Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

[rumdrums]

Hello,

I know very little about electronics, but as I was installing my new (old) video card the other day (ATI x800 AGP), I broke a very small capacitor off the board next to where the power cable plugs in.

Interestingly, all of the capacitors on the board have black marker running through some of the markings, including the tiny one I knocked off.

As best I can tell, the markings are:

Ist Row: I 1
2d Row: 4 7 1
3d Row: U D

The second and the third columns were marked out. I did my best to wipe off the marker, but I'm not even sure the "1" in the 2nd column is a "1" or just part of the black marker. There are no other markings anywhere on it.

Anyway, if anyone has any idea how to ID this capacitor or where to get a new one (one of the "legs" is completely broken off, so it would have to be replaced), I would greatly appreciate it. I can send pics of the capacitor and the video card if need be.

Thanks much....

[rumdrums]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

I should say, I meant the "1" in the second ROW, not COLUMN, is questionable.

Thanks for your help!

--rumdrums

[ratdude747]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

pics please. that would help.

[gg1978]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

470uF UD series.. the 471 means 47x10^1 , or 470uF.. A lot of the small type caps are marked like that.. UD series is Nichicon.. you should be able to find replacement part on digikey, i googled capacitor UD, which returned some Nichicon parts in their catalog.. It's SMD electrolytic, nothing special...

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

Upload pics.
Look for reviews of the card online and see if you can see that cap.

471 probably means 470uF

One of the usual codes goes like:
- 47R would be 4.7uF
- 470 would be 47uF
- 471 would be 470uF
- 472 would be 4700uF
U C?
.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

Where are the 'legs' on SMD?

[rumdrums]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

Thanks for the replies so far. I thought I'd post a link to a high-res photo on the Internet.

http://www.ixbt.com/video2/images/ge...scan-front.jpg

It's the small cap in the upper right corner just to the left of the purple power cable input.

If you turn the image over, you can sort of read the markings (though like on my card, there's marker through them), and they look to be the same as mine.

I tried to search on Digikey for it based on the helpful advice you all have given already. Is it important, though, that none of the matches I've found are anywhere near the size of my capacitor? The one that broke off only has a 3/16" diameter and a .25" height. Also, how do I know what voltage, etc, to get?

Thanks again very much for the help.

[rumdrums]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

Actually, I just rubbed some finger nail polish romover to the top of the cap, and the figures actually look more like

1st: I 1
2d: 4 7 J
3d: U D

Don't know if that helps or just makes things more confusing....

[shadow]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

Is it important, though, that none of the matches I've found are anywhere near the size of my capacitor? The one that broke off only has a 3/16" diameter and a .25" height.

Sometimes manufacturers use capacitors from questionable suppliers and they can have odd ball dimensions for their capacitors (ie. smaller). I have seen this a lot with electrolytic capacitors.

[Toasty]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

Uhh...???

403 - Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /video2/images/gecube-1/gecube-x800pro-scan-front.jpg on this server.

[rumdrums]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

Sorry about the bad link -- for some reason, the link went bad about an hour after I found it (???)...

This should work:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink

If you download and turn it upside down, the markings on the cap next to the power input are fairly clear and seem to be the same as what I reported earlier. I would gladly upload a photo of my own cap, but my camera's lense is not precise enough to get an accurate image of such a small surface.

Thanks again.....

[Toasty]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

Okay. 47uF, 6.3v

Here: http://search.digikey.com/scripts/Dk...=493-2231-1-ND

Measure it to double check diameter: 5.00mm x 5.80mm

Found a better and bigger pic. Cropped and rotated. Same cap, different markings.

Toast

EDIT: Wrong one. Fixed link.

On this UD series, capacitance is not "coded". The number is the capacitance in full. The " j " means 6.3v.
See datasheet: https://cdn.badcaps-static.com/pdfs/...9a495047eb.pdf

[ratdude747]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

plese upload your pics to this forum... see this

thats a bit like my x800xl agp i have sitting. but all of it's caps are solid polymers... or so i think

[rumdrums]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

Toasty: Thanks much for your help on this one -- I owe you a beer should you ever make your way down to Texas!

The Nichicon UUD0J470MCL1GS appears to be the match and looks pretty much identical. The only thing I'm curious about is the height. The one I've got is definitely a bit less than 5.8mm, but it's also missing the small "platform" that's on all the other caps. Funny thing is, I don't remember there ever being a platform on the one I knocked off, and one never turned up anywhere in my computer. As best as I could tell before the thing became completely severed from the board, the cylindrical cap had only two very short (maybe 3 mm) "legs" holding it down. Is it possible for the platform to fall off and the cap to at least remain partially attached afterwards?

Thanks again, all, I *think* I've got the right replacement. Now if I can just figure out how to solder the thing on there....

--Cheers

[rumdrums]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

Oh, one other thing, though: Should I get the "Contains lead / RoHS non-compliant" or the Lead free/RoHS compliant one? Not even sure what these mean, to be honest.

[Toasty]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

Those little platforms are one of the "Jesus clips" of electronics. One false move and their gone.

Remove all traces of the old caps at the pads. No pieces of old legs. Clean the solder area with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol or use an alcohol swab like a doctor would when giving an injection.

You want to use a fine tip on your soldering iron. Just a touch of fresh rosin core solder on the pads on the board and do the same very quickly on the new caps legs -->> DO NOT OVERHEAT! You just want to "tin" the legs.

Position cap CORRECTLY - Observe Polarity!!

Black mark is NEGATIVE side of cap. See the picture I posted.

With the "legs" positioned on the pads, just "touch" your soldering iron to each one for a second. The solder should flow quickly and you're done!

Toast

Pics when you're finished if you can.

[gdement]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

Oh, one other thing, though: Should I get the "Contains lead / RoHS non-compliant" or the Lead free/RoHS compliant one? Not even sure what these mean, to be honest.

Manufacturers pretty much always use RoHS compliant parts nowadays, so they can sell the card in Europe legally. I'm not sure but at the time of that card being built it was probably RoHS (lead free). There might be a sticker on it somewhere saying that actually.

Technically you aren't supposed to mix leaded and lead-free parts in a joint, but it's really not worth worrying about unless it's a life or death device. Whichever version you can easily get should work fine.

Usually only RoHS is readily stocked, I didn't look though. Non-RoHS is usually a special order.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

RoHS really only matters if you are manufacturing something for sale.
-
As far as repairs go don't worry about it.
It's not like the lead solder police are going to chase you down and send you to jail for fixing your video card.
Just don't worry about it...
.

[rumdrums]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

Hey guys -- thanks again for all your help w/ identifying the correct capacitor. Anyway, I ordered replacements and tried to do the work myself. I didn't realize how bad I am with a soldering iron, though -- I do NOT have the skills to do this myself!! Anyway, the new cap is on there, but the leads are sitting on mountains of solder, and I may have damaged some of the surrounding circuitry in the process. In any case, thankfully my graphics card still works (as it did w/out the cap being there at all), but I've still been having the same problems after installing the new cap that I had before -- e.g., missing textures. I'm just thankful the card still works at all!

Thanks again for everyone's help. I definitely learned a lot. Would post pics, but the final product is too embarrassing to look at.

[ratdude747]

Re: Knocked Cap off Video Card -- not sure what markings mean

pics please, just so we know. for a first job, a succes is treasured. be proud. my first fuw jops were terrible too, but they failed. my first success is still running... i took my 3 fried mobos before i got it.