have you tried...

performing voodoo on your voodoo?

Well, it may come down to that but not yet...

According to a very high res picture here: http://hw-museum.cz/vga/63/3dfx-voodoo5-5500-pci

They are not the same size.... this is a pci version but I don't think that will matter.

meljor wrote:

According to a very high res picture here: http://hw-museum.cz/vga/63/3dfx-voodoo5-5500-pci

They are not the same size.... this is a pci version but I don't think that will matter.

My AGP card is laid out quite differently actually. It is kinda surprising since they say the AGP version is just a bridge and all. Anyway as I mentioned, I did measure the pads with a precision caliper and they are the same size. I see what you are saying about the size of the cap itself on that PCI card though but the pads on that card also seem to be the same size. If I can get the capacitance and voltage specs on it, I can always get a variety of sizes since they are cheap.

Loos a at this!

http://hw-museum.cz/vga/62/3dfx-voodoo5-5500-agp

On the AGP version, c502 is the larger cap than 501... Damnit.

Had a quick look at my card and the capacitor is larger indeed. I'd help you out but frankly I don't know how to measure the capacitor and I'd need to desolder it right? I can provide a clear picture of it if you need it.

I'm not sure that using a capacitor with the same exact specs is going to make a difference. Generally you just need:
1. Same or higher voltage rating
2. Same or higher capacitance rating

Justin1091 wrote:

Had a quick look at my card and the capacitor is larger indeed. I'd help you out but frankly I don't know how to measure the capacitor and I'd need to desolder it right? I can provide a clear picture of it if you need it.

Thanks man but yeah I believe you have to remove it to get a propper reading.

cyclone3d wrote:

I'm not sure that using a capacitor with the same exact specs is going to make a difference. Generally you just need:
1. Same or higher voltage rating
2. Same or higher capacitance rating

Thanks. I did know I could go over value on voltage but not necessarily Capacitance. Wouldn't that be assuming it is being used to filter the power?

Did a quick check as well on 3 of my v5 agp cards and on one pci version: they all seem to match the pictures on hw-museum.

meljor wrote:

Did a quick check as well on 3 of my v5 agp cards and on one pci version: they all seem to match the pictures on hw-museum.

Hahah, it WOULD be the one that is physically different from all the rest wouldn't it? Thanks for taking a look for me.

ohhwell wrote:

meljor wrote:

Did a quick check as well on 3 of my v5 agp cards and on one pci version: they all seem to match the pictures on hw-museum.

Hahah, it WOULD be the one that is physically different from all the rest wouldn't it? Thanks for taking a look for me.

It's hardware from the '90s so you never know!

I can desolder and measure this capacitor for you. I have rev 2100 and 2500 cards on the healing bench right now.

And we have results. Most ceramic caps on graphics cards are just for power rail decoupling and their value or presence is not too critical.

But this area of the card is different. Right at the other side of the card we can see PWM regulator ic LTC1929. Regulators may have capacitors other than just plain old power rail decoupling such as timing capacitors. Their capacitance value is critical.

I did some measurements from my card and found that one end of C502 is connected to ground and other is end is connected to +12V input power through 10ohm resistor. And the junction between 10 ohm resistor and this capacitor is connected to LTC1929 pin 24.

Now lets have a look at application example of LTC1929 from its datasheet:

And what you know, 3DFX is following the typical application example. Kind of. I desoldered and measured the capacitor to be 1.5 µF and safe voltage rating would be 16V. X7R preferred.

This is special case of decoupling/noise filtering setup, actual value is not too critical, think anything from 0.47 to 10µF would work just fine. But it must be there.

Kizmo wrote:

And we have results. Most ceramic caps on graphics cards are just for power rail decoupling and their value or presence is not t […]
Show full quote

And we have results. Most ceramic caps on graphics cards are just for power rail decoupling and their value or presence is not too critical.

But this area of the card is different. Right at the other side of the card we can see PWM regulator ic LTC1929. Regulators may have capacitors other than just plain old power rail decoupling such as timing capacitors. Their capacitance value is critical.

I did some measurements from my card and found that one end of C502 is connected to ground and other is end is connected to +12V input power through 10ohm resistor. And the junction between 10 ohm resistor and this capacitor is connected to LTC1929 pin 24.

Now lets have a look at application example of LTC1929 from its datasheet:

V5voltreg.JPG

And what you know, 3DFX is following the typical application example. Kind of. I desoldered and measured the capacitor to be 1.5 µF and safe voltage rating would be 16V. X7R preferred.

This is special case of decoupling/noise filtering setup, actual value is not too critical, think anything from 0.47 to 10µF would work just fine. But it must be there.

Holy cow, thank you so much!!!

Want to hear something funny? A guy on a facebook group was going to pull the cap for me but when he got to his board the exact same c502 was blown in the exact same way... That's odd huh? I am gonna give him the info as well.

Again, thank you so much.

Since the C502 on the AGP card is visiably larger than the C501 which is listed as size 0805, would it be reasonable to assume it is a 1206?

Edit: Never mind, I was just being lazy. I measured a similar sized Cap from the front and it was approximately 3.2 mm so yeah, 1206 or there about should be fine.