i broke my 6800 GT :(

[Avalon]

I have hopes that it is fairly easy to repair, Zakee. Good luck.

 

[zakee00]

Thanks for all the support guys!
and NOOOO thugs im not gunna run that card with that cap missing. no way, unless you guys think its safe? dont want to TOTALLY screw the card!
i think tomorrow i'll call my brother (who has done alot of soldering) and see what he says. so far im leaning to the jewler option because it sounds like that would be the most reliable, providing the cap is still good?

would i need a new cap, or can i just have someone solder the same one back on? im thinkin that it should work, i mean the metal is still showing on both ends...

That's really not that bad of a solder job, I've seen a bit smaller.

thats very reassuring, but i'm wondering how many good "solder-ers" there are in Alaska 😉 i dunno about that radio shack idea either; my experence has told me that Best Buy/Radio Shack employes dont tend to know much about electronics 😉

Thanks again for your suppport, i was bummin' out there for a while....$400 is a ton of money for me.
Nick

 

[The Land of Smeg]

It's a resistor, you'ld need to find someone that is very skilled with electronics and a good eye to fix it. They'ld need to get a multimetre and find the value of the simular resistors, then find a replacement, position it in such a way that it will not stick out too much (you can't buy block resistors, the rounder ones that are slightly bigger are), and not short circuit anything else, then solder it on.

They will need someone with lots of skill because Video Card PCBs are double-sided and the resistor probably doesn't fit right through it to the other side.

Probably even best to use it anyway and hope it doesn't malfunction too much.

 

[zakee00]

so much conflicting information!
is it a:
1) resistor
2) capacitor?

man this sucks...in the meantime, i'm stuck on my PowerBook G4, which as you all know, isn't the best for games. Though WoW is teh best game evar, it dosnt work so great...but im still gaining levels; if that counts for anything 😕
Nick

 

[MustangSVT]

since its that small.

it gave me an idea..

remember those old Athlon XP's where u can mod with a pencil or a "conductive pen"? 😉

now use some of that with perhaps a sharp pin and it might work.

perhaps u can tape it first to hold it in place while u test it, and if it works, u can superglue it.

good luck..

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: MustangSVT
since its that small.

it gave me an idea..

remember those old Athlon XP's where u can mod with a pencil or a "conductive pen"? 😉

now use some of that with perhaps a sharp pin and it might work.

perhaps u can tape it first to hold it in place while u test it, and if it works, u can superglue it.

good luck..

doubtful that would work. its not a case of just completing the circuit.....this is a capacitor, you need the correct capacitence.

though i have seen a motherboard work with a missing cap.....dunno how long it lasted mind

 

[cownipples]

I say carefully glue it in place and RMA it, hey really don't look over every resister,they glance at the card, test it and replace, they have too many RMA's to be too picky! It would work, dishonest but they are so over priced anyways , can't get much higher then they are, Nvidia, and Ati have been ripping off the public for a long time. LOL

good luck with your card man!

 

[Navid]

To clarify the conflict you may want to circle it on one of the pictures. It is obvious to tell which ones are caps and which ones are resistors. But, I think people are looking at different components not really knowing which one you knocked off.

Do you have a volt meter?
If you do, carefully measure the RESISTANCE (Ohms) of the component that you knocked off. If it measures something like 1 kilo Ohms or 10 kilo Ohms or anything like that, you know that it is a resistor. It helps to know the resistance.

If it is the bigger component that is right near the screw hole, with C557 written beside it, and is brown color, it is a capacitor. You can take it to someone who has experience and they can measure the capacitance and solder it or another one back.

Technicians who work at IC development companies have experience. Unfortunately, they do not do repair work for public as their regular job!
If you had a friend who did that, it would be your lucky day.

If the guy has experience, that is a piece of cake for them. It will even look like it never happened.

 

[g3pro]

Originally posted by: cownipples
I say carefully glue it in place and RMA it, hey really don't look over every resister,they glance at the card, test it and replace, they have too many RMA's to be too picky! It would work, dishonest but they are so over priced anyways , can't get much higher then they are, Nvidia, and Ati have been ripping off the public for a long time. LOL

good luck with your card man!

You're a bastard. :|

 

[BrokenVisage]

Originally posted by: cownipples
I say carefully glue it in place and RMA it, hey really don't look over every resister,they glance at the card, test it and replace, they have too many RMA's to be too picky! It would work, dishonest but they are so over priced anyways , can't get much higher then they are, Nvidia, and Ati have been ripping off the public for a long time. LOL

good luck with your card man!

You're a genius. 😀

 

[Navid]

I forgot to say you will be out of luck if the capacitor is damaged. You need to be able to measure its capacitance. If not, the only way to fix it is to have access to the board schematic diagram!
You need the right value. You cannot just place any capacitor there.

 

[Sphexi]

thats very reassuring, but i'm wondering how many good "solder-ers" there are in Alaska 😉 i dunno about that radio shack idea either; my experence has told me that Best Buy/Radio Shack employes dont tend to know much about electronics 😉

Thanks again for your suppport, i was bummin' out there for a while....$400 is a ton of money for me.
Nick

Well, you're talking to one Radioshack employee who's done quite a bit of soldering, as well as two others in my store plus the manager. I can think of at least another 2 dozen in the state of VT alone who'd be able to handle that, plus another half dozen random people off the top of my head locally who'd do it for you. Like I said, find the OLDEST person in the store, they're likely the one who's been there the longest. If they've been around at least 10 years, they were there when we sold Ham stuff, which means unlike the newer generation of idiot employees we've been flooded with recently, they do know what they're doing, and know people who could help you.

But to each their own, a jeweler might do it for you as well. Just make sure you give them very specific instructions on what goes where, since I doubt they'd know anything about electronics, just soldering.

 

[bobsmith1492]

Whatever you do, DON'T short it out with a piece of solder (who said that???). If it was a resistor, it was there to limit current, in which case shorting the resistor would be FAR more likely to damage your card than simply leaving it out. Capacitors act as an open to DC current and a short or resistor to AC, so leaving it out would be unlikely to damage it. However, shorting it would be quite likely to.

Did you look at the part to see what numbers it has on it? That would tell you exactly what you would need to fix it.

 

[lavaheadache]

so you havent heard back from the manufacturer yet? I'm sure they could fix it for you. I know ati charges like $75 flat rate for repairs

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: bobsmith1492
Did you look at the part to see what numbers it has on it? That would tell you exactly what you would need to fix it.

I wish!
There is no marking on most surface-mount capacitors.

 

[LTC8K6]

I have successfully soldered SMD's on to a 9600pro and a 9800pro. I was an electronic tech for Uncle Sam, though. It was a bitch both times, but if you know where to find the parts, it can be done.

The identifying number on the board will tell you what the component is. C100 is a capacitor, R100 is a resistor, Q100 is a transistor, L100 is a coil, etc.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: LTC8K6
I have successfully soldered SMD's on to a 9600pro and a 9800pro. I was an electronic tech for Uncle Sam, though. It was a bitch both times, but if you know where to find the parts, it can be done.

The identifying number on the board will tell you what the component is. C100 is a capacitor, R100 is a resistor, Q100 is a transistor, L100 is a coil, etc.

So, you know it is a capacitor. How do you know the capacitance (100pF, 1nF, 3.3nF, 10nF, 100nF, .....)?

 

[LTC8K6]

When you point out where I said I knew the capacitance, I'll tell you how I knew it. 😀

Some SMD caps are marked with a code, btw. The code is available online, as is the SMD resistor code.

 

[LTC8K6]

If the part came off intact, you can just measure it if you don't know the code or the part is not marked. Sometimes it's just the solder pad that is damaged, and you can still measure the part.

If the part is broken, you can ask around and see if anyone already knows what the part is. It's possible someone else did the same thing you did, and already figured their way out, saving you a lot of trouble.

 

[Navid]

I think it was already pointed out that it was a capacitor. You can see C557 written on the board close to the broken off component. You can see it in picture number 2 in the first post in this thread.

You can also see all the other capacitors beside it with no marking on them.

 

[imported_humey]

I did same to a ti 4600 with pliers and my cousin soldered part back on, he does for a living 20 + yrs but said it was smallest he had atempted and all was well after it, it turned out it controled tv out i think as b4 it was soldered i had 1 default plug and play but 4-5 monitors so it was hard to see in tv tool where picture went when i hit tv-out as it wasnt on tv or my monitor lol, was back to normal after solder job, looked messy but worked.

 

[JMag]

I broke one of thoose things off on a 9800 pro of mine... It worked fine in 2d apps, but and D3D or OGL apps would get severe artifacts...

 

[zakee00]

im pretty confident i can get it fixed, thanks for the help guys. now i know its a capicitor.
a friend gave me the # to a guy thats supposed to be really good; hopefully he can use the tester or whatever and see what kind of cap it is and replace it. i dont give a fllying phuckz0r how it looks, i just want to be albe to play WoW at over 20fps and CSS at all.
thanks, ill keep you updated on whats going on
nick

if worst comes to worst, i know i can get donations from you guys towards a new PCIe 6800 Ultra 512MB w/ a DFI NF4 Ultra board, right? 🙂

 

[kmmatney]

See if you can read any numbers on the capacitor.... Its probably a 6V (6.3 V) capacitor, with a 50 uf capacitance.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: kmmatney
See if you can read any numbers on the capacitor.... Its probably a 6V (6.3 V) capacitor, with a 50 uf capacitance.

lol