Capacitor fell off today

M

Myorthos

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Jun 21, 2004
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When I got up this morning and tried to turn on my dads computer (using some of his hard drive space), it wouldn't even boot up to POST, it would just turn on the fans and sit there. So I tried a couple more times, waited a while, then tried again. Finally I opened up the case and at the bottom I found a loose capacitor. Both ends on it are fully intact and have not been broken, so I'm slightly at loss as to how it came out. No one's opened the computer in almost a year, and before that it was just for things like cleaning and putting in a new optical drive.

Anyways, I have a soldering iron, I know where on the video card it goes, as well as the polarity, so is it possible that I could just solder it back on there and have it start working again? Or should I not even waste my time and just get him a new video card?
 
It could be damaged internally... if it isn't though, you can just solder it back on.

I wonder how it fell off?
 
You could buy a new one if it looks damaged. It'll definately work if you can solder it back in right.

BTW the funny thing about this is that normally solder gets very tough and doesn't want to let go of the things its soldered to when it gets old and useless. LMAO Appearantly you got some of the "new and improved" solder that likes to get brittle and break.
 
The solder used today is a glued on template, devices are stuck in place and the boards are passed through a heat wave that melts the solder in place. Sounds like the wave soldering on your card did not get everything.

If it's in warrenty, RMA it, if not, solder it.
 
We tried, but to no avail, so I'll be ordering a new video card tonight. Its almost like it got hot enough to melt the soldering for it, since the hole was completely closed, but its pretty hard to imagine a video card running that hot and none of the other capacitors, ICs, and whatnot had any damage to them. Looking at the capacitor, it could possibly be damaged, as the top of it is bulging out, rather than flat as normal.

Edit: its around two years old, so I doubt its still in warrenty. In those two years it hasn't been moved around much, and mostly by just sliding it across the floor a couple of feet.
 
Get a pick of some sort, heat up the solder and poke a hole in the holes so you can stick a new cap in its place. Don't just give up now, it's time to get creative! Not roll over and spend $200 on a new card ;)
 
I'll check and see if I can get a new one at either the computer repair place near here or one of the other similar places close to us. My parents live in Turkey, so its not really easy to get specialized stuff like that. As for buying a new card, I was looking at a <$50 USD price range, since my dad really doesn't do that much more than surf the web, type up things, and play solitaire ;).

We have a pick, but I'm not really sure our soldering iron is cut out for computer work. Rather than having a pointed tip it has several apparatisi none of which are very surgical in their methods. I'll see what I can do :)

Thanks for the help everyone.
 
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