need advice replacing capacitor on motherboard

[peter89]

Broke a cap on my motherboard installing a Bluray drive (was longer than the DVD drive it replaced).

I haven't solderd anything in years but the capacitor legs are still attached to the board so this shouldn't be too hard to fix. What about the capacitor above the one that broke off. It has two dents in it . is it OK or does it need replacing also. Any advice will be appreciated thanks in advance.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: need advice replacing capacitor on motherboard

Ouch!

I think the dented one is ok.

You could try to find a broken board on ebay to get a replacement, or maybe you could contact Gigabyte directly and see if they would be kind enough to send you one. That is if you can replace it yourself, if not you will need to take it to a repair shop and have them do it for you, shouldn't cost you too much.

If you are a member at XS forums, someone there might also be able to send or find you the exact capacitor you need, you'll have to ask around. I would think Gigabyte wouldn't mind sending you one, but not sure really on that. They may have some in the US office, try them first, if not you will have to see if the Taiwan office will send you out a replacement cap.

[peter89]

Re: need advice replacing capacitor on motherboard

Ouch is exactly what I said when it happend. Are these capacitors hard to find? I was hoping to get one from radioshack or similar electronics shop

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: need advice replacing capacitor on motherboard

Yes, exact ones are because of the ones Gigabyte uses that are Ultra Durable. Your best bet is to contact them directly, by phone in the US office first. Let them know the issue, and that you are not asking for RMA only if they will give you ONE capacitor. They may also let you RMA if you want to try that, you'd have to ask and explain, they can easily fix it but whether they want to or not is a different story.

You will not find one at Radio Shack or similar stores, maybe ebay buying from Japan, but I doubt that as well. To get an exact one you will need to get it from Gigabyte or buy a broken X58 or P45 board on Ebay.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: need advice replacing capacitor on motherboard

You may be able to get someone to help you find or source one here
Xtreme Mods - XtremeSystems Forums

Also ask here
Intel - XtremeSystems Forums

I found this info there for you, but it applies to P35 which are not as good or the same as the ones now used. Just thought it might help you decipher some of the info on the caps for your search
Replacing broken capacitors gigabyte p35 ds3r - XtremeSystems Forums

What I do see in your images is that you may be able to desolder the legs from the board and then reinsert them into the caps as they still have the mount posts/barrels on them. Then solder back onto the board, but I am not sure if those just sit tightly inside or should be fixed to the inner cap somehow. It doesn't look like they were soldered in or anything as they look very smooth like new unused legs would, the barrels on the end of the legs is what I mean.

I know a guy at OCN that can fix this for you, and he may even have the caps handy via a dead board. Here is his profile, contact him and see what he has to say
Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

[peter89]

Re: need advice replacing capacitor on motherboard

Thanks LSD your a good man and you've helped me before. I'm going to take your advice and call Gigabyte first, but right now I'm going to go take the dog for a walk. It's too nice of a day to waste stressing over this damn capacitor.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: need advice replacing capacitor on motherboard

Thanks! I try my best to help everyone, sometimes though there isn't much I can do.

Did you call Gigabyte yet, just checking? If you need the contact info let me know.

[peter89]

Re: need advice replacing capacitor on motherboard

I decided to check out the local computer repair shops and see what they had to say. The first place told me I needed to buy a new motherboard so I didn't waste too much time there. the second guy offered to fix it for $20, but he wanted to use a capacitor from an old board that wasn't even the same kind. I was going to tell him that it had to be the exact same capacitor, but at that point I didn't want him touching my motherboard anyways. Then I found a shop that knew their stuff and they will fix it right for $40.

I know $40 isn't cheap, but I don't think I'm up to the task of fixing it myself and I don't want to make a bad situation worse. So I'm going to bite the bullet and pay the $40 to get it fixed right.

[Nickel020]

Re: need advice replacing capacitor on motherboard

Well if you knew someone who can solder well then you could just get the caps online, they should be really cheap (less than $1) and finding out which ones you need shouldn't be hard either.

Check out the forums at jonnyguru.com, although those guys are mostly about PSUs, PSUs include many caps as well and they know all about the different brands and will probably be able to help you out.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: need advice replacing capacitor on motherboard

$40 doesn't sound too bad, if you don't want to do it yourself.

I am sure he wont have the same exact one either, but as long as he does it right I am sure a similar one would last many years anyway.

Let us know how things work out

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: need advice replacing capacitor on motherboard

Any update on this?


I Just thought of your thread while browsing the interwebz, so I thought I'd check in and see how you were doing with this.