broken capacitor...now fixed but...

bru · 3 Apr 2011 at 21:52

During my transfer of my PC from my old case to my new case i have hit a bit of an issue. basically when removing my motherboard Ive snagged a capacitor and pulled it clean off of its pins, now after the shock and horror of finding the capacitor lying in the bottom of my old case, i went about sourcing a new capacitor of the same values, and Ive had it fitted back onto the board.

moment of truth came and yes it did all power up fine (phew). now the machine has run prime small FFT for just over 3 hours no problems at all, but if i try blend then it stops with errors on one or two of the cores (always seems to be random cores) almost straight away. first thing i tried was upping the CPU voltage in various steps to see if this would stabilize things but to no avail. so this leads me to believe that the issue lies with the memory and possible voltage issues. so i looked into the bios at the different settings available and it is then that my brain turned to mush, oh my god how many different setting for memory are needed.

so what would be the things to change, obviously it will be a bit of trial and error but just where to start would be helpful.

any way some pics to help you see the issue.

then the bios shots motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R with an i7 920 @4GHz

MikeHunt79 · 4 Apr 2011 at 02:36

Hi, did you compare the ESR values of the old and replacement capacitors?

bru · 4 Apr 2011 at 08:19

MikeHunt79 said:
Hi, did you compare the ESR values of the old and replacement capacitors?

well both are 560uf 6.3v other than that i have no way of finding out what the original capacitors specifications are.

on a different note its just run prime blend for 4.5 hours with 1.7v dram voltage, after testing with 1.68v but it still failed prime. so it looks like it might be OK after all.

Hotwired · 4 Apr 2011 at 08:36

If you want to have a solid cap instead of a normal electrolytic in case that helps: http://uk.farnell.com/nichicon/rl80j561mdnasqkx/capacitor-alum-elec-560µf-6-3vdc/dp/1854128

Also, searching for "4 pieces of Nippon Chemi-Con PSC series 6.3V 560UF LOW ESR Aluminum solid capacitors" including quotes seems to bring up an exact match to replace the one you whacked.

bru · 4 Apr 2011 at 08:52

cough cough..... i know these components are cheap but £16 shipping +vat for a 57p capacitor is taking the micky slightly.

but thanks all the same.

PhillyDee · 4 Apr 2011 at 08:58

Its a standard charge, and no, they will not waive it!
Its all done through UPS. They use these exclusively.

Hotwired · 4 Apr 2011 at 09:47

bru said:
cough cough..... i know these components are cheap but £16 shipping +vat for a 57p capacitor is taking the micky slightly.

but thanks all the same.

Right but I also mentioned something else besides the place that has £15 shipping.

MikeHunt79 · 4 Apr 2011 at 14:40

bru said:
well both are 560uf 6.3v other than that i have no way of finding out what the original capacitors specifications are.

on a different note its just run prime blend for 4.5 hours with 1.7v dram voltage, after testing with 1.68v but it still failed prime. so it looks like it might be OK after all.

Well it's good to see it's working.

If you do ever get problems in the future, OSCON caps are very good quality solid caps;

http://uk.farnell.com/sanyo/10svp560m/capacitor-560uf-10v/dp/9188983

So if you do get more problems I'd be tempted to try some OSCONS.

Just double check the physical size before ordering, as they may be too wide...