Battle scars

My GPU's have been running hot lately and freezing up while folding, so I decided to give the system a long over due cleaning. While putting the video cards back in I noticed these caps were puffy and discolored on the top. Also after getting the system back up and folding, I awoke to both clients being hung again although now the temps are much lower than they were before. Given the proximity these capacitors have to the first PCI-E slot I assume they are part of the PCI power bus, so I think issues there could cause both GPU's to freeze up on me.

So a few questions. What is the likely hood of them popping and causing a fire? I'm feeling a bit adventurous and the solder points look big, how do I find what a proper replacement cap would be?

And FYI the board is a Foxconn (EVGA branded) AM2 board from early 2007 folding since day one.

An EVGA board without solid state caps? Any chance it is still under warranty? If not, I would recommend finding a complete set for the board. You may find yourself changing the ones that are bad now, and having some more die in a few weeks or months. It is best to replace them all. If you send a PM to Super_Nade or torin3, they may be able to tell you what brands of caps to get, and where to get them from.

yeah redo the whole thing .. ive heard putting clear nail polish on afterwards helps ... you should check out your air flow in the case too ..

Ah-ha! This I can answer.

First, if you are under warranty, that would be the best option.

That said, and assuming you aren't under warranty.

Digikey or Mouser are good sources for motherboard grade caps. Panasonic FC or FM series caps are pretty good, and usually priced inexpensively. Depending on how many you need, you might have to pay between $10-20 for enough to recap the whole board.

On the side of the caps should be some printing that gives you the microfarad ( μF ) and voltage rating for the cap. If you can give me that, or some decent close up photos of the sides of the caps, I can help you find the ones you need. You also need to give me the diamater and height of the caps in milimeters.

However, you REALLY should replace all the caps. They degrade over time, high temps, and ripple voltage. They can fail, or have reduced performance without looking bad from the outside.

Anyway, once we get the ratings, I'll help you find the replacements.

Edit: Almost forgot. If you can, look inside your PSU (assuming you don't have to break any seals to see in) and see how the caps look there too. You may have some bad ones in there as well. I've found a lot of overlap, where the PSU caps go bad, and it starts providing dirty voltage to the MB, degrading the caps there as well.

Well just from looking at it and ordering the caps from bottom left to top right caps 3 and 5 need to be replaced first but if you're gonna replace caps might as well do them all. Cap 3 is showing major signs of electrolytic fluid leak and 5 is not far behind(showing some leak as well). I'm with torin on this one. Also its hard to tell just from this picture but you're first two caps 1 and 2 both look like they are trying to dome on you. However I maybe wrong its hard to make out since they are so small in this picture.

you should check out your air flow in the case too ..

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It's very good, when it's clean lol.

First, if you are under warranty, that would be the best option.

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An EVGA board without solid state caps? Any chance it is still under warranty?

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I doubt it, I bought the board in early 2007. If I do replace them I would like to use sold caps as I was thinking the same thing when I got it. But no complaints as it was on the cheaper side to begin with.

On the side of the caps should be some printing that gives you the microfarad ( μF ) and voltage rating for the cap. If you can give me that, or some decent close up photos of the sides of the caps, I can help you find the ones you need. You also need to give me the diamater and height of the caps in milimeters.

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My "easy release" PCI card locks on my case get in the way when pulling a card out so I have to unscrew the whole thing. I'm going to bed soon as I just got out of work so I'm not going to start any projects right now. The caps that I was able to see are 1800uF @ 16v, 2200uF @ 6.3v, and 1000uF @ ?v. And many more of different ratings and sizes, like I'm thinking at least thirty on here. I would just say screw it I'll replace just the few, but I found a few more that were not anything like the two in the pictures but definitely questionable.

The small ones worry me as I haven't soldered anything in a long time. But if I'm going to replace a motherboard I would want to make it a good one and replace the CPU with it, and my budget isn't allowing for that right now.

I don't think I can get any better pictures. I should be able to read all of these once I get the time to gut some parts out of the case again. So are the physical sizes suppose to be listed on them too or do you want me to just measure the height and width myself?

Almost forgot. If you can, look inside your PSU (assuming you don't have to break any seals to see in) and see how the caps look there too. You may have some bad ones in there as well. I've found a lot of overlap, where the PSU caps go bad, and it starts providing dirty voltage to the MB, degrading the caps there as well.

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LOL, I wouldn't be surprised. I'll check it out. I bought it from a local computer store in a hurry since I quickly found out my old PSU would not work on my new board and I was desperate to get it up and running. It is a 500 watt AGI brand ????? I was amazed it let me fold on two GPU's and an OC'd Athlon X2.

However I maybe wrong its hard to make out since they are so small in this picture.

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I don't see it, just the two are really bad, and so are the pictures, lol. the G1 was never known for good picture quality.

Definitely replace everything, cap failure can cause high voltage death to things down the line from them.

Zerix01 said:

I doubt it, I bought the board in early 2007. If I do replace them I would like to use sold caps as I was thinking the same thing when I got it. But no complaints as it was on the cheaper side to begin with.

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Ok, I'll check prices on polymer & electrolytic.

My "easy release" PCI card locks on my case get in the way when pulling a card out so I have to unscrew the whole thing. I'm going to bed soon as I just got out of work so I'm not going to start any projects right now. The caps that I was able to see are 1800uF @ 16v, 2200uF @ 6.3v, and 1000uF @ ?v. And many more of different ratings and sizes, like I'm thinking at least thirty on here. I would just say screw it I'll replace just the few, but I found a few more that were not anything like the two in the pictures but definitely questionable.

The small ones worry me as I haven't soldered anything in a long time. But if I'm going to replace a motherboard I would want to make it a good one and replace the CPU with it, and my budget isn't allowing for that right now.

I don't think I can get any better pictures. I should be able to read all of these once I get the time to gut some parts out of the case again. So are the physical sizes suppose to be listed on them too or do you want me to just measure the height and width myself?

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I just measure them with a tape measure. The main thing is you don't want to buy a cap that is too large to fit in the spot.

For example: The first cap you listed, 1800 μF @ 16V? Digikey lists 2 FC Panasonic caps for those ratings. The one that will probably fit is 12.5mm wide by 20mm tall. But they also list one that is 18mm wide and 15mm tall. A couple together on the board, and the second ones wouldn't be mountable.

Ok, 1800 μF @ 16V. $1.78 each, or $9.66 for 10 of them. If you need 5 or more, getting 10 would be cheaper than buying individually.
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=P11207-ND
Digikey didn't list a poly cap that size.

2200 μF @ 6.3V. $0.61 each, or 10 for $4.50 Panasonic FM.
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=P12344-ND
Didn't see a poly cap again.

LOL, I wouldn't be surprised. I'll check it out. I bought it from a local computer store in a hurry since I quickly found out my old PSU would not work on my new board and I was desperate to get it up and running. It is a 500 watt AGI brand ????? I was amazed it let me fold on two GPU's and an OC'd Athlon X2.



I don't see it, just the two are really bad, and so are the pictures, lol. the G1 was never known for good picture quality.

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Well, I've done a few motherboard recaps. If you aren't comfortable doing it, and don't mind buying the caps, I'd be willing to do it for you.

I should check out my board as well too . Since I got this computer from day one I have been either crunching Seti or Folding 24/7 at decent overclocks.

My board is a 680i SLI from EVGA. If yours is the same, I believe I recall it having a 3 year warranty, although the LT version had a 1 year warranty.

All EVGA SN# ending with -AR at the end have Lifetime. My 8800GTX is one of those.

AmbientFiction said:

All EVGA SN# ending with -AR at the end have Lifetime. My 8800GTX is one of those.

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**FootNote - This is true only if you registered the card with eVGA within 30 days (might be 60?) of the original purchase and you are the original purchaser of the card. If you did not, like I did for one of my 260s, then you only get the 3 years.

pik4chu said:

**FootNote - This is true only if you registered the card with eVGA within 30 days

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That's a relatively recent policy change. A mobo purchased in 2007 should still be eligible for lifetime warranty regardless of registration date, AFAIK.

Roisen said:

I should check out my board as well too . Since I got this computer from day one I have been either crunching Seti or Folding 24/7 at decent overclocks.

My board is a 680i SLI from EVGA. If yours is the same, I believe I recall it having a 3 year warranty, although the LT version had a 1 year warranty.

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Mine is a 590 SLI with a -TR at the end of the part number, EVGA's web site is showing a 2 year warranty if I registered within 30 days, which I didn't.

Well, I've done a few motherboard recaps. If you aren't comfortable doing it, and don't mind buying the caps, I'd be willing to do it for you.

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Maybe if you don't mind, I can use you as my back up. If I get stuck I'll send it out to you. But I'll give it a shot, you guys have talked me into it and now I'm excited to do my own component repairs. I wanted to wait on a new board with SATA 3 anyway.

Zerix01 said:

Maybe if you don't mind, I can use you as my back up. If I get stuck I'll send it out to you. But I'll give it a shot, you guys have talked me into it and now I'm excited to do my own component repairs. I wanted to wait on a new board with SATA 3 anyway.

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No problem. Good luck with it.

I've had good luck using stainless steel sewing needles/pushpins to clear out the hole once I've removed the old cap. If you can find them, a stainless steel dental pick works well too. The solder doesn't stick to it.

How long running full load with my i7 and x2 GPU's folding, would i start seeing degrading performance from the hardware/caps? my CPU is water cooled, and my HAF's fans are flowing air through the case nicely... CPU fluctuates from 58-66c while folding, and GPU's range 58-71C (WU dependent), top card runs warmer due to space to the other card, and that top card fan is running at 80%... i should throw those in water too, but that is a lot more money for 2 blocks, and another rad for a second loop...

Honestly, if i blow my computer in the name of science, i am sure it will be easier to talk the wife into building ANOTHER one, lol!

Something to consider when removing through hole components on a motherboard. There is a lot of copper ground plane in the inner layers that will sink all the heat from the solder iron or solder sucker. If you don't have enough wattage from the solder iron, you might dwell too long on the outside hole pads and cause them to lift off the board. Motherboards are much more difficult to solder than say a normal 2 or 4 layer consumer electronics board.

RoHS boards have only tin solder and a higher melting point that requires more wattage too.

You can also break inner layer connections if you reef too hard ramming out the solder with a pin. A drill can also cut through the hole wall if it isn't exactly centered. A drill press is much safer than hand held.

Audioaficionado said:

RoHS boards have only tin solder and a higher melting point that requires more wattage too.

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A good trick here is to add some 60/40 solder to the existing lead-free solder. It will drop the melting point as it alloys in, and you don't have to bring the lead-free solder up to liquid for it to alloy in.

My God you guys are industrious!! Here I am praying for a board to burn up or show any sign of failure so I can justify some new swag...and here you folks are fixing them!!!

I'll bet you all live green as well!!!

dfonda said:

I'll bet you all live green as well!!!

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Hardly LOL
I use up gobs of power folding 24/7.
If it weren't hydro power, I'd have a huge carbon footprint

PM me if you need the caps or the work done. I stock Rubycon Ultra low ESR motherboard grade caps that will do the job right. I started rebuilding boards back when all of the Epox Slot A Athlons that we were selling started blowing up just past the warranty. I have only had one customer bring a board in that caught fire