Video adapters - bad caps

[kgordon]

Lately, I have had considerable trouble with various video cards. The total so far this week (!) is 4 which have gone belly-up. They are:

1) EVGA GeForce 7600GS. This one also took out the mobo. It was contained in a computer I built for our oldest son about 5 years ago. Mobo was a Gigabyte GA-7N400. He was using it and heard something "POP". 4 of the capacitors on it are blown, one blew its guts all over the inside of his computer.

2) No-name 3DF-FX5200TV. This one caused BSOD BAD_POOL_HEADER errors on all users OTHER THAN one. (Weird!)

3) Another no-name 3DF-FX5200TV. This one simply gave a black screen.

4) A different no-name Video PX6200TC. This one caused SOME websites to not display completely, which I thought was completey weird. There are two capacitors on it in which the "K" shape relief on top are bulged a bit but not blown....yet. The caps have no name on them, and even the values are not clear to me. Like one that has a bit of green paint on one edge, no insulating covering (bare aluminum), the number 49, and 470, then 6e. I assume it is a 470 uF capacitor, but it is too big to be a 6.3 V job. So, what is it?

My darned cell phone just ran its batteries down, so I can't post photos right now, but will later today.

Why do these manufacturers insist on using crap caps?

Ken Gordon W7EKB

[bgavin]

Re: Video adapters - bad caps

I had an MSI 8500GT go south in a new machine. The three caps on board were all Sanyo, and they all popped after a power outage.

I recapped with MCZ, but used 10v instead of the original 6.3v rated caps.
This is the 2nd video card I've seen with all popped caps, from power outages.

[kaniki]

Re: Video adapters - bad caps

well think about it, if they put a 1 year warranty on the card and it blows after 1 1/2 years, then they don't have to fix it. Not only that, but you are likely to come back to them to buy another. More sales which means more profits.

as for the remark about the power outages. That is the exact reason that i use UPS's (battery backups). I have ll my main stuff hooked up to them including the TV's. Just makes economical sense to me.

UPS = $50
cheap new computer = $300
time and aggravation saved from not loosing everything or having to reinstall = priceless

that goes for the DVD burners too. just not having to reset them every time that the power goes out makes the purchase worth while just in itself.

[lazychris2000]

Re: Video adapters - bad caps

Ive had a few video cards die after power outages, but heat may also be part of the problem. I came across a radeon 9550 in a buddy's computer which had 2 or 3 blown polymer caps under the heatsink. The fan had quit and the temp had been dangerously high(90-100C) for a few weeks before he told me he was having video problems. After scalding him for smoking near his computer and killing the fan (along with 2 other case fans), I recapped it and replaced the fan and its been running strong ever since!

[paul_h]

Re: Video adapters - bad caps

Aren't the 7600GS cards pretty much known for failing? I've seen heaps of them die.
I've used ati since 9700 and none of them have died (9600, 9800, x850 and 4770 all still working). I do have a 6600GT I bought s/h recently though for a linux box as everyone said linux drivers are better for nvidia. But I've notice twice today when veiwing a forum, a couple of distorted lines and text across posts/topics, but when refreshing it came out OK.

Maybe don't buy no name brand graphics cards? They are cheaper because they cut costs? I've always been happy to buy a slower cpu/gpu, but get a decent brand/build mobo, gpu and hdd. Mainly because I didn't want to deal with the drama or knew how to repair/replace component caps before etc.

[shadow]

Re: Video adapters - bad caps

Just letting you know that those 'polymer' capacitors were probably just electrolytic capacitors that were made to look like polymer capacitors.

I may be wrong...but polymer capacitors do not become bloated of blown. Having said this they can still fail (they would just need higher temperatures to degrade that quickly).

[RicB]

Re: Video adapters - bad caps

would you guys say that a video card that works but has random characters and corruption is a bad GPU as compared to bad caps?

[Leopard]

Re: Video adapters - bad caps

would you guys say that a video card that works but has random characters and corruption is a bad GPU as compared to bad caps?

That is a common problem especially on Nvidia 8800 and 9800 series cards. This happens due to BGA joints going bad/cracking due to heat stress beneath the GPU. There is a certain "oven trick" which has worked for many owners of those cards. Google it, I think I found it on [H] forum a while back.

E: Depends on the card though, I had a Radeon 9250 card which displayed random garbage and suffered from video corruption and it was due to bad caps. (Licon)

[gdement]

Re: Video adapters - bad caps

I think part of the reason for the cheap caps is because the add-on video card market is very gamer oriented. The big customers buy new cards every year, so long lasting parts aren't a necessary expense. Timely failure also takes the card out of circulation in the 2nd hand market.

Maybe don't buy no name brand graphics cards? They are cheaper because they cut costs? I've always been happy to buy a slower cpu/gpu, but get a decent brand/build mobo, gpu and hdd.

Avoiding no-names is a start, but it's not really enough with video cards. Many of the major brands also make crap cards. ATI doesn't sell their own anymore, and nVidia never did, so you're stuck with a 3rd party. Most of the popular brands push so heavily on the gaming angle you can't readily tell which brands actually value reliability.
Look how popular eVGA is on most forums - it's a big name that most people would think are reputable. They even have a good warranty (on paper anyway). Yet they're known to use Sacon FZ on some of their cards. I even recommended them myself to some people before I learned about that.
Clearly reliability doesn't get much attention in that market, so you have to dig to figure out who the good guys are.

[Wizard]

Re: Video adapters - bad caps

I'm impartial to Sapphire made ATi cards. Good stuff on them (polymer), haven't had fan fail yet and both are 3 years old at this point.

Cheers, Wizard

[paul_h]

Re: Video adapters - bad caps

Yeah I normally buy sapphire, powercolor, I have had a MSI or two as well.
None have prematurely failed, normally get 3 years out of them if I leave the stock fan on, before the fan gets noisy. That's just the fan being noisy though, not the card failing.
But quite often I get a passive cooler on it straight away or when the fan plays up, and with good case ventilation, get many more years with no problems and maintenance free.
I have to say I'm very impressed with the stock fan on a powercolor ATI 4770, nice massive fan that you can't even hear on idle

[fortner2]

Re: Video adapters - bad caps

In the last two days I have repaired 2 video cards with bad caps.
One was an asus x300se Radeon 128m pci ex with 3 bad caps.
the other one was a geforce 5700ve with 256 mb it had 6 bad caps.
Both cards are working fine now .