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replacing capacitors.

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imposter

Member
Joined
May 1, 2004
Location
Bronx,newyork
like the title says, i'm fixing my friends pc. what started as a dvd-rw upgrade, ended up costing him 175 dollars in a new motherboard and cpu. went to install the dvd-rw and things were not going according to plan, and i realized that two of his capacitors were blown up. called up my boss and he said that he would be able to replace them for 30 bucks, when he normally charges 75$. :-/ so i was like the hell with it we ordered whats here http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=518813

got in today. (We got pwned by not having 4 standoffs but not an issue)

ANYWAY

also realized that one of his capacitors on his video card might be going, and when i was trying to do a windows install, it wouldn't go if there was no fan on the graphics card (Fx5200)

MY question, after a long and pointless post, how hard is it to replace these capacitors, is it a two second job? cuz i rather not pay my boss 30 bucks just to redo something that i know takes him 5min to do. If im lucky my co-worker will do it for me when my boss has his head turned =P.
(middle)
adsga45%20002%20(Medium).jpg


the one to the left.(graphics card)
adsga45%20003%20(Medium).jpg


adsga45%20004%20(Medium).jpg


this is kinda obvious but this is the motherboard.
 
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long as u can solder then shouldnt be too hard. i replaced about 8 on one board awhile back. took me around 30-40 mins to do. only problem i remembered having was removiing the old ones. took awhile to get it out...
 
I Don't know how to solder ><. Gotta learn some how though. Im sure my friend will give me the board cuz hes not gonna need it, and the fact that i didn't charge him for anything.]


random question, that blue marker type thing they put on capacitors, is that a acid test?
 
It's an extremely easy job. You'll need an iron, some wick, and some solder. First thing's first, heat up the iron and then tin the tip (apply solder directly to the tip). Then wipe excess solder off on a wet sponge. Next, heat up all of the solder joints for the capacitors (stick the iron on each joint one by one). Make sure the whole joint melts. If it doesn't, then try applying just a LITTLE solder onto the joint. If it melts, remove your iron, place wick on the joint, then apply heat to the wick (sandwich the wick between the joint and the iron). You'll see the iron turn silver, and the solder will disappear from the joint. Keep on removing all of the solder from every joint of each capacitor there is, then replace the caps. Get the new caps, and stick them through the holes. Make sure you keep the polarity the same (Caps have a stripe down the negative side). Put them in the board, and then bend the leads a bit to hold the cap in there. Apply heat to a single joint, then apply a little solder until you get a good joint. Repeat for each joint.

Look up soldering guides on google for a more in-depth explanation.
 
If you are replacing caps, replace ALL of the non-hybrids. Odds are, they are on their way out. What caps were on the board? Looks like OST to me.
 
$30 to replace caps?!!! Thats freakin robbery.

caps can be bought for pennies online and require no more than a soldering iron to replace, takes like 15 minutes to recap a board. Thats just sick!
 
Skeith said:
$30 to replace caps?!!! Thats freakin robbery.

caps can be bought for pennies online and require no more than a soldering iron to replace, takes like 15 minutes to recap a board. Thats just sick!
he normally charges 75 =p.
 
Skeith said:
caps can be bought for pennies online and require no more than a soldering iron to replace, takes like 15 minutes to recap a board. Thats just sick!

That depends on the type and rating of the caps you are buying. On an Antec SP recap, I bought caps for about $40. All were UCC/NCC, Nichion and Panasonic FM series. Ofcourse, the primary cans proved to be the most expensive.

Working on multi-layered PCB's is simple but not trivial. Avoiding cold solder joints and doing a clean job takes a bit of practice, especially if the vias are not deep enough.
 
The only way I could see this being difficult is if those are surface mount caps where the leads would be under the capacitor itself. Most likely this is not the case and they are through hole, which is easy as pie to do.
 
Alright, After i get this monitor replaced (different issue) im going to look into buying these caps + soldering kit. then ill have a 1.6 ghz cpu mobo to fold or go to classifieds. (if it works of course)
 
find a piece of junk hardware to practice soldering on at first, remove and reattach a few components I suggest until you're comfortable with it. Once you learn it's very easy if you have a steady hand. I've fixed dozens of motherboards and have never killed anything, patients is the key to a good end result.

Once you're done you'll be kicking yourself in the butt for ever paying someone to do it for you ;)
 
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