Question Capacitor fell off

[paradox1310]

Hello,

I wanted to clean my pc today, and as I opened the case, at the bottom there was a capacitor from my mother board, as I look i found where it should be placed (there were prongs still on motherboard) and i just popped it back on those prongs,
started my pc and all was good stress tested both cpu and gpu no jumps in voltage, no overheating everything is fine. It is first time this ever happend to me... so my question is can mb work with cap like that for some time or should keep it off until i take it to repair or get a new mb?

On the capacitor
E180
100
v16

Next to capacitor on the motherboard it says NPEC1

If someone could help i would appreciate it

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

and i just popped it back on those prongs
I hope you got the polarity of the capacitor, in the right manner...?

To me it seems like you might've knocked the capacitor off when removing your discrete GPU.

 

[paradox1310]

Thanks for the welcome (not a newcomer, been here for a long time, but everytime i found what i was looking for so i didn't bother making an account )

To me it seems like you might've knocked the capacitor off when removing your discrete GPU
Could have happend when last i cleaned it, but i didn't notice it, and that was like 3 months ago.

And it ran all good, and it runs now all perfect but should i try to replace it or should i go for new mobo?

 

[Grobe]

It could potentially be overheating, bad soldering from manufacturer. How about uploading an image of the actual motherboard?

That kind of capacitor primary usage is to try to keep dc voltage relatively smooth, it may work without always, it also may work unless the closest circuit get loaded (only the full schematic can reveal what it actually are - my guess is some control mechanism around RAM just becaus it's relatively close), or it will work for a long time but fail prematurely because other capacitors have to take more load (also this assumption is just guessing as only the schematic can reveal the true purpose of the capacitors).

 

[paradox1310]

It could potentially be overheating, bad soldering from manufacturer. How about uploading an image of the actual motherboard?

That kind of capacitor primary usage is to try to keep dc voltage relatively smooth, it may work without always, it also may work unless the closest circuit get loaded (only the full schematic can reveal what it actually are - my guess is some control mechanism around RAM just becaus it's relatively close), or it will work for a long time but fail prematurely because other capacitors have to take more load (also this assumption is just guessing as only the schematic can reveal the true purpose of the capacitors).

Here is the link for the motherboard photo
https://www.linkpicture.com/q/2023-02-03-12-06-05.png
And schematics:
https://www.linkpicture.com/q/2023-02-03-10-08-13.png

Went to the repair shop to see can he replace it he says that he can but he has no exact same capacitor(16v) he has a capacitor that is 25v but the 100uf is the same (he says that only uf needs to be the same and that it can fit in the place that previous was). I don't really understand electronics that much so can i do it until original comes back ?

Thanks in advance

 

[Avro Arrow]

If it has been working without it, it should be ok with you putting it back on.

I've had a capacitor fall off of a motherboard once but I don't know which motherboard because I looked at diagrams of the motherboards I own and every one of them had all of the capacitors that they were supposed to.

To this day, I haven't solved the mystery of where the capacitor that magically appeared in my case came from. It was definitely a motherboard capacitor and was present on all of my motherboards but... nope, none were missing. I checked video cards next just in case but... same thing, no missing caps.

I don't know where it came from but wherever it did come from didn't seem to care because I've had no problems with any of my systems. Go figure, eh? 😆

 

[paradox1310]

If it has been working without it, it should be ok with you putting it back on.

I've had a capacitor fall off of a motherboard once but I don't know which motherboard because I looked at diagrams of the motherboards I own and every one of them had all of the capacitors that they were supposed to.

To this day, I haven't solved the mystery of where the capacitor that magically appeared in my case came from. It was definitely a motherboard capacitor and was present on all of my motherboards but... nope, none were missing. I checked video cards next just in case but... same thing, no missing caps.

I don't know where it came from but wherever it did come from didn't seem to care because I've had no problems with any of my systems. Go figure, eh? 😆

Well i found one in local store and took to the repair shop just in case something goes bad haha

And i ran for about 3 months without it probs could go with out it all together but i don't live a risky life 😀

 

[Avro Arrow]

Well i found one in local store and took to the repair shop just in case something goes bad haha

And i ran for about 3 months without it probs could go with out it all together but i don't live a risky life 😀

I hear that. If I had known at the time when it happened, I would've done the same. As it is, since I don't know what motherboard it's from (or any other board for that matter), I have no way of knowing how long it had been like that and what I'd done during that time. Crazy, eh? 😆

 

[Grobe]

I don't really understand electronics that much so can i do it until original comes back ?

It's easy and it is complicated. The answer is yes and it is no.

Easy part - yes it can work : Because the uF is just a number that tell you how much charge a capacitor can hold (e.g. how long will a led lit when powered from that capacitor).

Complicated part - but no, it may not work long term because : Different types of capacitors have different characteristics on how it behaves on higher frequencies. If the repair shop put in a different type, it may actually not behave god on modern smtp circuits. Since you've already observed the motherboard actually working without the cap, you probably won't see that issue in short term. However - in order to not overload other capacitors over time, you should use the same type.

 

[zx128k]

I think you are fine using a 25v cap in place of a 16v one. So long as the value is the same. Volts can't be lower but can be higher. So long as they are both 100uf it should be fine and they are of the same type which they should be. As far as I can remember the voltage is just the maximum safe voltage for that cap. Should be repairable for someone with the skills and equipment.

 

[Grobe]

I think you are fine using a 25v cap in place of a 16v one. So long as the value is the same. Volts can't be lower but can be higher. So long as they are both 100uf it should be fine and they are of the same type which they should be.

Yes voltage rating is fine, but I just have to add that temperature rating also is important. If the new capacitor have a lower temperature rating, there is a higher risk of shorter lifetime for the cap.

 

[zx128k]

Yes voltage rating is fine, but I just have to add that temperature rating also is important. If the new capacitor have a lower temperature rating, there is a higher risk of shorter lifetime for the cap.

Same temperature rating would be a safe bet.