Question What do I do if I just broke 1 ceramic capacitor from the top middle or just a bit to the right on the back of my motherboard?

[Albert637]

So recently I just build my very first PC and I bought the ASRock b550m steel legend mobo , and I realised that Ive broken off a ceramic capacitor on the top right of my motherboard, I want to know if my PC will work fine for the next 5 years while gaming and doing school work . I m not planning on overclocking but I think It would still be a good feature to have . Right now I m kinda sad and worried that my PC might break in a couple months, and I just spend all my savings so if someone can help It would be appreciated 🙂. I want to mention that I installed windows and all the games seem to work very good.(Btw it was one single capacitor alone , around him on the right are 4 and on the left are 3 , I don t know how to put a photo cause I m on the phone right now so yea, sorry)

 

[drea.drechsler]

So recently I just build my very first PC and I bought the ASRock b550m steel legend mobo , and I realised that Ive broken off a ceramic capacitor on the top right of my motherboard, I want to know if my PC will work fine for the next 5 years while gaming and doing school work . I m not planning on overclocking but I think It would still be a good feature to have . Right now I m kinda sad and worried that my PC might break in a couple months, and I just spend all my savings so if someone can help It would be appreciated 🙂. I want to mention that I installed windows and all the games seem to work very good.(Btw it was one single capacitor alone , around him on the right are 4 and on the left are 3 , I don t know how to put a photo cause I m on the phone right now so yea, sorry)

It could be completely unimportant...or critical for stability. It's hard to say for certain even with a picture but impossible without one.

 

[Albert637]

It could be completely unimportant...or critical for stability. It's hard to say for certain even with a picture but impossible without one.

Well , I got a picture but I don t know how to upload it cause I m on a phone , I wish this platform could be easier to use , I also got a post on quora where I be been asking the same question and there I was able to upload a photo , here a a link so you can respond https://www.quora.com/profile/Alber...1&share=3c6de604&srid=h9jBMj&target_type=post

 

[Albert637]

Well , I got a picture but I don t know how to upload it cause I m on a phone , I wish this platform could be easier to use , I also got a post on quora where I be been asking the same question and there I was able to upload a photo , here a a link so you can respond https://www.quora.com/profile/Alber...1&share=3c6de604&srid=h9jBMj&target_type=post

Oh and by the way it is closer to the middle but it seems that it is closer to the corner because of the wrap that it was packaged in

 

[drea.drechsler]

Well , I got a picture but I don t know how to upload it cause I m on a phone , I wish this platform could be easier to use , I also got a post on quora where I be been asking the same question and there I was able to upload a photo , here a a link so you can respond https://www.quora.com/profile/Alber...1&share=3c6de604&srid=h9jBMj&target_type=post

Are you confident it's a capacitor? does the part look like the ones adjacent to the circled location? Those parts are MLCC's...capacitors.

In that location, somewhat isolated, it looks to me like it's just one of many EMI decoupling caps they put on the board especially for longer traces. That means it's not likely to be critical for operation and certainly not going to do any harm if missing. I'd have no qualms putting the system together and running with it gone.

The best way is to 'breadboard' it...put the board on the box, install CPU, memory, drives, GPU (if you have one) and connect the PSU. Everything is outside the case. You can turn it on by shorting the PWR_SW pins on the front panel header. Reset CMOS, update BIOS and install the OS like that. Once you've figured out how it works and it's all set up and running THEN you install it into the case. If anything glitches or doesn't work right it's a lot easier to take the bad part out to return it this way, before you've put it away in the case and spent hours on cable management.

Also...BTW...don't plan on overclocking most any 3rd or 4th gen Ryzen. They just don't respond well to it...instead look to PBO, and Curve Optimizer for a 4th gen.

 

[Albert637]

Are you confident it's a capacitor? does the part look like the ones adjacent to the circled location? Those parts are MLCC's...capacitors.

In that location, somewhat isolated, it looks to me like it's just one of many EMI decoupling caps they put on the board especially for longer traces. That means it's not likely to be critical for operation and certainly not going to do any harm if missing. I'd have no qualms putting the system together and running with it gone.

The best way is to 'breadboard' it...put the board on the box, install CPU, memory, drives, GPU (if you have one) and connect the PSU. Everything is outside the case. You can turn it on by shorting the PWR_SW pins on the front panel header. Reset CMOS, update BIOS and install the OS like that. Once you've figured out how it works and it's all set up and running THEN you install it into the case. If anything glitches or doesn't work right it's a lot easier to take the bad part out to return it this way, before you've put it away in the case and spent hours on cable management.

Also...BTW...don't plan on overclocking most any 3rd or 4th gen Ryzen. They just don't respond well to it...instead look to PBO, and Curve Optimizer for a 4th gen.

Ok man thank you

 

[Albert637]

Are you confident it's a capacitor? does the part look like the ones adjacent to the circled location? Those parts are MLCC's...capacitors.

In that location, somewhat isolated, it looks to me like it's just one of many EMI decoupling caps they put on the board especially for longer traces. That means it's not likely to be critical for operation and certainly not going to do any harm if missing. I'd have no qualms putting the system together and running with it gone.

The best way is to 'breadboard' it...put the board on the box, install CPU, memory, drives, GPU (if you have one) and connect the PSU. Everything is outside the case. You can turn it on by shorting the PWR_SW pins on the front panel header. Reset CMOS, update BIOS and install the OS like that. Once you've figured out how it works and it's all set up and running THEN you install it into the case. If anything glitches or doesn't work right it's a lot easier to take the bad part out to return it this way, before you've put it away in the case and spent hours on cable management.

Also...BTW...don't plan on overclocking most any 3rd or 4th gen Ryzen. They just don't respond well to it...instead look to PBO, and Curve Optimizer for a 4th gen.

Oh , I m back , so I just wanna know what is the role of that capacitor or what it might be , or at least if it could damage any other components , my pc is running just fine , but I want this question answered because I just wanna sleep well knowing that my pc will last, I be watched some photos of the normal motherboard and it seems that it is partially connected or has something in common with those 4 mlcc capacitors on the left

 

[drea.drechsler]

Oh , I m back , so I just wanna know what is the role of that capacitor or what it might be , ..

I think it's an EMI decoupling capacitor. They are commonly placed at intervals along long(er) circuit board traces to decouple EMI noise to ground. I think that because it's isolated. It could be related to the other MLCC's if the long trace it's decoupling runs between the circuits those caps are servicing.

Another thing to keep in mind about MLCC's is their capacitance values are fairly low, but they're also very small and fit nicely in tight spots like the underside of a motherboard. To achieve a desired capacitance designers use a lot of them in parallel and that makes them somewhat redundant for circuits that are tolerant of minor changes in capacitance. So you could lose one of a redundant array of capacitors-in-parallel and the circuit still function normally. You can actually find open component solder points on some boards where the designers felt they could remove capacitors as a cost saving measure once they tested prototypes.

Of course this is an educated guess at best. Knowing it's function with confidence would require a schematic of the board at the least, and the board to probe it and find out exactly which component that one is on the schematic.

 

[Albert637]

I think it's an EMI decoupling capacitor. They are commonly placed at intervals along long(er) circuit board traces to decouple EMI noise to ground. I think that because it's isolated. It could be related to the other MLCC's if the long trace it's decoupling runs between the circuits those caps are servicing.

Another thing to keep in mind about MLCC's is their capacitance values are fairly low, but they're also very small and fit nicely in tight spots like the underside of a motherboard. To achieve a desired capacitance designers use a lot of them in parallel and that makes them somewhat redundant for circuits that are tolerant of minor changes in capacitance. So you could lose one of a redundant array of capacitors-in-parallel and the circuit still function normally. You can actually find open component solder points on some boards where the designers felt they could remove capacitors as a cost saving measure once they tested prototypes.

Of course this is an educated guess at best. Knowing it's function with confidence would require a schematic of the board at the least, and the board to probe it and find out exactly which component that one is on the schematic.

Well , can I get someone to put another one on that spot for farely cheap , and if yes should there be any type of capacitor or just an mlcc capacitor or EMI decoupling capacitor as you said