C15 would be a capacitor. Its value is probably the same as C19. If you remove it, you can measure its value with a multimeter or LCR meter. Not all multimeters measure capacitance though.

Hello, sorry for reusing this thread, but two days back I got my poor voodoo (apparently V3 2000), it was cheap, but in sad condition, missing bracket and heatsink. I managed to mostly clean that gunk on the chip (although it was hard like stone), but i noticed that one little SMD something (capacitor?) left bottom to the 3dfx chip is a bit loose. It's labeled a C51. The left one (C50) is OK, whereas the right one (C51) is lifted - so it's legs are broken? I don't know if the capacitor can be repaired by somehow solder it back to it's place, but i assume not.
Is it possible to try the card without soldering (with some heatsink of course), or is it better to replace the capacitor first?
I don't want to riun my mpv3 board, because I have no other replacement. What surprised me, that simillar boards have a "round" capacitor in it's place (see http://www.vgamuseum.info/images/vlask/3dfx/v3200agpfb.jpg ), or does it mean that it was replaced?

yea broken leg. replace it

regarding original topic:

i bought a capacitor reader on amazon some time ago,because my multimeter did not come with capacitance meter. they are very cheap and i have used them on electrolitic capacitors. Not sure if it will work on yours because that smd has no polarity, and those readers sold on amazon have positive and negative.

something like this?
https://www.amazon.com/Excelvan-Capacitance-C … /dp/B009CSR8BA/

can it read no polatiry smd capacitors?

Pabloz wrote:

He said on DOS it works but when windows starts.. it gives a black screen.

Have you at least tested that card yourself? Missing bypass capacitor should not cause such issues, but if you insist, just reduce cards clock freq. down to 100MHz or lower to test whether cap is the cause (caps value should be standard 100nF). It's more likely that you need to reflow either GPU or memory connections.

SSTV2 wrote:

Pabloz wrote:

He said on DOS it works but when windows starts.. it gives a black screen.

Have you at least tested that card yourself? Missing bypass capacitor should not cause such issues, but if you insist, just reduce cards clock freq. down to 100MHz or lower to test whether cap is the cause (caps value should be standard 100nF). It's more likely that you need to reflow either GPU or memory connections.

not tested yet because i wanted to replace everything that is broken first.
besides there are only 3 components that looked bad.

so an smd capacitor with no polatiry can be replaced with one of these

Pabloz wrote:

on DOS it works but when windows starts.. it gives a black screen.

It is highly unlikely that the issue is due to a missing decoupling capacitor. Does it look like the missing capacitor was de-soldered, or that there never was a capacitor there from the onset?

I agree that the issue is probably due to a soldered component which has become separated with time or flexing of the card. My bet is on the BGA soldered GPU. You might try getting two slabs of rubber, perhaps 1/8" to 3/8" in thickness. Place them on either side of the GPU and use a c-clamp to press the GPU harder onto the PCB. Don't use too much force. Start out low, then slowly increase every reboot to see if you can get it working. If it works, then the issue is the GPU not making contact, in which case, it should be reflowed. If it still doesn't work, then you have gained very little knowledge.

Also, what are the conditions which lead to the failure? Did you friend say it used to be working just fine, then it stopped working while still sitting in the same computer? Is it just the 3D aspect which doesn't work? Or 2D in Windows as well? Could you issue be driver related?

it had a capacitor, and looks it was ripped off

I removed another capacitor next to another memory and i was able to read it, its a 1500nf capacitor. I know many videocards from that era had 100nf caps but this cap i took off is 1500nf.

Kind of sucks because i did not have a ceramic big capacitor that is from that rating,
spent like an hour checking other broken videocards and no luck, most caps were 100nf or 4000nf.

no go

it boots and i see the DOS screen but instead of only white letters there are some colors inside the white that are of another color.
Like the letter "A" for example on the screen is partially white and a leg is from another color.

so that makes me belive there is a problem with the ram chips

are these eliteMT chips sold online? or there is any replacement?

i got my hands on soldering paste and hot air station, i wonder if they can be replaced.

Of course you can replace them if you can find them.
If it is your first time soldering with hot air, practice on another board first. Also shield other components with capton tape and aluminium foil.
Also use flux!