Nvidia FX5200 Video Card with Swollen Capacitors

My 4600 Dimension is about 3 years old. Recently it started exhibiting
strange video effects--triangle shaped objects would spontaneously
form during gameplay and/or the computer would freeze and/or game
objects moving on the screen would leave trails, and finally the
monitor would switch on/off/on/off. Booting the computer into safe
mode would stabilize the machine. I suspected the video card was
defective.

I did a search on Google and the Dell support site and found an
interesting reference to "swollen capacitors" and also "bad caps".
This was a known issue with certain Optiplex computers back in 2003 &
2004. I pulled my video card out and inspected the capacitors and
found that three of the four 1,000 microfarad capacitors had bulging
tops and dried on scum had formed on the tops of the caps, apparently
electrolyte that had seeped out the top of the units.

I figure I'll attempt to replace the bad caps in an effort to avoid
having to buy another video card. Radio Shack has these parts for
$1.59 each (rip-off, they are $.25 at an e-bay site) but of course my
local Radio Shack doesn't stock them.

Has anybody else replaced bad capacitors? What was your experience?

powrwrap wrote:

> My 4600 Dimension is about 3 years old. Recently it started exhibiting
> strange video effects--triangle shaped objects would spontaneously
> form during gameplay and/or the computer would freeze and/or game
> objects moving on the screen would leave trails, and finally the
> monitor would switch on/off/on/off. Booting the computer into safe
> mode would stabilize the machine. I suspected the video card was
> defective.
>
> I did a search on Google and the Dell support site and found an
> interesting reference to "swollen capacitors" and also "bad caps".
> This was a known issue with certain Optiplex computers back in 2003 &
> 2004. I pulled my video card out and inspected the capacitors and
> found that three of the four 1,000 microfarad capacitors had bulging
> tops and dried on scum had formed on the tops of the caps, apparently
> electrolyte that had seeped out the top of the units.
>
> I figure I'll attempt to replace the bad caps in an effort to avoid
> having to buy another video card. Radio Shack has these parts for
> $1.59 each (rip-off, they are $.25 at an e-bay site) but of course my
> local Radio Shack doesn't stock them.
>
> Has anybody else replaced bad capacitors? What was your experience?
>

Not worth the time and effort, even for one who is experienced in doing
this and has all the resources to do things like it. Replace the video
card.

> I figure I'll attempt to replace the bad caps in an effort to avoid
> having to buy another video card. Radio Shack has these parts for
> $1.59 each (rip-off, they are $.25 at an e-bay site) but of course my
> local Radio Shack doesn't stock them.
>
> Has anybody else replaced bad capacitors? What was your experience?

I've done it on motherboards recently and it works fine. The only thing
is that it may not be worth it if your card is old enough to need
replacement.
If you can afford it, get a new card. The advances in technology the past
three years have been phenomenal.

Tom Lake

Replace it. The bad capacitor problem has migrated from motherboards (MSI
especially) to the cheap manufacturers of cheap video cards... Ben Myers

On 25 Mar 2007 17:59:51 -0700, "powrwrap" <> wrote:

>My 4600 Dimension is about 3 years old. Recently it started exhibiting
>strange video effects--triangle shaped objects would spontaneously
>form during gameplay and/or the computer would freeze and/or game
>objects moving on the screen would leave trails, and finally the
>monitor would switch on/off/on/off. Booting the computer into safe
>mode would stabilize the machine. I suspected the video card was
>defective.
>
>I did a search on Google and the Dell support site and found an
>interesting reference to "swollen capacitors" and also "bad caps".
>This was a known issue with certain Optiplex computers back in 2003 &
>2004. I pulled my video card out and inspected the capacitors and
>found that three of the four 1,000 microfarad capacitors had bulging
>tops and dried on scum had formed on the tops of the caps, apparently
>electrolyte that had seeped out the top of the units.
>
>I figure I'll attempt to replace the bad caps in an effort to avoid
>having to buy another video card. Radio Shack has these parts for
>$1.59 each (rip-off, they are $.25 at an e-bay site) but of course my
>local Radio Shack doesn't stock them.
>
>Has anybody else replaced bad capacitors? What was your experience?

That's three votes for replacing the entire card. Still, I am
reluctant. I'm quite comfortable with circuit boards and a soldering
iron. Sure I can afford it, but for less than $10 I can have the
computer back in original working condition. As old as the card is, it
met my needs.

I'm off to newegg to check out some boards. Any suggestions?
Considering what I have been using, I don't need a lot of performance.
My kids mostly play EA Sports games and Star Wars Legos (which needed
a particular nvidia feature)

Go ahead and replace the capacitors. This problem occurred a few years
ago when a chemical company that was going bankrupt (and ultimately did)
made up some electrolyte solution with a key ingredient missing.
Several hundred million or even several billion bad capacitors were
produced as a consequence, and while at this point most of these
products have been "flushed" from the market, a few still show up with
service problems from time to time. The value of these capacitors is
typically not critical, and if they are thru-hole mounted they are not
hard to replace.


powrwrap wrote:
> My 4600 Dimension is about 3 years old. Recently it started exhibiting
> strange video effects--triangle shaped objects would spontaneously
> form during gameplay and/or the computer would freeze and/or game
> objects moving on the screen would leave trails, and finally the
> monitor would switch on/off/on/off. Booting the computer into safe
> mode would stabilize the machine. I suspected the video card was
> defective.
>
> I did a search on Google and the Dell support site and found an
> interesting reference to "swollen capacitors" and also "bad caps".
> This was a known issue with certain Optiplex computers back in 2003 &
> 2004. I pulled my video card out and inspected the capacitors and
> found that three of the four 1,000 microfarad capacitors had bulging
> tops and dried on scum had formed on the tops of the caps, apparently
> electrolyte that had seeped out the top of the units.
>
> I figure I'll attempt to replace the bad caps in an effort to avoid
> having to buy another video card. Radio Shack has these parts for
> $1.59 each (rip-off, they are $.25 at an e-bay site) but of course my
> local Radio Shack doesn't stock them.
>
> Has anybody else replaced bad capacitors? What was your experience?
>

On Mar 26, 6:47 am, "powrwrap" <powrw...@aol.com> wrote:
> That's three votes for replacing the entire card. Still, I am
> reluctant. I'm quite comfortable with circuit boards and a soldering
> iron. Sure I can afford it, but for less than $10 I can have the
> computer back in original working condition. As old as the card is, it
> met my needs.
>
> I'm off to newegg to check out some boards. Any suggestions?
> Considering what I have been using, I don't need a lot of performance.
> My kids mostly play EA Sports games and Star Wars Legos (which needed
> a particular nvidia feature)

If you can do the work yourself, i see no reason you shouldn't. Worst
case scenario is you replace the caps, and it still doesn't work. In
which case you can get another card.

Starwar lego doen't require a lot of horsepower. EA sports games on
the other hand might want more.

Success. Took almost a half-hour since it was hard to clear out the
solder from the holes in the circuit board once the old capacitors
were removed. I had to straighten out a safety pin, push it into the
hole, heat the pin and wiggle it around to clear out the hole.

$5.07 including tax.