), there's an infinite amount of voltage, depending on whether a clamping or snubber circuit is available, this can cause damage down the line, especially with very voltage sensitive components such as FETs (due to their sensitive oxide layer). Hard to say, but it is the gist of things, and I believe that especially when a capacitor isn't paralleled, and sudden blowing of a cap can be a disaster for a piece of sensitive electronics. :(

    You probably can revive the card if the cap is the only thing obviously damaged, but as with all repairs, it's a gamble due to the nature of electronics. Some manufacturers just cut corners in components sometimes and it can't be helped. If you can get a macro picture of the cap and the pad designation, it might help me ID a suitable replacement.


    Any of the large manufacturers should make the cap you require as long as they're low ESR caps due to the pretty standard nature of the values required. The thing is, where you live or the suppliers you have access to determine to a very large extent the caps you choose. For example if you have access to Digikey, Rubycon and Elna capacitors become easy to source and so forth.

    Thus a location and your access to suppliers would be helpful.
     
  15. Crismaister

    Crismaister Newbie

    Thanks

    Thanks for the reply empire23. I've checked capacitors and inductors for physical damage, but none found. As a last resort I tried the oven repair tehnique :pray:, didn't work. So I guess the last thing to do is to buy a new card. :)
     
  16. dr_rozge

    dr_rozge Newbie

    Damaged zotac 460 gtx

    Hello.
    Can anyone help me with identifying these little, I suppose capacitors.
     

    Attached Files:

  17. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    I'm not sure if this can be repaired. The solder traces have been ripped off.
     
  18. MaxPowerPC

    MaxPowerPC Newbie

    Hello guys,

    one very useful tool for GPU repairs that I use the last 4 years is the CS-FLUX.If you want to check it there is a very helpful tutorial in the youtube named ''CS FLUX application instructions for GPU removal or reflow''
     
  19. D3dx11

    D3dx11 Newbie

    Hello,

    First of all, congratulations on the material and thanks for sharing. I have a problem with my video card and I would like to know if I can post the problem here or if you have a specific place for it
     

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