Fried My Graphics card - Techwatch Support Forums: Digital & Satellite TV, FTA, Cable, Computers, Mobile Phones, Apple and General Tech Forums

flywheel · 21-01-06, 03:34 AM

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a loose capacitor on the floor of my rig.
It seems to have come off the MB. I searched but could see no place with a missing capacitor. The system was still running and running well.
Two days ago I decided to transfer the wireless keyboard and mouse from my other rig....and sure enough the ugly problem reared its ugly head.
The system would boot up to windows desktop and as soon as the new devices were detected the system completely froze. I went to safe mode to make an analysis and the video driver would not load until I hit the F10 key.....I had no idea what error I was responding to as the screen was completly fuzzy with static.

Suspecting the video card I removed it and sure enough there was a blank spot where a 1000 uF capacitor broke off. I try to solder it back on...but just made the problem worse. Worse because as i replace the soldered card and rebooted the area of the card hissed and the system went to auto shutoff.
I love this Gigabyte board...it has burn proof protection.

I could not find a similar capacitor at Radio Shack so I went ahead and got a new board. This one was more expensive but runs better anyway. I now see a great improvement in videos and system response. The new card is a PNY GeFORCE 6600. It set me back $180.00 but was well worth it.

GadgetSniper · 01-02-06, 10:27 PM

Sometimes these things are just blessings in disguise... I can't say I've ever had a capacitor fall off anything of mine before, that's a new one to me. Glad you got everything working. Does that new card have TV out?

21-01-06, 03:34 AM	#1 (permalink)
flywheel Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 14 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Fried My Graphics card A couple of weeks ago I noticed a loose capacitor on the floor of my rig. It seems to have come off the MB. I searched but could see no place with a missing capacitor. The system was still running and running well. Two days ago I decided to transfer the wireless keyboard and mouse from my other rig....and sure enough the ugly problem reared its ugly head. The system would boot up to windows desktop and as soon as the new devices were detected the system completely froze. I went to safe mode to make an analysis and the video driver would not load until I hit the F10 key.....I had no idea what error I was responding to as the screen was completly fuzzy with static. Suspecting the video card I removed it and sure enough there was a blank spot where a 1000 uF capacitor broke off. I try to solder it back on...but just made the problem worse. Worse because as i replace the soldered card and rebooted the area of the card hissed and the system went to auto shutoff. I love this Gigabyte board...it has burn proof protection. I could not find a similar capacitor at Radio Shack so I went ahead and got a new board. This one was more expensive but runs better anyway. I now see a great improvement in videos and system response. The new card is a PNY GeFORCE 6600. It set me back $180.00 but was well worth it. __________________ MY RIG AMD 64 X 2 (Dual Core) 4200 Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI/2 MotherBoard (dual Channel) socket 939, 8 channel Audio 1 Gig Corsair XMS DDR 400 Aopen stacked Dvd/CD PNY GeFORCE 6600 (256 DDR) 300 MB Western Dig Sata Tsunami Dream Tower (silver with the blue lights)

01-02-06, 10:27 PM	#2 (permalink)
GadgetSniper Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 54 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Sometimes these things are just blessings in disguise... I can't say I've ever had a capacitor fall off anything of mine before, that's a new one to me. Glad you got everything working. Does that new card have TV out?