Resistor fell off GF4 4600-Fixable?

Last night I was trying to install a Koolance waterblock on my gpu using the horrible mounting system that comes with the block. One of the clips managed to shear off a resistor on the card! My computer will boot with the resistor gone, but the screen is corrupted. Can this simply be soldered back onto the board? If so, where can I get this done. I have some soldering skills but never with anything this tiny.


Help!!!

it can be soldered back onto the board. i knocked one of the smt capacitors off installing the zalman heatpipe on my vid card, and had no trouble soldering it back on. works like new.

as for soldering something as tiny as a resistor, here's somes tips: clean off the old solder, and put some new solder, but very little. using tweezers, place the resistor back, heat the new solder on one end first, and the resistor should stay on without the tweezers. solder the other end, the go back and add a little more solder to both ends to ensure a strong attachement. takes a steady hand, but its not too difficult. might take a few tries for someone new to this.

Poor guy! the last thing I ever want to do is break my 4600! I hope you are able to fix it, I dont think I would have the skill to solder something as small as those resistors, just make sure you dont lose it!!!

Thanks for the tips and encouragement. I'm going to wait until this weekend when I'm a little better slept and hopefully my aim will be a little better. I bought an ATI Radeon 9600 Pro in the meantime. It seems to be about as fast as the 4600.

If anyone has anymore soldering/repair tips please pass them along, I need them!!!

raskren said:

Thanks for the tips and encouragement. I'm going to wait until this weekend when I'm a little better slept and hopefully my aim will be a little better. I bought an ATI Radeon 9600 Pro in the meantime. It seems to be about as fast as the 4600.

If anyone has anymore soldering/repair tips please pass them along, I need them!!!

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Must be nice to just go out and buy a brand fragging new video card as a fill in till you fix yours in three days.

phoenix111384 said:

add a little more solder to both ends to ensure a strong attachement.

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More solder doesn't mean a strong attachment, in most cases it's weaker, it's more important that the solder flows.

If you don't have great soldering skills, you could use a match (sharpen it a bit) and glue it to the resistor, that way it's easier to hold it in place.

Also remember that you don't make it too hot as it might kill the resistor, so let it cool when you've soldered one side.

BTW: Are you sure it's a resistor? (caps won't take as much/long heat as resistors do, transistors take even less to kill).