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Burst Capacitors, safe to use?

D

dirtyrobot

n00b
Joined
Nov 19, 2007
Messages
8
Hello,

I have an EVGA 7600GT with 4 burst capacitors. The card works fine and overall the system is stable. Would it be a fire hazard to continue using this card? I'd love to replace the card but I've spent waaay too much money lately :p

Thanks for any infos provided!
 
only way Id use it is if I wanted to toss out my system and buy totally new.. but that would be the only way...
 
I hope you have good house insurance and a very handy fire extinguisher nearby,you are playing chicken with potential fire,sir.
 
Maybe EVGA used some especially crappy capacitors for the 7600GT? I sent mine back to them for replacement last week with three burst capacitors, the first time I had that happen with a video card.

Anyway, don't use it and don't bother fixing it yourself. EVGA will give you a new one for free.
 
Haha, I've heard about so many Evga 7600GT's that had blown capacitors (I had one)

I simply had a buddy re-solder some new ones on, it ran fine with the blown one, but would freeze in 3D games intermittently.. freeze the entire system like a hard-lock for 30seconds, then unfreeze... was really strange...
 
Oh goof grief, I'm getting a real kick out of all the 'fire' comments.

There is no danger from running the card in it's current state, but if it's not already causing system instability it eventually will. Leaking electrolyte will cause the capacitor to change in farad value and will (eventually) begin affecting the performance of the card.

I'm more interested to see a picture of the card in question... I thought Nvidia had switched to all solid caps on their cards long before the 7 series came around. Although if it's a third party design corners could have been cut in that department.
 
Blue Falcon said:
I'm more interested to see a picture of the card in question... I thought Nvidia had switched to all solid caps on their cards long before the 7 series came around. Although if it's a third party design corners could have been cut in that department.
Click to expand...

Mine had solid caps and they were still leaking with some yellow/pale fuzzy kinda stuff poking out the top.

Faction said:
eVGA offers a lifetime warranty.. take advantage of it.
Click to expand...

Only if you register within 30 days, otherwise it's a 1 yr warranty.

Fun to know eh?
 
I don't know why everyone keeps calling it a fire hazard. Eventually the card will become unstable and artifact/crash, but it is not a fire hazard.
 
Ok, here are the pics:

7600gt_01.jpg


7600gt_02.jpg
 
Nice pics. Looks like these caps got a bit too much juice or heat than they could take.

No, this card won't catch on fire like this, but chances are it won't run very stable anymore, if at all. It's relatively easy to replace these caps, however. Might want to up on the temperature and voltage ratings on the caps in that case, though.
 
WOW i have never seen solid ones do that
had to be a bad batch i would totaly call them and BEG for them to replace it
DO NOT SAY you forget to reg the card chances are they will still RMA it
 
I know one burst capacitor usually runs fine. But with four you will most likely suffer problems.
 
Elledan said:
Nice pics. Looks like these caps got a bit too much juice or heat than they could take.

No, this card won't catch on fire like this, but chances are it won't run very stable anymore, if at all. It's relatively easy to replace these caps, however. Might want to up on the temperature and voltage ratings on the caps in that case, though.
Click to expand...

The 7600GT's have had a problem with the voltage regulation of the board. IMHO scrap the board and get something better. If you replace the caps on the GC, it will still deliver more voltage to the caps than they can take and decrease the life of them.

Get a 9600 or 9500GT for cheap.
 
Elios said:
WOW i have never seen solid ones do that
had to be a bad batch i would totaly call them and BEG for them to replace it
DO NOT SAY you forget to reg the card chances are they will still RMA it
Click to expand...

Those capacitors are not solid, they are actually liquid electrolytic capacitors with a solid covering. True solid state caps do not have cuttings on the top like the ones that the OP posted above.
 
CptFalcon said:
Those capacitors are not solid, they are actually liquid electrolytic capacitors with a solid covering. True solid state caps do not have cuttings on the top like the ones that the OP posted above.
Click to expand...

thats pretty sleazy
 
I had a Ti4600 with a blown capacitor.

It lasted about 18 months, during the time 3 more capacitors blew. When the 4th capacitor died so did the card.
 
Its an EVGA, use the lifetime warranty, heck you might even get an upgraded card since those aren't really made anymore.
 
Dirty Robot, i strong suggest you set up an RMA for this product and call technical support to see if they can arrange that for you.
 
inotocracy said:
Would you drive a car with cut brake lines? No? Didn't think so.
Click to expand...

There's a difference. The car can potentially kill us in an accident

Here, the capacitor won't kill anyone. Worse case is the card stop working. Doubt it can even set the card on fire.

It doesn't pose any hazard, so if the guy choose to stick with it due to not having the money to replace it, i guess its fine. He can get new replacement card with more than twice the performance when this card starts crashing :p
 
I went and picked up a cheap 9600GT to replace it. I'll try to RMA the 7600GT with EVGA. I'll post an update when I have one. Thanks for all the comments, much appreciated. :)
 
Have you actually been gaming on it? I wonder how the card would perform if you put some stress on it versus just dicking around in Windows.
 
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