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Video card PCB component question

DAOWAce

DAOWAce

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 8, 2007
Messages
139
Edit: I've added an album here: http://daow.net/gallery/main.php/v/GPU/

I want to know if I could repair this card, which is explained later in the thread.

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Pardon my stupidity, but what are these? Taking a guess and assuming power regulators.

http://www.daow.net/images/9800gtx.jpg

And, is anything odd about the PCB layout? For instance, the missing components. I got this card for hybrid power and it's never worked. Not a year ago, not now.
 
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Those are inductors, part of the power supply circuit. Basically a coil of thin wire around a ferrous core.

Layout looks fairly normal. It's common to design a board (or use a reference design) with extra component locations so that if extra components are needed for stability or whatever, it doesn't require a respin of the whole board, which is costly and time consuming. Or on the flipside, after building up the boards they test them with some components removed and determine the cheapest stable configuration to ship. Pretty standard stuff though, unpopulated spots are common on any kind of mass-produced design.
 
Is it possible for them to blow out and render the card unusable?

If so, could they be replaced?

Some part of the metal surrounding the chips looks to be damaged on both sides, on every chip. Kinda like someone smashed it or a bullet tried to get out but failed, those kinds of impacts.
 
Yes, of course they can fail, but I think it's pretty unlikely. They don't really wear out and can tolerate higher temps than most other components on the board. If they failed, it's almost certain that either something else failed first to cause their failure, or when they failed they damaged other parts as well.

Are you talking like the inductors are damaged or something else (inductors aren't chips :p)? Can you get a better photo of this?
 
I don't have a light table or a steady camera that provides close up clarity, so I doubt it, but I could try. Check back in a day or two.

Issue: Acidic liquid (soft drink) was spilled onto the PCB while it was powered on. RMA is voided due to user damage, is why I'm trying to repair it myself.

I gave it a scrub down with 94% isopropyl alcohol and that didn't repair it. Wasn't until I checked it again and noticed the metal surrounding those chips looked funky.
 
DAOWAce said:
I don't have a light table or a steady camera that provides close up clarity, so I doubt it, but I could try. Check back in a day or two.

Issue: Acidic liquid (soft drink) was spilled onto the PCB while it was powered on. RMA is voided due to user damage, is why I'm trying to repair it myself.

I gave it a scrub down with 94% isopropyl alcohol and that didn't repair it. Wasn't until I checked it again and noticed the metal surrounding those chips looked funky.
Click to expand...

I don't mean to be a pessimist here but that card is toast. The power circuitry definitely shorted, and probably took out all the chips with it.
 
After a long delay I have updated the OP with actual pictures.

I also posted on xtremesystems.org with no luck other than them telling me it's hopeless to repair.
 
DAOWAce said:
After a long delay I have updated the OP with actual pictures.

I also posted on xtremesystems.org with no luck other than them telling me it's hopeless to repair.
Click to expand...

I can't see anything wrong with anything on that card visually. I'm not sure what you are seeing but I don't see anything physically damaged in those pictures. If the card is not working, it's something beyond the human eye. I don't see what you mean by them being damaged like a bullet tried to escape. Looks like solder points to me.

Inductors are just part of voltage regulation. If somehow the chokes didn't work properly and you got a voltage spike, it's more likely there are fried transistors, fried core, or dead VRM mosfets, etc.
 
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DAOWAce said:
After a long delay I have updated the OP with actual pictures.

I also posted on xtremesystems.org with no luck other than them telling me it's hopeless to repair.
Click to expand...

in all honestly your almost certainly wasting your time. now days it just not worth it to even try. sometime you can get lucky but in this case you would end up spending more time then the card is worth doing it even if it can be done.
 
Green display connectors + black PCB = XFX model. Doesn't it have double lifetime warranty?
 
I ask because it was practically free. I don't care if I'm 'wasting my time'. If there's a chance then I wanted to know.

The XFX card is fine, was just for the question I originally asked. The other one is EVGA, and as I said, is impossible to RMA.
 
You're probably not looking at actual damage to the card, but it might as well be as that soda will have gotten into places there is no way you can scrub out and will be bridging pins on the BGA memory, BGA CPU package, etc.

There is nothing wrong with the inductors. Quite simply they just don't break or go bad unless they are subjected to physical shock of enough magnitude to actually break the coil of wire inside, and at that kind of force the PCB would give way before the inductor did.

My advice would be to SOAK the card in 98% or higher isopropyl alcohol. NOT 94, 91, etc... 94% alcohol (aka 'rubbing' alcohol) is 94% alcohol. Know what that other 6% is? Our enemy.... Soak it for several hours (long enough to dissolve dried on Soda, and that's some tough stuff).

Then let it DRY for a few days hopefully in a warm, dry place (top of your computer case if it has a blow hole, top of a hot water heater (placed on an appropriately insulated surface)... hell even on the dash of your car in the sun.

And if all that doesn't work you can try BAKING it. You'd be surprised at the methods The Geek Redneck has tried with great success over the years in situations just like this or worse. I once pulled a 7800GT back from the dead with the alcohol bath method after it was PISSED on by a cat. Yes. Pissed on. Cats are evil, vindictive, manipulative little shits.
 
DAOWAce said:
I ask because it was practically free. I don't care if I'm 'wasting my time'. If there's a chance then I wanted to know.

The XFX card is fine, was just for the question I originally asked. The other one is EVGA, and as I said, is impossible to RMA.
Click to expand...

I would try and reclean it first. remove the heat sinks and such. ammonia works well, soak and scrub. then air dry it until it looks dry. wrap it up in paper towels and pack it in dry white rice for a couple of days (this will get the water out, it works for cell phones and keyboards as well). reapply the heat sinks and suck and check it out. after that your stuck checking components. you can try backing it but I don't see that helping here.
 
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