That'll be why it's crashing then

Rilot · 13 Feb 2011 at 14:10

This is the 8400GS from my HTPC. I was wondering why it was locking up so frequently. Now I know.

That's 6 caps that have spilled their guts out.

RJC · 13 Feb 2011 at 14:13

Don't look to healthy!

Under warranty?

Rilot · 13 Feb 2011 at 14:15

Nah, it's about 3 years old now I think. It was only a £30 card anyway.

6644kp · 13 Feb 2011 at 14:20

looks pretty bad

mmj_uk · 13 Feb 2011 at 14:23

You can probably replace them for a few quid if you're any god with a soldering iron, bit wierd that they've all popped though must have been a bad batch?

hohum · 13 Feb 2011 at 14:23

That's a first for me, never seen solid caps fail like that. I'm guessing they're a dodgy batch if nearly all of them have failed on a single card.

Out of curiosity, what brand is the card?

Rilot · 13 Feb 2011 at 14:28

It's a Zotac 8400GS 256MB TC HDCP SPDIF
I agree that it must have been a bad batch. I've never seen a graphics card fail in this way.

whitecrook · 13 Feb 2011 at 14:28

Temperature related ?

Rilot · 13 Feb 2011 at 14:30

whitecrook said:
Temperature related ?

Could be. Dunno. It's a passive heat sink on the card. The machine it was in is well ventilated.
The thing did get red hot when doing 1080p decoding though.

spirits247 · 13 Feb 2011 at 16:20

I've seen other people post with a similar issue. Seems to be the same type caps too.

Looks like another dodgy batch of caps doing the rounds. Solid caps seem no better than the regular ones!

spirits247 · 13 Feb 2011 at 16:26

And here it is:

Sacon FZ caps - infamous for being a load of crap:

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=11013

I see these caps a lot of places - must be very cheap parts. You think after the motherboard caps issues, manufacturers would source these better.

TheRealDeal · 13 Feb 2011 at 16:32

I think nv are famous for this kind of stuff.

mattjd · 13 Feb 2011 at 16:42

The exact same caps were used on my ATI 5770. They could not handle the oven... lol.

Ezyryder · 13 Feb 2011 at 17:04

Rilot said:
It's a Zotac 8400GS 256MB TC HDCP SPDIF
I agree that it must have been a bad batch. I've never seen a graphics card fail in this way.

Zotac have 5 year warranty isn't it?

TropicLightning · 13 Feb 2011 at 17:43

Epic fail. New to me too. I haven't been paying much attention to mine since the solid ones came out. I'll have to watch closer.

Monkeynut · 13 Feb 2011 at 17:48

These aren't Solid Polymers - they're old style electrolytics. You have two options when you make a capacitor - you can either sleeve the metal can with the sleeve having the printing or you can print directly onto the metal can. Sacon (also known as Evercon, GSC) do this to make their capacitors look decent. In fact they're very poor indeed. They keep changing their name so they can keep flogging their rubbish. The FZ series is used on graphics cards and motherboards. Zotac, XFX and EVGA have used them, though EVGA seemed to be only motherboards.

Monkey Puzzle · 13 Feb 2011 at 18:13

mattjd said:
The exact same caps were used on my ATI 5770. They could not handle the oven... lol.

chaparral · 13 Feb 2011 at 18:27

1) Put a few drops of superglue on each one
2} Push the top of caps back down
3) list card on ebay

only Joking

Monkeynut · 13 Feb 2011 at 18:55

chaparral said:
1) Put a few drops of superglue on each one
2} Push the top of caps back down
3) list card on ebay

only Joking

Or he could repair it and then eBay it?