help with soldering question

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[]i9

Gawd
Joined
Nov 9, 2001
Messages
563
Hey all.

I just got this card back form BFG. It was an RMA replacement for the 7950 GT I had that went bad. This is an 8800 GT 512. I popped it in my system and it did run.

I was going to put my Thermalright cooler on this new card, since these BFG cards are notoriously underpowered. The stock cooler is the cooler that runs the length of the card and is screwed in place in a dozen places. The screws came out fine and the cooler actually came off with very little effort. But when I pulled the cooler off, one of the caps came off too. Oddly enough, there isn't any thermal material on the cap so it wasn't stuck to cooler, and Im not really sure how it came off. I actually wonder if it was ever really on.

So that brings me to my questions:
1) Could the card run without that cap in place?

2) Is it possible to resolder it back in place?


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[URL=http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2480552920038887686DrNKJa][/URL]


You can see in these pics that the connectors don't seem long enough to have ever been in the solder, nor do I see remnants of the pins left in the solder on the board. But im not sure the normal way of putting them in place.

Any thoughts?
 
No, you can't run it without the capacitor. What does the back side look like? Personally, unless you are experienced with soldering, you should junk the card. Should you cross traces with extra solder, it's very possible you could burn up your motherboard too. The fix isn't worth the damage risk in my opinion.
 
If you look at the backside, do the legs on the other caps go all the way through the board? If so, what type of de-soldering equipment do you have. Wick? Solder sucker?

Anyway.

You want to clear out the old solder. Then you are going to fashion yourself some extensions for the stubs that are left on the cap you have with any kind of small stiff wire you can find. Got any old carbon resistors laying around. Cut the leads off one of those. Make them as long as possible. Once you have completely removed the solder from the board insert your cap observing correct polarity and apply solder to each leg. Snip off the excess and voila. Cap re-installed.
 
To some one who works in the electronics indistry this looks like a surface mount capacitor. What you could do is take the card to a local elctronics shop. They can solder wires about the same size as the leads to the cap and then to the board. THe wires should be no longer thane they have to be and for certiant no longer than 1/2 inch. I make no warenities how long the board will work with this mod or what may happen to the board if this is done. But I have a old Geforce two board that is in a linux box that has been running with this mod for over two years.
 
it fell off? Sounds like a manufacturing defect. <shrug>shit happens, even to the best sometimes</shrug> BFG has awesome customer support, as you found with your 7950 RMA - call them and use it.

...unless you're too impatient to wait for an another RMA, in which case the averagejoe's advice about wire leads is probably the best (only?) way to get a surface mount can onto a board - you just don't have access to the pads otherwise.

Running without the cap may be an option, but not the best option. Since the card works without it, I'm guessing it runs in parallel with one of the other nearby caps. Therefore, without that cap the voltage regulator LC filter (or one phase of it) will be out of spec vs. the designed time constant, and you'll get mad ripple. Ripple and stability do not go together, so even if the card seems to work it will likely be limited in capability.
 
wrangler said:
If you look at the backside, do the legs on the other caps go all the way through the board?
Click to expand...

none of the caps have pins that go all the way through. these are definately soldered in place aren't they? It almost looks like they are just glued to the plastic base and it's glued to the pcb. There is some sort of glue residue left where the base was.



I think Im gonna try RMA first off. I'm 99% positive that this wasn't my doing. We'll see how it goes.



thanks for the replies.
 
Well, BFG gave me an RMA for it. Guy said it sounded like a manufacturing defect. They are even going to pay shipping both ways. Woo-hoo.


Thanks for all the info guys.
 
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