soldering a capacitor?

B

badbadtz560

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 20, 2004
Messages
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so I accidentally bent a capacitor off of my sapphire x850xt... and sapphire says that any physical damage is not going to be covered for any kind of repair service .... so I figure that soldering it back is the only way. I've never done any soldering before, but this looks like a really easy job to fix. From what it looks like.. i could even glue it back on so long as the legs make contact w/ teh card (but I'd rather not risk that of course). If I were to solder it, do you melt some contact-metal and then stick the capacitor on to let the metal dry w/ the legs in it? or do u melt the capcitor's legs? or what? please advise.
 
If you haven't soldered before find an old like p3 motherboard or something and make a few test runs first. Also you can always see if you can get a like stero repair shop or something to do it for a small price.
 
Not to say I am old or anything but....I busted a transistor off the motherboard of my friends 386 while installing a video card. A quick solder job later and it was good as new.
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Just melt the solder on the iron and let it complete the contact and you will be fine.
 
If you have not done ANY soldering before, I'd recommend finding a friend who is very proficient in it or take it to a electronics repair shop.

I'd still call sapphire and see if you can pay them to repair it, however, I'd bet it'd be $75 or more.

badbadtz560 said:
so I accidentally bent a capacitor off of my sapphire x850xt... and sapphire says that any physical damage is not going to be covered for any kind of repair service .... so I figure that soldering it back is the only way. I've never done any soldering before, but this looks like a really easy job to fix. From what it looks like.. i could even glue it back on so long as the legs make contact w/ teh card (but I'd rather not risk that of course). If I were to solder it, do you melt some contact-metal and then stick the capacitor on to let the metal dry w/ the legs in it? or do u melt the capcitor's legs? or what? please advise.
Click to expand...
 
If you are going to venture into circuit board repair you better have a good solder iron. Not some WalMart $9.99 special. You need one with temperature control at the least. Soldering requires much practice. Also, don't forget to install the cap the right way! I have seen caps blow up and make pretty confetti. I would recommend you DO NOT do the repair yourself, unless you can afford buying a new board. Your call there I guess.
 
Definitely make sure you put it on the right way. Should be a bar on the side of the cap, make sure it's pointing towards ground or the lower voltage. A friend that knows what he's doing would definitely be recommended.

Depending on how the cap broke off you could likely get a replacement from radioshack with longer leads on it which could make things much easier but might look kind of fugly.
 
No offense Anarchist, but good luck finding a replacement cap at Radio Shack. I was in my local shack a week ago, and they carry next to nothing. If you could get a part number off of the cap you might be able to find one online. Obviously not anyone would install the wrong one as they are have different capacitence ratings. Installing one of not the same rating would be bad to say the least. Have the dry powder fire extingusher at hand. If the cap legs are that short / damaged send it back to the manufacturer and eat the cost. It will prob. be cheaper than buying a new one. I have repaired electronics for years, and it is best to leave it to the pros. I have seen some funny "repair jobs" where there are burns from obvious arcing on boards. The smell of burnt plastic in the air.
 
oh.. the capacitor i have now is in perfect shape .. I'm only going to hav ea lot of trouble finding an electronics store that can solder professionally... All we have down here in augusta are the big companies like compusa, bb, etc. I don't suppose radioshack repairs it... hopefully I'll be able to find somethin when I get back to atlanta once school starts back up. I know what direction and everything the capacitor goes on, so soldering i sthe only step left. thx for all the help

and of course.. if anyone knows of a good repair shop in atlanta that's walkable or bike-able from the gatech campus, that'd be very helpful :D
 
If you buy a new capacitor, which is easy to do with the internet these days, make sure the negative pole, it's indicated on the cap, is soldered to the negative terminal on the board. Also I would advise using a heat sink (such as an alligator clip) to prevent damage to other components. Also, the hard part of this is removing the old solder on the board. To insure proper contact without shorting to another part of the circuit, the old solder needs to be removed with a wicke or solder sucker. On second thought, you may want a professional to do the repair.
 
A quick word of advice dont get those "newb friendly" soldering irons like Cold Heat. Iv never had so much problems soldering. Was fixing my Cowon X5 since my sister destroyed the headphone jack and it took me a whole 10 hours to do it with the Cold Heat and still couldnt get it done I got really pissed and drove to Radioshack for a cheapo "old school" iron and did the job in 5 mins.There is a good reason soldering iron design hasnt changed much lol.
 
badbadtz560-
Quick question. Since your at GATech, why not find someone in the Electrical and Computer engineering college to do it for you? They should have a lab with all the right equipment, and that's what these people do. You might even be able to find a professor willing to do it and/or teach you how to do it.

Just a thought.
 
I'm an ECE (electrical and comp engineer) actually. Our educatin hasn't extended towards the hands-on stuff b/c I think they teach those at teh technical schools :D ya.. it's funny and a bit weird.. but our education is mostly theoretical.. and our lab experience so far has mainly been programming stuff, analyses, and building circuits using breadboards.. not so much repairing and building. HOwever, there are some EEs are that are interested enough in messin around w/ this kinda stuff.. which is why i can't really do anything until i get back to gatech anyway :D I don't believe our labs have any special soldering stations or anything :D and.. I don't know too many ppl that I take classes w/ that have had extensive experience w/ soldering....so i'd rather trust a hardware store that has the experience heh...
 
Don't take this the wrong way man, but that's really, really scary to me.

Anywho, didn't think about the fact that schools out. As most said, in general, soldering isn't that big of a deal. I do a fine job even on Mobo's and such even with some cheap Radio Shack stuff (if that's all I have around). But, I've been doing it since I was about 13 or so...

Another place you might want to think about is high end car audio places. They have to do a lot of custom wiring and soldering for their gear, they might have someone semi-competent.
 
Electronic rapair shops aren't cheap. You will prob. pay more than you would by sending it back to the manufacturer. Again, I HIGHLY recommend that route. There are solder pens that can be used to make a good connection, but I do not trust them. Up to you, and how important it is to you.

You could simply use some super glue to hold it on the board with:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=45986&doy=5m1&C=SEO&U=strat15

Then repair the connections with this:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=33837&doy=5m1&C=SEO&U=strat15

I would not recommend that route, but it would be an easy self rapair. I would just be very careful if you did something like that.
 
anybody ever dealt w/ sapphire's customer service b4? I don't see a number to call, and the only way to get warranty info is through their crappyass ticketing service. I already got rejected for an RMA... is there some other route for them to repair it for me? If it's going to cost more than 50 bux, I might as well buy a 7600gt for 80 and sell off this thing for cheap.
 
Practice a few times on some spare hardware. Then just solder the thing on. It's not that hard...
 
If you want to make it relay easy you could attach some longer leads to the cap, then solder the leads to the card.
 
If you can take a picture for me, I'd like to see it to make sure it's not too mangled or anything.

If you can get me a picture and it looks good, if you pay for shipping back and forth ($8 USPS priority shipping), you can ship it to me and I'll fix it for you for free. Sounds like a five minute job. You can see some of my work here

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=199868&page=8

That's a $1500 amplifier that I replaced 14 caps on and did some other work to. I have voltmodded every card I owned from the 9700 pro on and several motherboards and powersupplies. I solder with a Hakko soldering station and good solder, none of that lead free crap.

Let me know.

edit: forgot to add I have perfect heatware under computerpro3 and ebay under reader, not to mention I've been around here for years.
 
EDIT: whoops didn't mean to step on the above guys toes.. edited my post to correct myself.

Side note, why would you have to install the cap right away? I'm guessing the heat would make the electrical energy want to discharge?

bigredcat said:
If you are going to venture into circuit board repair you better have a good solder iron. Not some WalMart $9.99 special. You need one with temperature control at the least. Soldering requires much practice. Also, don't forget to install the cap the right way! I have seen caps blow up and make pretty confetti. I would recommend you DO NOT do the repair yourself, unless you can afford buying a new board. Your call there I guess.
Click to expand...
 
djgizmo said:
Hey, if you're willing to ship off the video card and cap, I have a friend thats very competant and would do it for fairly cheap. If you ship it to him, then he would probably do it for $35 shipped back to ya.

PM me if you're interested.

Side now, why would you have to install the cap right away? I'm guessing the heat would make the electrical energy want to discharge?
Click to expand...

He didn't say right away, he said the right way. Big difference. Some electrolytic capacitors are polarized, which means they have a negative and a positive side. Reverse them when you install them, and the cap goes BOOM.
 
BarneyGumble said:
If you buy a new capacitor, which is easy to do with the internet these days, make sure the negative pole, it's indicated on the cap, is soldered to the negative terminal on the board. Also I would advise using a heat sink (such as an alligator clip) to prevent damage to other components. Also, the hard part of this is removing the old solder on the board. To insure proper contact without shorting to another part of the circuit, the old solder needs to be removed with a wicke or solder sucker. On second thought, you may want a professional to do the repair.
Click to expand...


Smart man, yes, using a heat shunt like a croc clip is a great idea. Over heat the cap and your gonna have electrolyte leaking in places you dont want it leaking. use solder mop to remove the old solder, place the iron on the contact and leg and feed the solder onto the contact(not the iron) but only very quickly. If its too long the solder will go spikey and may not have a good joint.
 
Oh just do it yourself. Just takes a little common sense to solder it back on. I bet there are even videos on the net that would give you a couple tips on how to do it.
 
Fourfifth said:
Smart man, yes, using a heat shunt like a croc clip is a great idea. Over heat the cap and your gonna have electrolyte leaking in places you dont want it leaking. use solder mop to remove the old solder, place the iron on the contact and leg and feed the solder onto the contact(not the iron) but only very quickly. If its too long the solder will go spikey and may not have a good joint.
Click to expand...

You don't need a heatsink for this small a job. The iron will be in contact with the capacitor for maybe two seconds if you know what you're doing. Of course, if you use a crappy iron all bets are off. Get a temperature controlled station from Hakko, Weller, etc. Makes life so much easier, and safer.
 
badbadtz560 said:
I've never done any soldering before, but this looks like a really easy job to fix.
Click to expand...
Personally I'd seek out a person who repairs electronic type equipment and pay them to repair it. If you need to replace the cap they can find the right one for you. It is an easy job - but if you have truly never soldered before - there is a bit of a learning curve. Definitely practice a lot before you do it if you are going to try it yourself.
 
As I stated earlier, just ship the card to me with $8 paypal for return shipping and I will fix it for FREE. Don't get ripped off by those shops that charge $75 for the repair. I have plenty of soldering experience on multi-thousand dollar items and I have all the proper tools.
 
Lol exactly computerpro3 I have seen people install things with total disregard for polarity. LOL Try jumping a car and switch the cables on one, and youll see for yourself. Just kidding that would be bad.

The temperature I was talking about is important. Some models (soldering irons) offer no temp. control which means that usually the temp is all over, usually resulting in piss poor solder connections (cold solder joints). On computerpro3's link it show on with a temp. control, and if you don't have one like that don't ever do any soldering. You are more likely to damage equipment that way.

ESD (electro-stactic discharge) is also an issue. You build up enough charge in your body and *poof* that IC chip is now scrap. Just make sure to ground yourself, and the soldering iron.

Like I care about a little charge in a cap on a vid card. Even if it was charged I have been zapped by much worse. Anyone that deals with electronics had atleast once. Its fun working on stuff that can cause instant death (military radios pushing 150w out easy). Grab onto that antenna and it'll be the last thing you will ever do. LOL. After that a little vid card cap wouldnt scare me.
 
I've replaced several capacitors on a motherboard, try and practive on something first if you are not an experienced solderer
 
Last night I managed to have this same “accident” with my saphire X850XT,
This how it looks:



the job looks easy indeed, polarity is cleary signed, so a prayer a soldering gun and let´s do it...

first thing will be removing the fan, as you can see is pretty close to the cap...



ok, I´ll be back hopefully with the thing working...
 
got the thing back on and is working



so if you decide on soldering by your self here´s my advice,

1. remove the fan... you only need to loose the 6 screws on the back of the card... (you´ll may use new heat compound to put it back together)

2. first apply a little drop of (don´t know the name of the melting wire in english) to the leads of the cap and to the board itself... just a little... give a little practice somewhere else...

3. put back the cap on the board and apply heat to melt it down to the card...

that´s it... mine is working now...

good luck..
 
Yeah, that's a descrete surface mounted cap. I popped one exactly like that off of one of my 7950gx2's a few days ago, put it back on just the way you described.
 
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