Can you contact the seller and tell them what occurred .. they might be willing to replace the card ?

A component that size and placement is pretty hard to damage but could fall off if it had weak solder joints, im sure the seller would understand.

Of course. I expect they won't want it back, which gives me an opportunity to try and repair it.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-12, 08:11:

Of course. I expect they won't want it back, which gives me an opportunity to try and repair it.

hmmm, if you have other dead GPUs you could look for the same component on one of them, it looks like a pretty common component from cards of that era, you should be able to transplant and identical one easy enough, if it has the same markings then its safe to assume its the right one.

I would go that route before trying to buy a part, you would likely have to buy more than one just to cover the postage costs.

I don't mind having spare parts, and SMD stuff is usully pretty cheap. I just want to be sure I order the right one.

My pile of things to repair is turning I to a small tower. I must tend to it soon or risk it falling over.

All three video cards I ordered today arrived broken. One was supposed to be a Rage 128 Pro but I was instead shipped a (broken) GeForce 2 MX 400. Terrible luck, but this isn't unusual for used parts from this era.

...that pile looks like it needs an electronics store STAT !

I have a Ti4600 sitting in a box I wish I could figure out what is wrong with it . .it displays a picture and works .. but square boxes of the picture are corrupted, best I can guess its a ram IC, might just need to reflow the BGA chips, looking at your pile I wouldn't mind having something easy like component repair.

Reflowing BGA chips is a pain in the arse if they so much as move a little.

Do you have a picture of the problem? If the ram chips are all BGA, then it gets complicated very quickly. If they have exposed pins, I would start with something easy like replacing them memory. You would only need to buy one replacement and then shift each chip one position over until you get to the last one or the problem goes away.

Reflowing BGA components has a very high rate of failure. I have a different pile of cards with known memory defects that I plan to repair at a later time. To to BGA repair, I want to get a pre-heater, which I don't have at the moment. The ground planes on graphics cards suck up a lot of heat and this makes rework difficult for some repairs. If you've ever had a capacitor that just wouldn't come out, that would be because of the ground plane sucking up all the heat.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-12, 08:23:

...that pile looks like it needs an electronics store STAT !

At this point I'm also somewhat of a small electronics store with all of this stock. I don't have any inductors though! I expand my inventory as I encounter new things to repair.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-12, 08:28:

Do you have a picture of the problem? If the ram chips are all BGA, then it gets complicated very quickly. If they have exposed pins, I would start with something easy like replacing them memory. You would only need to buy one replacement and then shift each chip one position over until you get to the last one or the problem goes away.

Reflowing BGA components has a very high rate of failure. I have a different pile of cards with known memory defects that I plan to repair at a later time. To to BGA repair, I want to get a pre-heater, which I don't have at the moment. The ground planes on graphics cards suck up a lot of heat and this makes rework difficult for some repairs. If you've ever had a capacitor that just wouldn't come out, that would be because of the ground plane sucking up all the heat.

Imagine dividing the picture up into equal squares .. say a 16 x 16 grid . .every 8th square is corrupted, the rest of the picture is perfect, this is why I believe one of the BGA ram chips is dead or has cracked solder balls, and they are BGA being a Ti4600 so its going to be complicated to even reflow the board, but I was thinking of shoving it in a oven on low to bring the board temp up and then hitting each BGA chip with flux and a hot air iron and reflowing them in that manner to see if it corrects the problem.

Not expecting it to be a 100% fix but if it gives me a few years of use out of the card till I can buy a reasonably price replacement then it'll be worth it, I didn't pay much for the card at all as it was sold for repairs. If it doesnt then the card will be put aside as a donor card.

That's going to be a difficult reapair, yea. Getting replacement BGA memory is expensive, and you have no idea which chip is the bad one.

That's why I'm just making a pile (a different pile) for BGA to do later once I get myself a pre-heater.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-12, 08:40:

That's going to be a difficult reapair, yea. Getting replacement BGA memory is expensive, and you have no idea which chip is the bad one.

That's why I'm just making a pile (a different pile) for BGA to do later once I get myself a pre-heater.

I could remove all the BGA chips on the back of the card and make it a 64mb model, if I could isolate what chip it is thats bad .. I have a feeling it would throw a fit at that 🤣.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-12, 08:57:

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-12, 08:40:

That's going to be a difficult reapair, yea. Getting replacement BGA memory is expensive, and you have no idea which chip is the bad one.

That's why I'm just making a pile (a different pile) for BGA to do later once I get myself a pre-heater.

I could remove all the BGA chips on the back of the card and make it a 64mb model, if I could isolate what chip it is thats bad .. I have a feeling it would throw a fit at that 🤣.

No, that works. That's how the Quadro4 750 XGL works.😁

I've wondered about that. Is it possible to remove one chip at a time or do you need to remove the entire array? Would it work if you only removed the memory chips but left the surrounding SMD components, etc.

There are some Rage 128 Pros with an extra set of pads on the back. I've also wondered if it's possible to upgrade them with more memory that way.

Removing only one chip at a time does not work afaik.

I keep any anti-static bags I get in a bin for reuse and happened to be digging through it today when I happened upon one that contained an unusual lump. You can probably guess as to what it was.

Mystery solved as to what happened to the missing inductor and where it went.

I found it amusing and thought that it was worth sharing.

It's still a unknown as to how it came loose in the first place. These parts are soldered on and are not easy to remove, even with the proper tools.

I was hoping there would be a good guide to sources. 😀 I have a 9800 GT with coil whine and it's on my list of things to fix - I just need to understand better how to order them. I have the values, but package size isn't always clear (these are through-hole and not SMD, not sure whether that makes it easier or harder).

If it isn't a sealed coil, you may be able to quiet it with a dab of silicone or epoxy. Does it still vibrate if you touch it with your finger?

I bought a GeForce 4 Ti 4200 recently that has terrible coil whine. Unfortunately, the inductor is in a terrible place that would require me to also remove a couple of capacitors to fit an iron near one of the pads. It's a sealed inductor, so maybe it's just bad luck.