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Knocked off a small transistor 5870

Need a better pic of the region. My guess is probably not, and that it's probably a power supply component due to how close it is to the PCIe power area. Some of the video output stuff is in the area too though, and even if it's a power component it might not be critical for the GPU to operate. If you've already risked your motherboard trying it, may as well boot it up as a second card and see if it's picked up on the bus or not, no need to guess :p

Might be fixable fairly easily too. Better pics, and if you still have the part, any markings would be useful, otherwise good pics of a working board might suffice.

How do you knock off a surface mount component? :eek:
 
It's doubtful something that far away from the ports has much to do with "outputting a signal".

You may be able to fix it if you have $30 to spend at Radio shack and still have the part you knocked off, though. Can you offer us a high-res picture of the area so we can see it?
 
solder it back on and rma it and tell them you don't know what happened. should work out if anything. howd it "fall off" anyways? besides "knocking it"
 
thanks Chilly

you just confirmed i f**ked my card good. seriously no a chance I can get this fixed

rma is out of the question as they are going to know I have opened it up and taken off the backplate
 
whitesammy said:
solder it back on and rma it and tell them you don't know what happened. should work out if anything. howd it "fall off" anyways? besides "knocking it"
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Fuck you. Get out of this forum with your bullshit advice. You broke it, you're responsible for it. RMA'ing stuff you broke only drives up the cost of products for legit consumers.
 
dopee123 said:
Fuck you. Get out of this forum with your bullshit advice. You broke it, you're responsible for it. RMA'ing stuff you broke only drives up the cost of products for legit consumers.
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Exactly. This kind of shit is why Newegg's return policy went to hell, and thats just one example.
 
dbase88 said:
thanks Chilly

you just confirmed i f**ked my card good. seriously no a chance I can get this fixed

rma is out of the question as they are going to know I have opened it up and taken off the backplate
Click to expand...

you might be able to find someone who can soldier it back on, you could actually RMA it, telling them what happened, maybe they'll charge you $50 to fix it, or you can find someone who's skilled with a soldier gun to fix it =p
 
ShinyFalcon said:
Was it a light slip? If lead-free tin solder is that weak... then wow.
Click to expand...

you're talking about a minuscule amount of soldier, against the weight, and momentum of a human hand/arm + screw driver =p that is BIG difference
 
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This is why I always place the fingers of my non-screwdriving hand loosely around the end of the screwdriver as I'm screwing something in. And preferably, use a screwdriver with a thin handle rather than a fat one.
 
whitesammy said:
solder it back on and rma it and tell them you don't know what happened. should work out if anything. howd it "fall off" anyways? besides "knocking it"
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Cya. Your participation is not wanted on our forums.
 
bahs.jpg


Never hurts to call and ask the manufacturer. I'm not sure what the piece is but going be the pictures those solder joints are too close together for a normal soldering iron to do. It might be possible...it's just going to be damn hard.

And yea, don't be dishonest. That isn't going to get you far.
 
cmon really ya thats pretty dishonest but really yur gonna ban him just for that, thats kinda green
 
Definitely contact the manufacturer. I would think they would do it for a decent fee. I know motherboard companies have repaired bent pins etc caused by users for at a flat rate.
 
Give the manufactorer a call. Explain the situation and they may be able to do something. Those components could actually be soldiered back on if you have decent tools and you still have the components. Trying to decypher your pics, you knocked off two 2-pin items, but the 6-pin IC is still intact? Hard to tell from your picture. The 2-pin items are either surface mount resistors or capacitors and can easily be put back on with the right tools. The 6-pin IC could also be put back on, however I suspect if it has been removed then it is severly damaged the legs/pins on it.
 
He offered no help other than to lie/cheat a company. You would really want someone that is going to do that around? It was his first few posts too, so there was probably more to come. Maybe if he had been around for 5+ years or something, then we would just make fun of him and raid and pillage his village.
 
rcf1987 said:
cmon really ya thats pretty dishonest but really yur gonna ban him just for that, thats kinda green
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Dishonest? It's probably well into illegal/fraud territory which is explicitly against the forum rules. I suspect it would have been treated differently if he had been here more than 30 days.
 
honestly, its not that hard to solder on surface mount stuff like that, just be patient and have a good selection of tools with you. PM me if you need more assistance, i work with parts like that all the time.

Also, give the manufacture a call, fixing stuff like that is no big deal for them, they would much rather take the two seconds it'll take to fix that than to lose you as a customer.
 
"Hi, is this the GM service department?

Oh it is, good.

Hey listen,

I just drove my Tahoe through a guardrail and rolled it down an embankment...

I need an RMA number, THAAANNNKSS"
 
Believe it or not as long as it didn't pull any traces it is solderable. You'd need a good scope to see that and make sure there is no damage to the PCB itself. Once that's done, you should be able to get a list from the manufacturer for the parts. It can be hand soldered it just takes a very steady hand, the right equipment and the right tip on a GOOD soldering iron (NOT radioshack).

BTW I am backing this up with 2 years of experience as a assembler/solder tech for a company that did work for the aerospace industry.

FWIW I used to repair those kinds of problems with one of these for 8 hours a night 5 days a week. Matter of fact, tax time I'm getting one for the house....

Main workhorse:
http://www.amazon.com/Soldering-Sta...ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1276187463&sr=8-1

Less expensive one I started on is this one :
http://www.amazon.com/Weller-WES51-Analog-Soldering-Station/dp/B000BRC2XU/ref=pd_cp_hi_1

In any event if I had the tools I'd do it for you.... sadly I don't anymore. But hopefully that should get you started :)
 
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That doesn't look too hard with a thin tip soldering iron and a magnifying lens. Buy your own and practice on an old PCB until you're comfortable. Then you can fix your card and learn a useful skill in the process!

A few suggestions if you want to try it:

Soldering Iron:
I use this, but here's a cheaper one that should work:
http://www.amazon.com/Weller-WLC100-Soldering-Hobbyist-Yourselfer/dp/B000AS28UC

This tip is ideal, but won't work with the cheaper iron.
This one should work: http://www.amazon.com/Weller-ST7-conical-st7-Tips/dp/B000B607OC

Also get some thin tweezers:
http://www.amazon.com/Excelta-Economy-Tweezer-Anti-Magnetic-Type/dp/B000FIXR8E

Solder:
http://www.amazon.com/Kester-Pocket-Pack-Solder-0-031/dp/B00068IJNQ

and maybe pick up one of those magnifying stations in related products.
 
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vengence said:
Dishonest? It's probably well into illegal/fraud territory which is explicitly against the forum rules. I suspect it would have been treated differently if he had been here more than 30 days.
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Yeah ur right, he probably would have edited the post and gave a final warning.
30 days of membership is not enough to give a warning.
I agree with everyone's else advice. Try to fix it yourself.
 
If I were in this position, I would put the part back in the exact spot/orientation it was in, shield the surrounding area with foil, and use a heat gun to re-flow the solder. Soldering tiny surface mount components without equipment designed for it (not your typical soldering iron) is very nearly impossible. The tips of typical soldering irons are as big as the parts you're working with.
 
I knocked a capacitor off my evga board recently. I told evga about it and asked if they would repair it for a fee. They ended up replacing the board for free, I'm sure your card company will fix it for you.mc
 
Sysjack said:
If I were in this position, I would put the part back in the exact spot/orientation it was in, shield the surrounding area with foil, and use a heat gun to re-flow the solder. Soldering tiny surface mount components without equipment designed for it (not your typical soldering iron) is very nearly impossible. The tips of typical soldering irons are as big as the parts you're working with.
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NO NO NO NO NO.... only a person that is trained should ever use a heat gun on a PCB. I've seen people that don't know what they're doing scorch the shit out of a board and waste it.
 
222 1/3 evil said:
NO NO NO NO NO.... only a person that is trained should ever use a heat gun on a PCB. I've seen people that don't know what they're doing scorch the shit out of a board and waste it.
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While the potential for damage to the board is much greater, I think someone untrained would be more likely to have success with this method than soldering by hand. If the OP isn't comfortable or equipped to use a heat gun, he could use his oven. There is a huge thread from a while back where people were repairing their video cards by baking the PCB for a few minutes at around 400 degrees I believe.
 
dbase88 said:
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/2088/cardh.jpg

closest i can get
you can see there are 2 bits missing.

hand slipped whilst holding a screw driver :/

well the parts that came off are way too small to even attempt at putting back on
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This can be fixed with a professional soldering station and the right tools. If you don't have access to these...

Place them carefully and try taping them right onto the bare contacts or holding it in place and then putting a drop of hot glue on top.

If that fails, you could replace the parts carefully and then put it into the oven to bake your card to reflow the solder if you don't have a heatgun. Perhaps wrap the rest of the board in insulating material and only expose this small section.
 
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If the parts have actually fallen off the board, and from the pics in the thread, I don't think the oven method would work very well. If he added some solder paste, or possibly even a bit of flux - maybe. I would definitely not recommend using a heat gun though.

Also the size of this part is 'small' but the pitch is not really very fine and actually this package is fairly easy to solder by hand with some practice and decent equipment. Much easier than fine pitch or leadless packages like QFN.

Still, you need to find the missing parts or at least what they are doing if you want any hope of fixing it yourself.

Second the notion of sending it to the manufacturer and seeing what they'll charge to repair.
 
You knocked off a small SMD part. It's likely a resistor. Did you find the part you knocked off? If you did, you can take the card and the part to the local TV repair shop and ask them to put it back on for you. I'm 99% sure it will live again. You just need to find out what you knocked off.
 
I'm not comfortable fixing this kind of stuff myself but when I do something boneheaded like the OP did I've had great luck with the electronics/TV repair shop down the street. They don't know WTF a video card is but they can solder with the best of em. Only takes them a few mins too.

Just a thought.
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
you might be able to find someone who can soldier it back on, you could actually RMA it, telling them what happened, maybe they'll charge you $50 to fix it, or you can find someone who's skilled with a soldier gun to fix it =p
Click to expand...

this, I would simple call up and ask about getting it repaired.

if you do know someone that can soldier it on then its a good option. find the part you lost or call and find out what it is.

for those suggesting that the OP do it himself I am not the most dexterous of people so maybe I am not a good example but there is no way I would have been able to do that as a newbie.
 
easy fix. just find somebody on the forum that can solder , rma it or ask manafact- how much to fix..
problem solved.
door 1,2,or 3 or do nothing.

Just giving him options guys..
if he rma's it and it causes the price of 5870 to shoot to 500$ a pop , not my problem...
"well my proclivities are well known here and often lamented fact of rma lore"
 
XFX already had me sign cross-shipment papers stating that they would charge me $500 if they didn't receive their defective 5870.


Honestly and truely, you need to just read the warranty and see what it covers. If it is similar to the XFX warranty, as in, it covers modding. Then you can probably just RMA it.

And it could have been worse, he could have said to sell it locally. At least the manufacturer has policy and procedure in place for fraudulent claims, whereas the consumer is just S.O.L.
 
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