I have this GF-8600 Graphic cards which has 4 1500mf 6.3v out of which 3 caps have blown up. Should I change the same type or get caps say more than 6.5v or bigger than 1500mf ?
The originals are soldered with a higher temp. than my soldering Iron can handle. I am thinking of soldering the new ones at the back with ordinary solder, and leave the original as it is.
Thanks for your help.
Probably not higher temp solder, but the heatsinking effect of a ground plane in the pcb
Higher voltage caps can't hurt, if they fit. Higher capacitance in the same size case is probably a detriment. The problem is heat/current density. Change all 4 caps.
We had a similar problem a few years ago with the PC that runs our selective solder machine. The manufacture told us they had to use a different video card because of the capacitor problem. They had no replacement boards.
Since we had hundreds of potential replacements caps on the shelf, we replaced the one that was swelled up and that solved the problem for about a year. Then same thing happened. We replaced the remaining electrolytic caps and all has been well for a long time.
The solder will be lead-free, so you will need an iron that is hotter. The alternative is to cut the cap leads, if you can and use regular solder to place the new ones.
In all cases, be sure the polarity matches the original, and you will be good to go.
Paul
What brand are the original caps? If they were Capxon, Elite, Lelon, etc you have a common problem. I suggest replacing all of that value with Nichicon HZ series of the same voltage and capacitance ($0.79 ea from Digikey).
PlainBill
Higher voltage or higher capacitance won't help but means capacitors that are bigger, maybe too big to allow another card to be plugged into the slot next to the video card.
With a lead-free solder, adding 60/40 tin/lead solder and sucking it up can lower the melting point enough so you can unsolder with a 40W iron. But I sometimes cut the capacitor on the top side so each of its leads can be removed separately.
Is this an EVGA brand garphics card? They sold many with capacitors that looked like solid polymers but were actually regular wet electrolytics (slits on top were barely visible until the caps swelled), and pretty bad Sacon brand at that. Later version EVGA cards substituted Sam Young brand capacitors, which were better but would still fail from prolonged heat, and later they switched most of those to Panasonics.
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