Bad Caps Strike yet Again!

[Foxbat]

Well, once again a piece of my electronics menagerie was hobbled by "bad caps": electrolytic capacitors that either dried out or overheated and can no longer function as they were intended. The victim this time was the graphics card on my Mac Pro. This machine has been running pretty much 24x7 for the last 4-plus years as my oldest Folding@Home client.

One minute, I was tunneled into work to deal with some backup issues, and the next thing I know, I have a grey herringbone on the screen. Hmmm, that can't be good, I thought. I managed to remember some of the keystroke shortcuts to exit my running programs and log out, but I still ended up forcing my Mac to shut down.

Power off and flashlight out, I start examining the innards of the Mac Pro and I think I see the two caps on the video card poking up. I removed the card (NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT) and yep, those puppies are definitely shot. After removing the two bad caps (Samxon 1500 uF, 6.3V), it was off to the local Radio Shack to see if they might have replacement parts. Ha!

Instead, I ran into work where we have a little cache of electrolytic capacitor replacements we keep on-hand for LCD monitors (they seem to be the latest victims of this on-going capacitor plague). I found two 2000 uF, 10V caps that just fit on the card. A quick session with the soldering iron have restored my graphics card, and my Mac Pro, back to normal operations.

Just in time for Windows Updates tonight. Joy.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

A skill I wish I had, as I would have been running to the computer store to buy a new video card. Glad its fixed, and you are back to folding!

 

[Foxbat]

I was in a time-crunch as I needed to get my Mac back before 6pm. I did see that the ATI 5770 card from the Apple store (or other on-line stores) is compatible with my model of Mac Pro as long as I run Snow Leopard (which I am), but the $250 price tag put me off as I'd rather put that money towards a new machine. So, the $4 for gas and $.75 for the two caps (well, I suppose I should also add the $2 Starbucks I got after I was shut down at the Rat Shaq) is a lot better than spending $250 for the new card. Also, I'm not sure our local Apple store would have the ATI graphics cards for the Mac Pro if I had decided to go that route.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I was in a time-crunch as I needed to get my Mac back before 6pm. I did see that the ATI 5770 card from the Apple store (or other on-line stores) is compatible with my model of Mac Pro as long as I run Snow Leopard (which I am), but the $250 price tag put me off as I'd rather put that money towards a new machine. So, the $4 for gas and $.75 for the two caps (well, I suppose I should also add the $2 Starbucks I got after I was shut down at the Rat Shaq) is a lot better than spending $250 for the new card. Also, I'm not sure our local Apple store would have the ATI graphics cards for the Mac Pro if I had decided to go that route.

Oh no, I think your solution was the best one; just not in my skill set to do.

And I agree, I doubt the Apple Store would have had that card sitting there for you. AND it would not have been an option here, since the nearest Apple store is 2 hours away (I know, because I was there today on a trip to the suburbs)

 

[Foxbat]

Have you checked out the Fanhattan app for the iPad? I was watching iPad Today from the TWiT network and it looked really cool. In a similar vein, I gifted my Father-in-Law the Roger Ebert Greatest Movies app so he can keep tabs on which movies my in-Laws have watched.

What's this got to do with Bad Caps? Well, iPad Today has this segment called "App Cap Awards" where hosts Leo and Sarah don strange head-ware and present their favorite App on the iPad (Leo's pick this week was Fanhattan). Sometimes the hats are pretty bad, so there you go: Bad Caps...
(I know, it's a reach...)

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Hey, this is SatelliteGuys, we can let our threads go where ever we want

I had not checked that out - or even heard of it, but will look at both apps later today. Both sound interesting.

 

[diogen]

I did see that the ATI 5770 card... but the $250 price tag put me off...

Isn't this card closer to half that much?

Diogen.

 

[Foxbat]

Isn't this card closer to half that much?

Diogen.

I'm sure it could be secured from other on-line vendors for less, but I'm not sure if the lower-priced card's Flash would have EFI support built-in. I know there was a difference back in the PPC days between the ATI cards for PCs and Macs (it was possible to flash the on-board firmware to change from PC to Mac).

I swear, you can't write this stuff: when I got home from "Green Lantern" (an enjoyable movie, BTW), my Mac was telling me that it had no connection to the iTunes Store. I noticed that all the lights on my Ethernet switch were out, and when I went to pick it up, the Linksys SD2008 switch was extremely hot to the touch.

I had repaired this switch 2-3 years ago when it had failed the first time. Bad caps, of course; two 2000 uF 6.3 V caps in the 5V power section. So, I opened the Linksys up to see what I could see. The photo is attached and you can see that four of the caps are swollen. I'm so lucky...

As I don't have any 470 uF 16 V electrolytic capacitors on hand, I ended up at Staples and bought another Netgear ProSafe switch. The good news is they had reduced the price by $10 and I'll be back on line in no time.

 

[diogen]

I'm sure it could be secured from other on-line vendors for less, but I'm not sure if the lower-priced card's Flash would have EFI support built-in. I know there was a difference back in the PPC days between the ATI cards for PCs and Macs (it was possible to flash the on-board firmware to change from PC to Mac).

I had the impression (don't know why) that this flashing is so mainstream, the prices don't differ much between platforms.
I guess not...

...bought another Netgear ProSafe switch.

The metal case Netgear switches never failed me.

Diogen.

 

[Foxbat]

I had the impression (don't know why) that this flashing is so mainstream, the prices don't differ much between platforms.
I guess not...

Diogen.

I might very well be wrong. I had an ATI 4870 card that i could have put in there, but i ended up using it on my Windows 7 desktop at work. If I reviewed computers for a living, I might be more willing to buy some cards and try it out.

Of course, if I did get a reasonably-priced card and it didn't work out, I guess I'd just have to use it in another Folding@Home client...

The metal case Netgear switches never failed me.

Yeah, I like them because they seem well-built and start switching quickly after power-up.

 

[Frank Jr.]

Foxbat I know your pain. Rocky with a little research and practice on an old board you could do it. There are a number of good tutorials on replacing bad caps. here is one On youtube there are many videos as well. badcaps

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Foxbat I know your pain. Rocky with a little research and practice on an old board you could do it. There are a number of good tutorials on replacing bad caps. here is one On youtube there are many videos as well. badcaps

Of all the things on my possible to-do list, its pretty low on my radar screen right now. If I was at a time where I wasn't being pulled in 15 different directions it might be different, but I'm good

 

[Foxbat]

Well, it's been almost four weeks since I replaced the electrolytic capacitors on my video card and at the risk of invoking Murphy (may he have mercy on my cores!), the video card hasn't hiccuped once. Now, if I decide I need a better video card, at least I can do the research on my main Mac.