Fcon capacitors on GeForce MX 440

[mariushm]

This is more of a "show and tell"...

This is a Canyon GeForce MX 440 128 MB, on AGP slot. I bought it personally about 3 years ago and since then it was in my sister's computer, who barely uses it daily.

Removed it today to replace it with a Radeon 9250, basically for dual monitor support and found almost all capacitors swollen, even though the card was working with no issues whatsoever...





Luckily Fcon seems to have the specs available - they're average low esr caps, about 800mA ripple and 60mOhm impedance, no problem replacing them with some Nichicon or Panasonic caps.

What I was wondering is if I should replace the polymer capacitor as well - it seems to be slightly cracked and there's some discoloring on it. Any clue on who made it or does it even matter i wonder?

[yyonline]

Re: Fcon capacitors on GeForce MX 440

That's not a polymer capacitor, but a regular electrolytic capacitor without a sleeve. The "cracks" are the vent stampings.

It appears to be made by SUNCON:



SUNCON used to make Sanyo capacitors, and they are generally reliable. That said, the discoloration is unusual. Does the discoloration wipe off? If so, I wouldn't worry about this capacitor. Assuming I identified it correctly, finding a surface mount replacement with 230 mA ripple capacity should be easy to do.

[Evil Lurker]

Re: Fcon capacitors on GeForce MX 440

Not for sure about Romania, but here in the USA you can get replacements off Ebay for $5-10 or thereabouts... not worth fooling with IMO.

[mariushm]

Re: Fcon capacitors on GeForce MX 440

yyonline, thanks for clarifying. I should have realized polymer caps don't really need vents so that of course is an electrolytic.

When I initially removed the card, I rubbed it with a finger and I think it was very slightly sticky. It also caught my eye as that T vent on it had one of the edge lightly raised - what I mean is if I try to scratch the top with finger nail I can feel the edges. Usually with new capacitors like that one, I don't feel the edges.

Still, I don't think it's all that serious but when I order the others, I might as well order a replacement for this one.

Evil Lurker: thank you, appreciate the advice.

I usually order from Farnell which has a "warehouse" in UK and they also have a version of their site translated to Romanian (not that I have a problem understanding English but I feel it shows a bit of extra care to help their potential customers)

They're more expensive than digikey, but the shipping from them is only about 4 euro/6 dollars - digikey would charge me about 30$ at least to ship stuff here, not to mention the stress with customs taxes (on packages over 40 euro) and VAT (on anything over 25 euro).

[Pentium4]

Re: Fcon capacitors on GeForce MX 440

And for the record, Elixir makes pretty bad desktop RAM (seen so many die) so I'm guessing their VRAM isn't much better, and they put bad caps on it too, that poor nVidia

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Fcon capacitors on GeForce MX 440

There is nothing wrong with the Suncon.
They are much better than 'generally reliable'.
Stop being phobic about Suncon.
They -ARE- Sanyo, and on a par with Panasonic.
-
Replace the FCON and you will be fine.
.
.
The people that ran the lytics division of Sanyo basically bought themselves from Sanyon and named themselves Suncon.
Same people, same factory, same suppliers, same caps, new name.
.