Reattaching a small cap on a Voodoo5 5500 AGP

[w.gruffydd]

Greetings,

How hard would it be for a complete soldering novice to reattach this small capacitor (circled in red) on a Voodoo5 5500 AGP?



It's currently detached on one side:



Alternatively, is there a place where people are referred for graphics card cap repairs? From what I can see, badcaps only does motherboards. Given the prices of Voodoo5s these days, I cannot afford to screw this up.

Thank you advance!

[Per Hansson]

Re: Reattaching a small cap on a Voodoo5 5500 AGP

I'm sure Topcat would do the board if you want it.
This is not something I would recommend a novice try as his first thing.
Boards like these require allot of heat due to large ground planes.
If you want to do it yourself you need to practice on something else first.

[Topcat]

Re: Reattaching a small cap on a Voodoo5 5500 AGP

I could fix that.

[w.gruffydd]

Re: Reattaching a small cap on a Voodoo5 5500 AGP

Very cool. Would you like me to fill out this form?

[Topcat]

Re: Reattaching a small cap on a Voodoo5 5500 AGP

Very cool. Would you like me to fill out this form?

Yea, that's fine.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Reattaching a small cap on a Voodoo5 5500 AGP

Also worth keeping in mind that although unusual sometimes these caps do go bad.
Case in point (there is even a Mouser shopping cart on page 2...)

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=668010#p668010

[momaka]

Re: Reattaching a small cap on a Voodoo5 5500 AGP

If you don't have any prior experience soldering, SMD/SMT can be a bit tricky.

I learned to solder SMD by myself, but it took many years of practice and experimental repairs on broken boards no one cared about before I learned to do it right. You don't actually need any specialized tools for most small SMD components (I still use a cheapo 35-Watt Radio Shack soldering for most of my SMD work), but you do need an iron with the right tip and also good paste flux. And a steady hand.

That said, I still despise removing electrolytic SMD caps. Soldering them back on, not so much of an issue, though.

This being a rare VooDoo card, of course... probably better that you decided TC to do it.

[diif]

Re: Reattaching a small cap on a Voodoo5 5500 AGP

That said, I still despise removing electrolytic SMD caps. Soldering them back on, not so much of an issue, though.

Grab the top with pliers and give it a gentle twist clockwise and anti clockwise.
This snaps the legs which can then be desoldered easily.
(As recommended by Mr Carlson of Mr Carlson's Lab).

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Reattaching a small cap on a Voodoo5 5500 AGP

(Mr Carlson's Lab).

This is a very good resource of information I am a regular reader of his material

[momaka]

Re: Reattaching a small cap on a Voodoo5 5500 AGP

Grab the top with pliers and give it a gentle twist clockwise and anti clockwise.
This snaps the legs which can then be desoldered easily.
(As recommended by Mr Carlson of Mr Carlson's Lab).

Thanks for the recommendation, diif.

That actually sounds somewhat similar to how I've been doing them: typically, freeze the board and then just exert sideways force on the cap. If the board uses very stiff lead-free solder, freezing it actually makes the solder very brittle so the leads become easy to snap off from the board without getting damaged at all - sometimes looking as if the cap is perfectly desoldered. But YMMV with different boards, as did mine. On some, the cap leads broke close to the cap base and with those I either had to discard them or solder on new leads (most often the case, as I don't like to waste good caps. )

I'll check Mr Carlson's Lab and see what he does. Been a while since I checked that. Never know, might (probably will) learn something new.