Should I try and fix this?

F

Framerate

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 3, 2004
Messages
173
Ok, so I ripped one of those cylindrical things off of my video card. It looks like it can be soldered, but I haven't soldered many things before. Since the metal things that connect it to the board are stuck on the board with some metal covering it, I am thinking that the excess metal that is left will form sort of a holding area for the melted solder. So what do you think? Should I do it or what?
 
The manufacturer won't accept it because they only allow RMA for factory defects. I haven't checked Newegg's policy though.
 
Oh that sucks, Isnt there someone on the forum who does this kind of stuff
 
I'm thinking about going to a computer shop and seeing if they can do anything. I am pretty sure I can solder it, but my solder is thick, so it would be hard to do.
 
Also does the card work normally still, Sometimes you can lose a capacitor or two and still be able to run stable
 
I thought it would just artifact if it couldnt supply enough power under load, but id need someone else with more experience to back me up on this
 
Framerate said:
I just grabbed the wrong spot when trying to pull it out of the PCIe slot.
Click to expand...

There have been a lot of problems with BFG specifically involving capacitors falling off...I'm pretty sure it's a defect...and you should have no trouble sending it back and getting a new one...
 
See if you can read any of the numbers off of the end of the cap. Might give us an idea of just how necessary it is. If you have a really good PSU it might be able to run fine without it but shouldn't overall damage your card. It'd be like turning the power off to the card when it tries to do something. Probably cause artifacting or something along those lines.

If the area is open enough you might be able to resolder it. Those things are probably laser soldered on there to begin with so it could be a little tricky. But if you can't RMA it it's worth a shot. I'd suggest getting a little solder on the bottom of the cap to get it ready. Then use the iron to heat up the contact plates if that's what it's using and then quickly get the cap on there. Don't overdue the solder because you definately don't want to short it out.

Knowing a trained professional is always helpful though.
 
You should just solder the cap back on. If it is those metal ones with a purple marking on the top here is the idea. take a couple of IDE ribbon cable conductors and solder them to the pads that the capacitor came off of, then solder the free leads to the capacitor and conformally coat them down to some free space on the PCB. If you run without that cap in the circuit there could be serious reductions in the life of the card.

Doing SMT caps is easy but its unlikely you broke one of those off. They really should take it back as BFG has been having tons of problems with this.
 
We have electrical engineers on staff, and can fix your card at a very reasonable cost.
You can send us the card and we can re-attach the part to the card. We will only charge for shipping and probably 1/4hr of labor ($20). If the part is damaged and needs to be replaced, we can order a new one, which would probably only be a few dollars.

please PM me if you would like our help.
 
It shouldn't be that easy to rip a capacitor off of the card, so it seems to me that there are two possibilities. 1. You pulled just a little to hard on the card in the wrong spot. 2. The cap wasn't on the card very well. I have heard of some people getting cards, (I beleive they were BFG cards), with capacitors rolling around in the box new. If that is the case, then I would try to RMA it. Good luck to you man.

EDIT: I see now that you're card is a Leadtek, not BFG. So, that makes it less likely that it was a defect since it was BFG that was having the problems. So, in that case, find someone with some good soldering skills.
 
Well it works without the capacitor, but I am going to go ahead and get a new video card since this one could crap out at any minute (and then again it might not, who knows?). Oblivion ran without a hitch and there is no artifacting when running applications on the desktop.

My new question is who should I buy from that has a good warraty and RMA service? Leadtek's support site sucks, so don't suggest another one of their cards :p.

Anyways thanks for all the help everyone.
 
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