Ripped a capacitor off of a 7900 GT KO

M

mr saturn

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 6, 2006
Messages
205
EVGA_7900GT_KO_Superclocked.jpg


That little one in the bottom right was popped off while trying to pull the card for a mobo change (it literally fell off with a little brush. the posts were entirely intact, it looked as though it "unstuck" from the board). We soldered it back on, albeit kind of hodge-podge. The connections are there though. It booted and played Oblivion fine, and some COH... But the monitor went dark and read 'no signal' in company of heroes after a bit, causing a manual restart. Temperatures are now being monitored and it's hitting 80s under decent load. The case could very well be suffering from overheating, but I was just wondering if there could be an issue with that solder.

Anyone know what that capacitor's main purpose is? This might help us figure the issue out. He has an extended warranty with the retailer until the end of the month, so we might end up heading that route...
 
There were issues with some manufacturers a while back that manifested in some capacitors coming off either in shipping or when handled. I'd definately go the warranty route though with the "hodge-podge" solder job, they may think you tried to mod the card and void the warranty. When something like that happens on a lifetime/extended warranty part, replace it under warranty, don't try and fix it yourself.
 
Had we known about the problems with the board to begin with, we would have immediately taken the warranty route. Unfortunately I don't keep up to speed on every development in the video card industry, so we were left to believe that it was our own stupidity that caused the cap to break off.

The card is working fine save for the obvious overheating. We made it througha full CoH match with the case door open and a window open. Would the novice solder job make the board more prone to heat issues? If so, we'll clean our solder off and return it with the knowledge that it is a more widespread problem than previously believed.
 
mr saturn said:
Had we known about the problems with the board to begin with, we would have immediately taken the warranty route. Unfortunately I don't keep up to speed on every development in the video card industry, so we were left to believe that it was our own stupidity that caused the cap to break off.

The card is working fine save for the obvious overheating. We made it througha full CoH match with the case door open and a window open. Would the novice solder job make the board more prone to heat issues? If so, we'll clean our solder off and return it with the knowledge that it is a more widespread problem than previously believed.
Click to expand...

RMA it anyway if its an EVGA like pictured they will probably let you.
 
The solder job could possibly cause problems but who knows? Capacitors are generally used for stabilising power rails, providing reserve power, DC blocking, and various frequency filters. You often find that a system can lose a few caps and keep working fine.
 
I knocked a capacitor off my 9800Pro about a year ago, same way as you, trying to wrestle it out of the mobo.... I was a little scared at first, but I booted it up anyways and haven't had a problem since. My brother was using it up until a month ago. Never had any problems
 
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