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Made a HUGE mistake...

D

Digital_Lummox

n00b
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
9
Somehow while installing some heatsinks on my Powercolor 6950 2GB I broke something on my board. What I broke off is circled in red on the image link below.

http://i.imgur.com/NryV5.jpg

I know I am a COMPLETE idiot and am very afraid it may mess up my whole system. I am actually typing this message with that card installed. For those of you who are curious, I did this installing the VRM heatsinks for the Accelero Xtreme Plus.

-dumbass
 
2 things
1) you should not support AC as they are terrible to their customers, even after bricking their $700 videocards

2) if you saved that resistor, you can soldier it back on.
 
you're pretty much screwed. Those pieces are a PITA to solder back on. I did this to my AIW 9800 pro back in the day and I totally killed the card.
 
Let me guess. You seated the ramsinks too far over the the heatsink could not clear the ram sinks. So, you yanked the sink off but it was also stuck to the resistor and pulled the resistor off. I'm guessing you used the epoxy to stick the sinks on and not thermal tape?

Either way, bummer...
 
osrk said:
you're pretty much screwed. Those pieces are a PITA to solder back on. I did this to my AIW 9800 pro back in the day and I totally killed the card.
Click to expand...

This.
Assuming you didn't do any damage to the resister in the first place, they are next to impossible to solder back on.
 
I broke a cap off an evga mobo when my hand slipped installing a video card. Sent it to evga and they replaced it for me for free. Try contacting your motherboard manufacturer
 
FRZ said:
I broke a cap off an evga mobo when my hand slipped installing a video card. Sent it to evga and they replaced it for me for free. Try contacting your motherboard manufacturer
Click to expand...

Most companies wont honor it because 1- he was installing a 3rd party cooler (VERY few companies allow this within their warranty). 2- It was human error. It wasn't the fault of the manufacturer.
 
You can probably just blatantly do without that capacitor.

I've sliced plenty of capacitors of graphics cards in my time and the real world effect is usually fuck all.

Having said that, if you're really that bothered, soldering it back on is easy; I dunno why everyone is saying otherwise. If you've ever handled a soldering iron before you'll be able to do it. Doesn't need to be neat.

Bottom line:
If a previous memory overclock is no longer stable; worry, if not; don't.
 
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Nobody will notice. RMA it.

I once made a small scratch into the PCB right under the heatsink near the GPU (but not on the GPU) and that took out my card. RMA'd, got a new one.

Felt bad after that one popped out of existence due to bad fab, because then ATI PowerColor gave me an NVIDIA 6800XT with a copy of Hitman Contracts and said the X700 series was full of fail.
 
SilverSliver said:
Let me guess. You seated the ramsinks too far over the the heatsink could not clear the ram sinks. So, you yanked the sink off but it was also stuck to the resistor and pulled the resistor off. I'm guessing you used the epoxy to stick the sinks on and not thermal tape?

Either way, bummer...
Click to expand...

Actually I seated the ramsinks dead center and when I went to put the cooler on, the screw holes didn't line up. Apparently, the ramsinks need to be placed a little higher on the chip in order for the cooler to fit. When I took the ramsinks off to reseat them higher, I must have damaged the capacitors.
 
Digital_Lummox said:
Actually I seated the ramsinks dead center and when I went to put the cooler on, the screw holes didn't line up. Apparently, the ramsinks need to be placed a little higher on the chip in order for the cooler to fit. When I took the ramsinks off to reseat them higher, I must have damaged the capacitors.
Click to expand...

That's what I meant. The ramsinks have to be positioned a little off center for the heatsink to line up properly with the holes..I did the same thing, but I did not have an issue because I used some Seksui thermal tape.
 
Cerulean said:
Nobody will notice. RMA it.

I once made a small scratch into the PCB right under the heatsink near the GPU (but not on the GPU) and that took out my card. RMA'd, got a new one.

Felt bad after that one popped out of existence due to bad fab, because then ATI PowerColor gave me an NVIDIA 6800XT with a copy of Hitman Contracts and said the X700 series was full of fail.
Click to expand...

Funny thing about that is the stock cooler fan was not working properly (ran at high speeds all the time) so I dealt with a Powercolor tech on the problem. Several emails were exchanged and when nothing worked, the second I mentioned wanting an RMA I haven't heard from Powercolor in over 3 weeks. I even contacted their sales department about a new cooler and they never responded. I'm never buying Powercolor again.
 
oh, that could be a problem... yeah actually that is the problem you might just be screwed on this one sorry. just search around i guess.
 
Cerulean said:
Nobody will notice. RMA it.

I once made a small scratch into the PCB right under the heatsink near the GPU (but not on the GPU) and that took out my card. RMA'd, got a new one.
Click to expand...

i hope a mod bans this guy for promoting dishonesty.
 
they aren't that bad to resolder on, infact you could even probably get by with a really good "hot glue" application - as long as its making contact
 
Cerulean said:
Nobody will notice. RMA it.

I once made a small scratch into the PCB right under the heatsink near the GPU (but not on the GPU) and that took out my card. RMA'd, got a new one.

Felt bad after that one popped out of existence due to bad fab, because then ATI PowerColor gave me an NVIDIA 6800XT with a copy of Hitman Contracts and said the X700 series was full of fail.
Click to expand...

lol another person whom one should avoid buying things from.....
 
If it's intact, just solder it back on. This is a best case scenario in terms of SMT component repair.
 
lloose said:
Look at his thread history.. he wont last much longer.
Click to expand...

Then the 4.7 year and 2.7k posts he has made? Not saying that your wrong but if his posting behavior hasn't gotten him kicked yet I wouldn't hold my breathe.
Cerulean said:
Felt bad after that one popped out of existence due to bad fab, because then ATI PowerColor gave me an NVIDIA 6800XT with a copy of Hitman Contracts and said the X700 series was full of fail.
Click to expand...

I can't grasp what you are trying to say about this. What card? What do you mean Bad Fab? ATI isn't power color and ATI wouldn't give you an Nvidia card, and certainly wouldn't tell you that their cards suck.

Normally I would try to go off topic like this. But I feel as though I need a translator and for some reason I really want to crack this code.
 
Digital_Lummox said:
Somehow while installing some heatsinks on my Powercolor 6950 2GB I broke something on my board. What I broke off is circled in red on the image link below.

http://i.imgur.com/NryV5.jpg

I know I am a COMPLETE idiot and am very afraid it may mess up my whole system. I am actually typing this message with that card installed. For those of you who are curious, I did this installing the VRM heatsinks for the Accelero Xtreme Plus.

-dumbass
Click to expand...

you can do 2 things.......
 
1. The board MAY work fine without that cap you knocked off.

2. If you no longer have the one that was knocked off, grab an old video card, motherboard, CD Drive, etc and get a capacitor off of it. They are pretty easy to solder on.
 
lloose said:
This.
Assuming you didn't do any damage to the resister in the first place, they are next to impossible to solder back on.
Click to expand...

Actually they are incredibly EASY to solder back on, most people just go about doing it completely wrong.
 
Soldering on surface mount components is a PITA and should not be done by amateurs using a normal soldering iron. One usually does more harm than good and causing the fix to be even more expensive.

Just look up a local electronics supply store (not Radio Shack) and call them up and ask them to recommend somebody or a company that can resolder on a surface mount component for you.

Or you could call up a local technical institute with an electronic technician's program and they'll probably be happy to help you out.

With the right soldering iron, the job is a whole lot easier... but still takes really steady hands. (Heck I have enough problems holding a soldering iron steady enough to solder on *normal* sized resistors, so I won't even bother with SMT components.)

H-street said:
they aren't that bad to resolder on, infact you could even probably get by with a really good "hot glue" application - as long as its making contact
Click to expand...

That's a really, really bad idea.
I find it hard to believe that somebody can actually put down a blob of hot glue in an area smaller than 2x2 mm such that it won't cover the contacts with glue AND create a good electrical contact by friction alone... there WAS a reason why the original part was soldered on, and not glued.
Plus if the glue application is messed up it's almost impossible to fix.

Blue Falcon said:
Actually they are incredibly EASY to solder back on, most people just go about doing it completely wrong.
Click to expand...

Umm, maybe for you, but for average people it's not "incredibly EASY" to solder SMT components onto a board next to other already soldered on SMT components.

There are many things that can go wrong when using a "normal" pen type soldering iron with a normal tip, like spreading of solder to short other connectors, melting of other solder joints such that other components get dislodged or short against something else due to overheating because of the fat tip.

Even with the right soldering iron, it still is difficult.
 
If your card is working fine, then just leave it like that. A missing capacitor won't kill it.
I wouldn't OC the memory though.

Back in the day I had a Geforce 4 with a blown capacitor, and it worked for years.
 
omniscence said:
BTW, it's a capacitor, not a resistor. Most likely 100nF.
Click to expand...
Yeah I kept reading resister and would make a grunt noise each time. To OP, sorry for your lots. I would go with the solder paste method as others mentioned.
 
Maybe if there are any electricians here they can help him find a compatible one somewhere?
 
If it's running fine, then you'll be okay. It looks like a filtering cap, and seems to be redundant. Just don't knock the other one off.
 
Cerulean said:
Nobody will notice. RMA it.

I once made a small scratch into the PCB right under the heatsink near the GPU (but not on the GPU) and that took out my card. RMA'd, got a new one.

Felt bad after that one popped out of existence due to bad fab, because then ATI PowerColor gave me an NVIDIA 6800XT with a copy of Hitman Contracts and said the X700 series was full of fail.
Click to expand...

Vendor fraud, nice.

Get out.
 
I believe when this was brought up before someone mentioned perhaps taking this to a jeweller to repair?
 
Spare-Flair said:
Use solder paste and reflow and it should set itself easily!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5lksMvmqQc
Click to expand...

You do realize that the video is of a single sided PCB, right?

If somebody were to try that with a VIDEO CARD with SMT components on BOTH SIDES of the board, the components that are on the bottom with SHIFT and/or FALL OUT. Also if it's a multilayer board, some solder may flow where it shouldn't. Also if all the plastic bits aren't removed from the board first, they'll MELT!

THIS IS VERY BAD ADVICE. DO NOT STICK YOUR VIDEO CARD IN A TOASTER OVEN WITH SOLDER PASTE FOR THE MISSING COMPONENTS.
 
Blue Falcon said:
Actually they are incredibly EASY to solder back on, most people just go about doing it completely wrong.
Click to expand...

Some years ago, I accidently ripped of a larger electrolytic capactitor from a graphics card. It was directly connected to a large ground area and my hobby soldering iron just did not have enough power to properly heat that solder pad. I ended up trying it without the capacitor because there was still an equal one in parallel. It worked, but the system would freeze now and then.


bbf said:
You do realize that the video is of a single sided PCB, right?

If somebody were to try that with a VIDEO CARD with SMT components on BOTH SIDES of the board, the components that are on the bottom with SHIFT and/or FALL OUT. Also if it's a multilayer board, some solder may flow where it shouldn't. Also if all the plastic bits aren't removed from the board first, they'll MELT!

THIS IS VERY BAD ADVICE. DO NOT STICK YOUR VIDEO CARD IN A TOASTER OVEN WITH SOLDER PASTE FOR THE MISSING COMPONENTS.
Click to expand...

While I would not try something like this with a video card, normally all PCBs are covered with solder stop (that is what gives the PCB the color by the way). How do you think the components are assembled in the factory? Usually reflow soldering is used, which is effectively is the same as an oven, just a little more controlled.
 
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