Capacitor Issues With Video Cards (Need Advice)

[GreenEarth]

So I had a bit of a heart attack today.
I turned on my computer and my monitor was not receiving a signal. After a while I got it working again, it seems the power cord connected to the video card was faulty. However, upon removing the video card I saw a bump on one of the capacitors. This isn't the first time I have had problems with a video card capacitor, my last card had a capacitor that had a blown top which I replaced. The video card stil didn't work though. So let me show you some pictures before I ask my question. (I've been having a hard time finding answers on google, I figured some of you might have experience with this)

The card itself is a Chaintech nVIDIA GeForce 6600 (AGP 8x, 256 Mb, DDR)

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See the capacitor (470 microfarad, 16 v) on the left has a bump.

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Here is my old card with the replaced capacitor that is elevated (1000 microfarad, 6.3 v), the old capacitor had a blown top.

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So the first question is any ideas why this happens? Is it overheating? Next, should I even attempt replacing the capacitor when the one on the new card blows? My last attempt failed, I think my solder iron tip was too thick maybe and I put too much solder and created a short, I'm not sure. Do any of you have experience with this kind of operation?

And finally, I've been thinking about this for a while, the fan mounted on the back of the case, should that blow in or out? I have a fan that blows in, mounted on the case cover that isn't shown in the picture. I used to have the one at the back blowing in, but then I turned it to blow out, and 2 days later this video card issue came up. There probably isn't any correlation.

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Any suggestions would be appreciated, thank you for your time.

 

[NewspaperCrane]

Capacitors asploding isn't always an overheating issue. Capacitors just eventually go bad. Usually due to cheap components, and I haven't even heard of that graphics card manufacturer (though to be honest AGP cards are a little before my time).

If you're not great at soldering, I wouldn't attempt a card repair for that... You could really fuck some shit up, beyond the card even.

If your computer is still using an AGP vid card... isn't it time for a new computer anyways?

 

[Wooty]

The biggest problem here is that cards from that time period simply do not have an unlimited life span. The GeForce 6 series is almost 8 years old -- It's not suprising that cards from that era, that are still heavily used, "pop a cap" every once in a while. Nowadays, cards are usually produced with solid-state capacitors (conductive polymer), which means a much lower failure rate.

tl;dr: I doubt it's overheating, it's just old.

 

[Wooty]

And finally, I've been thinking about this for a while, the fan mounted on the back of the case, should that blow in or out? I have a fan that blows in, mounted on the case cover that isn't shown in the picture.

It's pretty common to implement a front-to-back air flow through a case, which means you should exhaust out the back and top, and intake through the side and front.

Althrough, I've used back-to-front on some cases before, and the front exhaust makes quite a nice foot warmer

 

[GreenEarth]

Capacitors asploding isn't always an overheating issue. Capacitors just eventually go bad. Usually due to cheap components, and I haven't even heard of that graphics card manufacturer (though to be honest AGP cards are a little before my time).

If you're not great at soldering, I wouldn't attempt a card repair for that... You could really fuck some shit up, beyond the card even.

If your computer is still using an AGP vid card... isn't it time for a new computer anyways?

Ok thanks. I have read about people frying the agp slot after replacing the capacitor, my motherboard seems ok for now though after trying the old card, guess I got lucky. It definitely is time for an upgrade, unfortunately I would have to replace everything (bigger case, new memory, pci-e vid card, new cpu, new motherboard) and I am so freaking pewr most of my parts so far I have salvaged from other people.

The biggest problem here is that cards from that time period simply do not have an unlimited life span. The GeForce 6 series is almost 8 years old -- It's not suprising that cards from that era, that are still heavily used, "pop a cap" every once in a while. Nowadays, cards are usually produced with solid-state capacitors (conductive polymer), which means a much lower failure rate.

tl;dr: I doubt it's overheating, it's just old.

It's pretty common to implement a front-to-back air flow through a case, which means you should exhaust out the back and top, and intake through the side and front.

Althrough, I've used back-to-front on some cases before, and the front exhaust makes quite a nice foot warmer

Thank you, I was starting to get paranoid that I wasn't treating the cards right or something.

 

[JHawk]

I don't see what you mea- oh, the capacitor is visibly puffed up...

They do use cheap components on most boards, so it may just be worn out, especially if you use your computer a lot. If you replace it though, make sure the new one has the same tolerance as the original, and solder it into the right polarities