Cap replacement options?

[chew*]

It appears this card was not up to the task for benching. Need to replace the caps for starters.

I'm assuming these are 1500uf? What are my options, and suggestions on where to get them ( radio shack only has up to 1000uf and not 6.3v models. )

I thought solid state caps were alot better......

A shot of the failed caps.
http://members.cox.net/chewxs/cap1.jpg

Shot of the general area to show they're usage.

http://members.cox.net/chewxs/cap2.jpg

[Boogerlad]

i thought solid caps don't leak/burst.

[chew*]

I'd like to use these if at all possible....I am however going to slam this card preety hard.......

http://members.cox.net/chewxs/cap3.jpg

[chew*]

i thought solid caps don't leak/burst.

I guess that would depend on the quality of the caps, If you are/were overclocking and how many volts you were sending to the core ;) FYI this is MSI.

[chew*]

Screw it, no answers, I'm the impatient type. Was preety confident so here we go. Running aquamark now ;)

http://members.cox.net/chewxs/cap4.jpg

Not my cleanest work but it does the job.

http://members.cox.net/chewxs/cap5.jpg

[chew*]

:up:
http://members.cox.net/chewxs/aquamark.JPG

[Nanometer]

good work, ive seen similar caps burst.. they were on the evga 7600gs i believe.. they were notorious for ruined capacitors.

[chew*]

Unfortunately I should have laid down to the feeling went away, the bios appears locked and flashing attempts have been a no go, getting an error code 0fl01 even with a command line like this.

atiflash -p -f -fa -fm -fs -fp 0 sapphi~1.bin

That should about bypass any safety net and brick a card quickly, refuses to flash however...

[chew*]

Hmm read me's help.

0FL01:banana: Error programming ROM
----------------------------
- Check that the command line arguments you passed are correct.
- Check that the BIOS image file specified exists and isn't corrupted.
- Check that the ROM isn't write protected.
- If a parameter in the BIOS image file differs from a parameter in the
current ROM image (e.g. SSID), and you're sure you want to program
the image, specify the -f (force) flag on the command line.

It's been along time, Is there a way around this via software or a hardware mod?

I noticed an open Bridge if you will next to the bios chip on the right almost under it.

http://members.cox.net/chewxs/cap6.jpg

[celemine1Gig]

I guess that would depend on the quality of the caps, If you are/were overclocking and how many volts you were sending to the core ;) FYI this is MSI.

They leaked because these aren't solid caps. The ones that went bad on your card are normal electrolytic caps, just without the colored foil around them. You can easily tell by the cross like grooves in the top of the cap. If these are present, it's an electrolytic. The grooves are the ventilation points in case of failure, i.e. predetermined breaking points for the material so the cap doesn't explode and fly off the PCB due to the pressure on the casing.

And your replacements are fine.

About the EEPROM, I'll have to have a look at the datasheet. There should be a way around that.

Edit:
Here's the datasheet: http://www.sst.com/downloads/datasheet/S71192.pdf

OK, check if pin#3 (WP#) is connected to ground. If it is, the way around it is to disconnect it from ground and connect it to pin#8(vdd) instead. Don't just connect it to vdd, as this would create a short between vdd and gnd. ;)

[ChaosWDG]

LOL...
I have never seen one blow on one of my Motherboards, but I have blown plenty of them on my guitar amps.. theyr a bugger to get sorted

[chew*]

They leaked because these aren't solid caps. The ones that went bad on your card are normal electrolytic caps, just without the colored foil around them. You can easily tell by the cross like grooves in the top of the cap. If these are present, it's an electrolytic. The grooves are the ventilation points in case of failure, i.e. predetermined breaking points for the material so the cap doesn't explode and fly off the PCB due to the pressure on the casing.

And your replacements are fine.

About the EEPROM, I'll have to have a look at the datasheet. There should be a way around that.

Edit:
Here's the datasheet: http://www.sst.com/downloads/datasheet/S71192.pdf

OK, check if pin#3 (WP#) is connected to ground. If it is, the way around it is to disconnect it from ground and connect it to pin#8(vdd) instead. Don't just connect it to vdd, as this would create a short between vdd and gnd. ;)

So i have to diconect it and short it out for a second I'm assuming, or use a resistor?

[celemine1Gig]

So i have to diconect it and short it out for a second I'm assuming, or use a resistor?

You find the trace that the pin#3 (WP#) is connected to and either cut the trace mechanically, or you lift up the pin itself. After that you have to connect (permanently) the pin to VDD(pin#8), as stated above. You don't need no resistor and there is no need to reverse the mod. The card will work just fine, either way. It's a specific pin to set a "hard-coded" write protection and it can be disabled, like I said. ;)

[chew*]

All righty I will report back after it goes back under the knife, I'm going to change the other 2 caps next to the mosfet with some nichicons as well.

[chew*]

Nichicons didn't agree with the card = exploded instantly :D OOPS oddly they were direct replacements.

Anyway Did the mod and no dice still the same error code, I get the feeling they don't want me to flash this card :shakes: alot of time wasted for a x300 lol.....

http://members.cox.net/chewxs/cap7.jpg

http://members.cox.net/chewxs/cap8.jpg

[BeepBeep2]

Well like another person has stated, those weren't polymer (solid) caps. Those are just the normal electrolytics in an exposed aluminum casing. :down:
Solid caps won't explode or bulge because they don't build up pressure.

Good luck with the BIOS flash error.

[celemine1Gig]

Nichicons didn't agree with the card = exploded instantly :D OOPS oddly they were direct replacements.

Anyway Did the mod and no dice still the same error code, I get the feeling they don't want me to flash this card :shakes: alot of time wasted for a x300 lol.....

[/IMG]http://members.cox.net/chewxs/cap7.jpg[/IMG]

[/IMG]http://members.cox.net/chewxs/cap8.jpg[/IMG]

If you did the mod like I explained, then it can't be hardware or software write protection no more, because the mod disables that completely. So either you did something wrong, or there's something else (software wise) preventing you from flashing the card. ;)

And about the exploding caps:

You either soldered them in reversed (+ and - connected to the wrong contacts), or the caps were also bad before. Can happen.

[chew*]

If you did the mod like I explained, then it can't be hardware or software write protection no more, because the mod disables that completely. So either you did something wrong, or there's something else (software wise) preventing you from flashing the card. ;)

And about the exploding caps:

You either soldered them in reversed (+ and - connected to the wrong contacts), or the caps were also bad before. Can happen.

yah I'm not sure what it was but I got down to the nitty gritty and removed a bios chip off a 9250 ;) It also had a write protected bios, Modded that and got it to flash, unfortunately neither bios will work so that sums it up....no ocing for that card......

I don't think those nichicons agreed with the card,I had polarity correct, could have been bad they came off a dead 9250.....

I picked up 2 new candidates to mod however. cheap fun :up:
http://members.cox.net/chewxs/4850.jpg

http://members.cox.net/chewxs/48501.jpg

[caps_buster]

Well like another person has stated, those weren't polymer (solid) caps. Those are just the normal electrolytics in an exposed aluminum casing.

Very true. These are Sacons and by research of Big Pope, they are related to the legendary bad GSC crap caps - same company, it just keep changing the caps name, look: http://capsmod.net/forum/viewthread.php?tid=109&extra=page%3D1
To sumarize the thread and for those who can't read Chinasee, not even simplified one, there is a simple equation: GSC = Evercon = Sacon = Capsun.

So the crap GSC caps give to everyone just changed the name.


Solid caps won't explode or bulge because they don't build up pressure.

Unfortunately, that is wrong. Just try a 2.5V Nichicon LE under 5V and you see :ROTF:

Worse thing, even polymer caps are different brands and some are using stolen formulas that last for like a year & perform horribly & can explode well. It was discussed on this very forum there, for example:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=151968
...and these "Elite" polymers used by Asus are known crap polymers that dies AND explode regulary on the P5K series of mainboards. On top of that, they use just ONE freaking cap on the 12V input rails, so... they asking for troubles anyway.

As for the original question - I would first measure how much voltage are on the caps (best with scope, DMM -SHOULD- do fine but only in most cases, it can't catch spikes, so...) and then I look out for replacements.
Nichicon are good brand, but the type does matter as well. Nichicon HE did not have enough ripple and enough low ESR, for example. HZ will be great, HM/N should do it.
Another option are Rubycon, where MBZ rather not, but MCZ will do fine. Also you can check out Samxon caps, their GC/GA series are rather good and beat even Ruby and match the Nichicon HZ parameters. Eg. great caps. (Topcat from BadCaps forum selling them in USA, IIRC)

If the voltages are low (and AFTER the regulators they should be - like 1,2V for GPU and like around 1,8 - 2V for rams) then I would look out for polymer caps, because their specs are unbeatable on low voltages.
Head to Digi-key for Nichicon LE polymers, they pack unbelievably low 5mOhms in some sizes, so grab them fast, there is nothing that can beat that. Come close some Samxon URL ones, but only some - the big 2700uF that I have in my avatar did not. It have big capacity, that does matter sometimes, true, but did not have very low ESR. According to this: http://www.capsmod.net/caps/
It does have 8mOhms, witch is great, but did not come close to 5mOhms of Nichicon LE. Smaller URL X-CON caps as Joe tend to like mark them, come to 7mOhms, but that is still far from the 5mOhms of Nichicon LE - so if the original capacity was not very high, use Nichicons. Like 820uF ones, for example.


PS. if your soldering skills suxx, then it is not necessary to press for very low ESR :D I mean - the mediocre soldering joint resistance far exceed some mOhms, so... :p:

[andlcs]

Dude, I think you soldered those Sanyo caps reversed. See, the original capacitor positive leg is near the 3.3 inductor. You soldered the Sanyo negative leg there...

Anyways, like someone said the original caps were "wet" electrolytcs from SACON brand. They fail a lot in eVGA Geforce 7600 cards.

[caps_buster]

Maybe not. You never know... but it is possible. Their POSITIVE point should be towards the 3R3 coil, as the original caps are, while on the picture with the Sanyo caps present it seems the NEGATIVE point (the straight golden line from top to bottom of the cap) is actually going to the 3R3 coil.
Then no wonder they leaked, lol.

As for the "you never know" - I remember a guy claiming that his GFX cards PCB has got the points reversed... It was somewhere at CapsMods... wait...

10 min of searching - FOUND! There ya go: http://capsmod.net/forum/viewthread.php?tid=76
Apparently he made the same mistake, but this time he was fooled by the PCB. Maybe chew* was also fooled and decieved by PCB print?


PS: GSC crap caps on eVGA cards? LOL That speak a lot about their position towards a customers - they must strongly believe that we are utterly stupid to pay for HW with known bad caps...

[chew*]

Dude, I think you soldered those Sanyo caps reversed. See, the original capacitor positive leg is near the 3.3 inductor. You soldered the Sanyo negative leg there...

Anyways, like someone said the original caps were "wet" electrolytcs from SACON brand. They fail a lot in eVGA Geforce 7600 cards.

I'm quite sure they were not reversed ;) If they were I don't think it would have run that .....
Prior card gave a blank screen. I quit because unlocked bios's would not flash thats all.
card works fine.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3625839&postcount=6

Might have been the case with the nichicons though, I went by PCB on that.