Popped Capacitor off my Mobo...want to replac e

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Xa3phod

Limp Gawd
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Sep 19, 2012
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Hey folks. Accidentally popped a capacitor off my mobo. I want to buy another capacitor and install it. How do I find this specific capacitor? I have a soldering gun, so shouldn't be too hard.

Attached is a photo of the culprit. Anyone know where I can buy one? Equal or better quality.

Is it a 560 Microfarad and 4 volts?

Appreciate the help.
 

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  • Capacitor.jpg
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you don't have any junk something you can rob something from?
find just any 10-16v...gotta be something you have with those and close capacitance, 4v might be a little harder to find but it will still work.
 
I haven't soldered electronics since 1980, so I'm rusty. Don't I need a similar Capacitance? How do I find this particular capacitor online? What do I look for?
 
Xa3phod said:
I haven't soldered electronics since 1980, so I'm rusty. Don't I need a similar Capacitance? How do I find this particular capacitor online? What do I look for?
Click to expand...

Depends who made it, some markings and stuff can be weird might need to look it up. old gpu, board something...560 should be able to find...if not rob a 470 or an 820 etc...it will work probably...depending where at might work fine without it still unaffected.
 
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>>I have a soldering gun, so shouldn't be too hard.

You will destroy the mobo with a soldering gun.

See if an electronics repair shop will fix it for $40-$50.

.
 
I went to a repair shop and had a new capacitor put in. The thing won't post. Fans go on, but no posting. No idea. It wasn't the same capacitor, but it has a much higher voltage rating 25 vs 4, but the same uF.

Any ideas? I think the mobo is dead.

So question: I have an FX 6350 with a mobo. I know it sucks for gaming. Is it worth getting another mobo for my beloved 2500K or just use the FX and sell the 2500k? The motherboards for the 2500K start at around $80 on Ebay used. Is this a good use of cash? Is the performance worth it?

Thanks for the info
 
Did you reset the bios on your motherboard? Reset it and see if it works again. If it is still stuck, try removing the battery and letting it sit overnight without power going to it.

Did you try to boot it with one stick of memory in? Video card might not be seated properly. A cable could be loose even though it looks like it is in properly.

I always try troubleshooting first before I start buying things. Let it sit for a day and then look at it again. Usually you will figure out what's wrong. ;)
 
Yeah, I'll try. Only issue is that its a spare computer I keep at my parent's house in case I want to game while visiting (nice son, right?). So, have to try again sometime this week when I go back. 30 minute drive.
 
do what cagey said but yeah the shop should have know that...
post a pic of the work, front and back, if you can. you did leave it out of the case to test, right!?:)
 
Did the mobo POST before the shop replaced the cap?

They should have done a better job to match what was in there, even if they had to order the cap.

.
 
The mobo worked last time it was turned on. I was reinstalling the mobo when I accidentally popped off the capacitor. No, of course I installed it completely. I will have to pull it out. I should be there today, so I'll take a picture of the back of the board then.
 
Ok, it booted.
Issue, I can only boot if dimm slot a1 or b1 is populated. If I put anything in slots a2 or b2 it will not boot. I tried the ram in different combinations. Ends up that a2 and b2 stop it from booting.

So, any solutions? I can run the computer with 1 stick of 4GB ram or run my AMD FX6360 with 8 gigs of ram.
Or, do I just need a new board?
Any way to fix this or you think the board is just f-ed up?

Thanks!
 
if you have a decent cooler that fx chip should do 4.5GHz no prob. use that for now and order another correct cap to try on the damaged board. then if that doesn't help call it dead.
 
I had the 2500K at 4.5. Running the 6350 at 4.5 is still a huge step down in performance, right? I have an evo212 on it with good airflow.

Do you think its the cap thats the culprit?
 
depends on what youre playing/doing but it will get you by in the meantime. the 212 is good for 4.5 no prob, I had a 8120 @4.6 with a 212.
it could be, wont know until you have a proper cap on there.
 
I didn't do the cap, so no offense taken. The uF is the same, the volts are much higher, but it should work. No reason why it wouldn't.
 
Xa3phod said:
I didn't do the cap, so no offense taken. The uF is the same, the volts are much higher, but it should work. No reason why it wouldn't.
Click to expand...

Ah thought someone talked you into a different Cap value. Yes equal or larger voltage, should be good to go.
 
Good news and thanks for the advice. I reseated the CPU and boom, it works. I guess its possible it was in too tighly and was warping the contact area between the pins and the mobo. I didn't make it too tight, and the other dimm slot is working.

Great news. Installing Steam on it now. I have it overclocked to 4.5Ghz. I am try to overclock the GTX 970 as well.

Thanks for the help all!
 
It is very poor practice to not match the cap exactly as there are far more ratings of a cap than just capacitance and voltage. The only time it is safe to use higher voltage is in a power supply circuit as those are used as reservoirs while a circuit that handles signals and anything more precise may degrade over time. It can also cause instability from the cap not matching and causing oscillation in the circuit.
 
Spun Ducky said:
It is very poor practice to not match the cap exactly as there are far more ratings of a cap than just capacitance and voltage. The only time it is safe to use higher voltage is in a power supply circuit as those are used as reservoirs while a circuit that handles signals and anything more precise may degrade over time. It can also cause instability from the cap not matching and causing oscillation in the circuit.
Click to expand...
The rated voltage of a cap is just that, the voltage that cap is rated to handle, if all other specs are identical two caps rated at different voltages are interchangeable. I'm guessing you're thinking of ESR which *might* be a factor in the circuit design and if the ESR of a cap is important, simply matching capacitance and voltage for a replacement isn't a guarantee it will function as intended.

The cap in your picture is made by apaq, but I can't find any reference to that series of capacitors on their site so it's either out of production, or (and this is my best guess) it's custom for the mobo manufacturer. Depending on how long you intend to use the board you might want to send them an email to see if they're willing to share the specs of that cap. If they do I'd strongly recommend comparing them to the specs of the replacement cap (and if they're different buy a more closely matched replacement cap on mouser or digikey and take that to whoever fixed it the first time.)
 
As far as I can see, the higher voltage rating is just that, it can handle more voltage. The mF is the real indicator and its identical. Going to leave it as is and just go with it. Its a spare computer, so I don't care that much.
 
You can safely go higher on the voltage when replacing an electrolytic capacitor - be it solid (in this case) or liquid. Anyone who tells you anything different is, quite frankly, blowing smoke.

Granted, you wouldn't want to go to extremes for both cost and package size reasons.

Capacitance rating needs to pretty much be dead on, and the ESR value also needs to be in spec. Most of the caps you'll find on motherboards today are low ESR and replacing them with any cheap-o generic part will lead to unpredictable results. All of the sudden you've got a circuit full of components with very tight tolerances and someone goes throwing a cheap Teapo cap in there and the end result is way off.

If the right equipment isn't used there can also be unseen damage - both in the form of static discharge related and even lifted traces that might not even be seen on a cursory exam.

Sounds to me like your plan to just not use the affected DIMM slot might be a good one.
 
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