[mythtv-users] Is my video card toast?

[Gabe Rubin]

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 11:38 AM,  <f-myth-users at media.mit.edu> wrote:
> All electrolytics age; their lifetime is one of the elements of their
> specifications.  Among other things, electrolyte can leak out (which
> you saw).  Elevated temperatues dramatically raise the rate at which
> they age; many reactions run 2x faster for every 10-20 degrees C of
> increased temperature, and it doesn't take too many doublings for
> your 20,000-hr cap rating to be into the hundreds of hours instead.
>
> [By the way, if you've been handling the gunky bits, wash your hands.
> Electrolyte can be fairly corrosive.  And wash it off the board, too,
> if you intend to go futher with it.]
>
> Cheaper electrolytics typically age faster (or are underspecified for
> the sort of ripple currents they're subjected to, leading to high
> temperatures in the cap and thus starting a thermal runaway that
> eventually ends in premature failure).  There was a famous instance a
> few years ago where a knock-off supplier of caps (using technology I
> believe was, uh, "imported" by a former employee of a different
> company, but who didn't get it quite right) produces a gazillion
> electrolytics that all failed really early.  A lot of motherboards
> used those caps and failed early themselves.

This (and others who responded) is very helpful, and I think that is
what happened.  The case is very compact (a Biostar iDeq) and the caps
of the vid card are pretty much touching the PVR-350 that is in the
PCI slot.  Very little airflow.
>
> If you were handy w/a soldering iron, you might be able to read
> the caps, find new ones with similar ratings, and solder new ones
> in.  Your board might work again.  If the alternative is to throw
> it in the trash, and you've got some time to kill, that might be
> an interesting experiment.  There's often nothing more satisfying
> than reviving a toasted piece of equipment from the dead.

I am very NOT handy with a soldering iron, and would likely just burn
my fingers.

> And get a better case fan. :)

When I go to Frys today to replace the video card for my windows box
that is now without, I will add a very good case fan to replace the
older one.