Ti4200 Worth It?

[tgillespie]

About a year ago I upgraded to new board, CPU, everything. I also upgraded the GFX card to a 9800Pro so I did not need my Ti4200. About 3 months ago I sold my Ti4200 on eBay. The buyer said the card was blown and he noticed that 3 of the capcitors were buldging. After he gave me pictures, I offered him a return.

Sure enough, the card has 3 buldging capcitors and what looks like a little bit of heat damage on the board. I am typing this message as week speak on the Ti4200 which does not seem to be acting up. I am going to uninstall ATI drivers and install some nvidia ones and then give HL2 a shot.

Anyway, my question is, should I leave the capcitors as they are or should I cut them off if things start freezing? Where is a good place to buy capcitors, or could I just bridge the wires?

I will do some Hl2 and report back. In the mean time, if anyone would like to buy a PNY Ti4200 64MB DDR2 with buldging capcitors, let me know.

 

[naruto1988]

maybe he tried overclocking it? or u did? hmm...

 

[MustangSVT]

Originally posted by: tgillespie
About a year ago I upgraded to new board, CPU, everything. I also upgraded the GFX card to a 9800Pro so I did not need my Ti4200. About 3 months ago I sold my Ti4200 on eBay. The buyer said the card was blown and he noticed that 3 of the capcitors were buldging. After he gave me pictures, I offered him a return.

Sure enough, the card has 3 buldging capcitors and what looks like a little bit of heat damage on the board. I am typing this message as week speak on the Ti4200 which does not seem to be acting up. I am going to uninstall ATI drivers and install some nvidia ones and then give HL2 a shot.

Anyway, my question is, should I leave the capcitors as they are or should I cut them off if things start freezing? Where is a good place to buy capcitors, or could I just bridge the wires?

I will do some Hl2 and report back. In the mean time, if anyone would like to buy a PNY Ti4200 64MB DDR2 with buldging capcitors, let me know.

yeah.. cut it off.. it must be a useless thing they just added there :roll:

 

[Arclite]

You should have made him keep it. It's not your problem if it was working fine when you had it.

To answer your question, I would leave them on as it probably wouldn't work at all if you cut them off. It would no doubt be a bitch to solder some new ones on. Furthermore, the card is worth what? $45 when working?

 

[tgillespie]

Originally posted by: MustangSVT
yeah.. cut it off.. it must be a useless thing they just added there :roll:

I had an older P3 board that had a missing capacitor and it ran just fine. Its only when you push the board or card that it will hickup and say "Where the hell is my missing capacitor".

I installed nvidia drivers and sure enough, after 5 minutes of HL2, the screen started to get artifacts. The reason I want to repair this card is for my girlfriend. Before she met me, she purchased a Dell box that has onboard video (sadly). She has an AGP slot, but I don't have a card to fill it. This card would be perfect, but sadly it does not run 100%.

No ideas on replacing the capacitors?

Anyone want to buy it or maybe even the HSF? Its quite nice

 

[Sniper82]

so you sold this card 3 months ago? Let him use it for 3 months just to email you telling you its now screwing up? I would have never gave a refund if you did. That was a bad move. He could have used it in a cramped case which caused the caps to bulge.

 

[tgillespie]

Originally posted by: ^Sniper^
so you sold this card 3 months ago? Let him use it for 3 months just to email you telling you its now screwing up? I would have never gave a refund if you did. That was a bad move. He could have used it in a cramped case which caused the caps to bulge.

He returned the card 2 days after he received it. I was at college and was not able to test the card until now, Christmas break. It has been sitting in a box for 3 months now. I highly suspect the card was already bulging before I sent it to him. My old system was poorly cooled.

 

[josepavento]

Originally posted by: Arclite
You should have made him keep it. It's not your problem if it was working fine when you had it.

To answer your question, I would leave them on as it probably wouldn't work at all if you cut them off. It would no doubt be a bitch to solder some new ones on. Furthermore, the card is worth what? $45 when working?

Remind me to never buy anthing from you. When you buy something from a seller, and it doesnt work, what do YOU do?

 

[Arclite]

Originally posted by: josepavento

Originally posted by: Arclite
You should have made him keep it. It's not your problem if it was working fine when you had it.

To answer your question, I would leave them on as it probably wouldn't work at all if you cut them off. It would no doubt be a bitch to solder some new ones on. Furthermore, the card is worth what? $45 when working?

Remind me to never buy anthing from you. When you buy something from a seller, and it doesnt work, what do YOU do?

When I sell, I sell as is. I won't sell something that I know doesn't work. When I buy things that are used I'm taking a risk and I realize it.

 

[HappyNic]

if you love your girl friend, get her some thing better than a broken videocard. on board video is just as good if she don't play graphical intense games.,, so instead of the card,, use the money on a night out.

 

[Harvey]

Bulging caps are damaged and no longer function as intended, but they can be replaced. There are several things that can damage them in this way:

1. The caps were underspec'd by the manufacturer for the application. Even if the voltage rating and capacitance are sufficient for the design, in high speed switchinc circuits, there is a spec called ESR (Effective Series Resistance). The large electrolytic caps act as filters that short the remaining AC on the DC supply to ground. If the ESR is too high, the cap can get hot and bulge.

It is possible this problem would only show up under heavy power demands such as a heavy gaming session. If this is the case, replacing them with caps of the same value, but having a lower ESR, may fix the problem.

2. The card could have been in a very hot environment. The ratings of electrolytic caps, including voltage, capacitance and ESR, are temperature dependent so, if the case temp was especially high, the same cap would not work as well. Commercial caps are typically rated to 85 deg. C. Industrial grade caps are rated to 105 deg. C.

3. A voltage higher than the rated spec for the cap was applied. Depending on where the caps are in the circuit, it could mean that the voltage from the main power supply or from some on card regulation circuit is out of spec.

In this case, replacing the caps will not help unless the malfunctioning circuit is repaired. Since the card is nominally working (although with artifacts), this is less likely than the previous possiblities.

You can do this yourself if you are comfortable with soldering and have some experience replacing surface mounted devices.

 

[tgillespie]

If I could fix it, it would be perfect for her Sims 2, NFSU, and RollerCoaster Tycoon. I'm not going to give her a broken card and no way would I give her a video card for christmas.