Hello, this is my first time posting, so let me know if this is the wrong place for this question. My Gpu is a sparkle intel arc a310 eco. I was transferring my system to a different case when I hit it against something, and a resistor or capacitor fell off the PCB. The photos show where it came from. How screwed am I? I know there are a lot of redundances with some components. I have a beginner level soldering skills. I am not comfortable with attempting to reattach the component, but I will try if I have to.
capacitor
don’t try to run without it
it’s not difficult
apply lots of flux and reapply solder to the pad
then resolder component to the pad
just maintain orientation throughout
should be an easy repair
Thank you! The only things I’ve soldered was a practice board with larger components, so I’ll be careful and take my time. The orientation is my concern. There is no labeling or polarity, so I don’t know which end goes where. Might be able to guess from what the breaks in the solder look like.
My guess is they’re non-polarized capacitors due to lack of labeling.
that’s all you can do
I’ve got the exact same problem on a PCIe QCM card I’m supposed to be repairing. The good news is these are common MLC capacitors that are not polarized, but you’ll need to measure the capacitor with calipers to get the size measurements to figure out what package size it is. In addition you’ll need to know the voltage and capacitance rating of it, LCR tweezers could help you get these values. Then you’ll need to order one from one of the usual online retailers.
I would not reuse that capacitor that has already been knocked off, there is an extremely high likelihood that some of the ceramic layers have been damaged and will lead to fire if used.
lulz, holy shit that took a turn
the ceramic appears fine, looks like the solder pads were porous/incomplete so it popped off clean
but caps are cheap
Hard to tell definitively from the picture, but that tan/brown looking stuff on the solder pads might be some of the ceramic from the capacitor… or it could be the land’s copper.
Even if it is just copper the whack that knocked the cap loose could have cracked the capacitor internally:
very easily
but if he plugs it in and remove the card right after the capacitor pops but before the electrons travel to the controlled circuitry…
so you just need to remove the card faster than the electrons flow in the traces…
so you just need to remove the card slightly faster than the speed of light…
really, it’s likely a circuit smoothing cap but better safe than sorry to have it present
replacement…measure capacitance of the removed one best you can and go a touch higher (more won’t hurt here as it’s again, likely a smoothing circuit)
shipping will cost more than the part
get it from Mauser or DigiKey (personal preference here is based on which UI you like more)
don’t buy it from Amazon, you may as well resolder the broken one back on or leave it off entirely at that point
Would testing with a multimeter suffice to prove it’s worthy of being reused?
Testing for a short should be easy and can’t most meters now test for capacitance?
Now that I’m looking closer at the PCB, it looks like that loose capacitor is one the same pads as the two adjacent to it, I’d try running the card without that capacitor on it since it still has buddies helping out with the voltage ripple.
This is literally the only reason I use mouser, I know digikey almost always has better selection but I just can’t get past the UI.
I wouldn’t risk it for how cheap MLCC can be had now adays. I’d be worried of a minor crack that would only show up under certain thermal conditions that might not show up on a multimeter, or an open crack that decreases the capacitance.
unfortunately not
unless you have an awesome meter
yes on capacitance, though accuracy is a concern
especially at this scale
Not knowing the value I was looking for I wouldn’t care about accuracy… if it showed any capacitance at all and didn’t short I’d toss it back on there just so I didn’t have to wait for delivery or go out looking for a replacement. But I guess that may not always work out lol
typically fine
especially little guys like this where they are smoothing a 0.01v ripple at most
What would be best then. Run without it, solder it back on, or buy a new one and solder that on… sorry I am very new to this.
- throw it in the trash (padded flat rate box addressed to me)
- dispose of it responsibly (drop it off at local USPS drop box)
- ???
- profit
but really, do you own a multimeter?
post a pic of it and let’s figure this shit out
you’re gonna learn today with a crash course on SMC repair
Anecdotally I knocked much larger components off of a Quadro GP100 years ago, and it still works fine to this day!
Might be worth a shot to turn it on.
I’d run it without the capacitor; generally ripple suppression capacitors are very generously spec’d in designs with a large margin of safety, so running on 2/3 of them should be fine.
Edit:
upon even closer look it seems that 8 of the capacitors (including the dislodged one) are on the same power and ground plane, so you’d be running on 7/8ths of the original capacitance value which is very unlikely to cause any trouble.
I went ahead and just plugged it in. If it dies, it dies. So far so good. Ran furmark on it for bout an half hour, and it didn’t explode!
Nice. Thanks for the follow up.