Zotac 1070 mini blew off a capacitor

[vionescu]

Hi, last night my zotac 1070 mini blew off a capacitor. I've had a look and identified it to be C336 capacitor and maybe the R005 resistor. Does anyone have any idea what kind of replacement capacitor I need to get to fix it or any boardview schematics for the card?

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Zotac 1070 mini

Doesn’t matter whack the highest value on you can.

[DynaxSC]

Re: Zotac 1070 mini blew off a capacitor

I'm afraid there are no boardviews nor schematics available for ZOTAC cards at all. You can try to match some 1070 Nvidia schematics to this card. Just look for a few representative components, eg vrm's, if the part numbers and types match. Often the card manufacturers use same designs, and even do not change the part numbering. Lot of schematics/boardviews are on this site: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=90093, or use the russian site: https://smd.db-x7.ru/load/
You need to register with help of google translate (best is to open two windows, one translated, and a second untranslated, and register/work on the untranslated one), the schematics/boardviews are totally free.

[vionescu]

Re: Zotac 1070 mini

Thanks so much for your reply, do you think the blown capacitor could be whats causing it to no longer work? I am worried there is more damage to the power rail as there is no fan spin all.

[vionescu]

Re: Zotac 1070 mini blew off a capacitor

I'm afraid there are no boardviews nor schematics available for ZOTAC cards at all. You can try to match some 1070 Nvidia schematics to this card. Just look for a few representative components, eg vrm's, if the part numbers and types match. Often the card manufacturers use same designs, and even do not change the part numbering. Lot of schematics/boardviews are on this site: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=90093, or use the russian site: https://smd.db-x7.ru/load/
You need to register with help of google translate (best is to open two windows, one translated, and a second untranslated, and register/work on the untranslated one), the schematics/boardviews are totally free.

Hi mate, I have pulled up the 1070 schematic for a strix card but Im not even sure where to start, the component is not labelled the same and I can't find any points of reference. I'm not sure if its linked to the PCI-Express Lanes or the Memory chips.

[vionescu]

Re: Zotac 1070 mini blew off a capacitor

Thought I would msg in an update, I think the capacitor is on the 12 V rail with a value of 47uF but not sure what voltage.

[mon2]

Re: Zotac 1070 mini blew off a capacitor

Any cap > 12V will work so suggest 16v is a good and common choice.

[vionescu]

Re: Zotac 1070 mini blew off a capacitor

Any cap > 12V will work so suggest 16v is a good and common choice.

Thanks for the reply, do you think its possible that this is causing the GPU not to work or do you think there is further damage I need to look into. I've seen multiple other posts where people are saying that the capacitors are often not essential to the GPU working.

[ktmmotocross]

Re: Zotac 1070 mini blew off a capacitor

clean it will not harm

[DynaxSC]

Re: Zotac 1070 mini blew off a capacitor

Hi, power supply capacitor are usually a lot of them in parallel, so one missing usually does not affect the card working. But what can happen when capacitor blows is a kind of pcb fire under the capacitor which leads to an electric arc and finally to a short of the pcb ground, voltage and/or thermal dissipation layers. Dependent on the extent of the demage to the pcb, sometimes it's not possible to repair such pcb (too big area to mill and rebuild). The electric arc is hold up by the supply voltage, and stops when the current limit of the VRM/PowerSupply is reached or in bad case when the VRM/PowerSupply gots damaged.

So check whether you have a short on the capacitor pads / pcb. Also it is strongly recommended to fit the blown capacitors again, as too less capacitors lead to overloading the rest of capacitors, which can lead to more shorted caps. On some cards, mainly mini ITX cards, there are generally not so many caps as on bigger cards, and these cards often get caps shorted. In this case I add sometimes more caps then originally out of factory, to prevent them to short again. The shorted caps on your card can result from bad cap quality, some voltage spike or too less caps - "card designed by accountants"

A blown cap (short) can lead to further damage, but I'd guess this is not the rule. Much more dangerous are blown hi side mosfets, which usually kills GPU and memories.

[vionescu]

Re: Zotac 1070 mini blew off a capacitor

clean it will not harm

I've attempted cleaning it off with isopropyl but still not booting. Going to investigate once my multi meter arrives, I think there is more damage?

[vionescu]

Re: Zotac 1070 mini blew off a capacitor

Hi, power supply capacitor are usually a lot of them in parallel, so one missing usually does not affect the card working. But what can happen when capacitor blows is a kind of pcb fire under the capacitor which leads to an electric arc and finally to a short of the pcb ground, voltage and/or thermal dissipation layers. Dependent on the extent of the demage to the pcb, sometimes it's not possible to repair such pcb (too big area to mill and rebuild). The electric arc is hold up by the supply voltage, and stops when the current limit of the VRM/PowerSupply is reached or in bad case when the VRM/PowerSupply gots damaged.

So check whether you have a short on the capacitor pads / pcb. Also it is strongly recommended to fit the blown capacitors again, as too less capacitors lead to overloading the rest of capacitors, which can lead to more shorted caps. On some cards, mainly mini ITX cards, there are generally not so many caps as on bigger cards, and these cards often get caps shorted. In this case I add sometimes more caps then originally out of factory, to prevent them to short again. The shorted caps on your card can result from bad cap quality, some voltage spike or too less caps - "card designed by accountants"

A blown cap (short) can lead to further damage, but I'd guess this is not the rule. Much more dangerous are blown hi side mosfets, which usually kills GPU and memories.

Thanks so much for your detailed reply! One of the pads is missing, should I check the voltage from the copper that has been exposed? I have ordered a multimeter and will keep this thread updated with my attemps I have seen many posts about zotac cards being poor quality.

[DynaxSC]

Re: Zotac 1070 mini blew off a capacitor

You need to figure out if the copper exposed is same network as the pad was, or if this is another network, also most important is to check if there is a short, and/or voltage present. If you have no voltage, then it can be short or another reason, eg burned fuse/serial resistor. I inspect such cases with a magnifier glass, usually you should be able to find a track on the visible layer which was connected to the pad, or it can be also a larger area if this is a main power or ground. If refitting the cap you can trace the track/area to the next cap if present near by and make a bridge to the next cap. Alternatively you can scrub the track/area of the soldermask if big enough and solder to this "new pad near by" with some more tin. The copper exposed can be another network, in this case you need to isolate this "new pad". Best for this is a liquid soldermask which is hardened with ultraviolett lamp, available in THE well known chineese shop, or maybe some of your local shop (apply at least 2 layers). So you see to do reparing you need a lot of different materials and tools and last but not least lot of time

& if you discover a short, probably you will need to mill the area around the cap to get rid of the short. More tools needed. Do not try to burn out the short applying voltage and lot of amperes, this will make the problem only worse. You can try in such a case to induce volatge/current with a regulated power supply, and spray some alcohol on the PCB. Raise the current slowly to see if you get a hot area where alcohol evaporates, but if you see the area is starting to burn stop the process immediatelly. Instead of alcohol you can use a thermal camera, but they are quite expensive. Do not exceed the nominal voltage on this network, it can happen that the short goes away due to the current, and then you get immediately the full voltage on the network. Set the volatge on the Power supply before applying it to the card, the lower the more secure. If there is a short even 0.8V and thick enough cables will do. You would need a switched mode power supply with at least 10A output current. Another tool . If there is a very solid short even 20 Amps may not be enough to discover something.