HELP -- a coil fell off my Radeon 9500 Pro

  • Thread starter Thread starter JRC
  • Start date Start date
J

JRC

As I was installing the card, a coil (if that's the right word for it)
came off the card. It's a little spring thingie that says "2.2 Falco
0405" on it. It looks like it goes right above an identical coil on
the card, and looking at the back of the coil, it looks like it was
glued on.

Does anyone know if that's a correct assumption? Can I just glue it
back on? Do I have to use any special kind of glue? The card's no
longer under warranty.

TIA.
 
As I was installing the card, a coil (if that's the right word for it)
came off the card. It's a little spring thingie that says "2.2 Falco
0405" on it. It looks like it goes right above an identical coil on
the card, and looking at the back of the coil, it looks like it was
glued on.

Does anyone know if that's a correct assumption? Can I just glue it
back on? Do I have to use any special kind of glue? The card's no
longer under warranty.
Click to expand...

It sounds like an inductor or similar electronic component. Did it
tear off any of the traces on the board? If there is any damage, the
card may be toast unless you or somebody knows enough electronics to fix
it.
 
No traces of anything torn off or damaged. And I installed the card
with the coil thingie off -- probably not a wise move -- but it
powered up and seemed fine. I just worry about long-term problems.

It looks like there is residue glue at the bottom of the coil thingie
that came off below two metal plate thingies (the metal plate thingies
show no damage). I'm thinking I can just glue the thing back on since
the metal thingies on the coil just need to connect to the metal
thingies on the card, right?

P.S. Sorry to throw so much technical jargon at you guys like
"thingies."
 
No traces of anything torn off or damaged. And I installed the card
with the coil thingie off -- probably not a wise move -- but it
powered up and seemed fine. I just worry about long-term problems.

It looks like there is residue glue at the bottom of the coil thingie
that came off below two metal plate thingies (the metal plate thingies
show no damage). I'm thinking I can just glue the thing back on since
the metal thingies on the coil just need to connect to the metal
thingies on the card, right?

P.S. Sorry to throw so much technical jargon at you guys like
"thingies."
Click to expand...

Is there any way you can take a picture or scan of the board and post
it on a website or someplace? People can verify if it is an important
part or not. Also, if the board has both DVI and VGA connections, it's
possible it's only affecting one of them.
 
I once knocked off two surface-mount capacitors from my 9800 Pro while
trying to flip the AGP slot lock with a screwdriver. Card operation was not
affected at all. A lot of components on the board are installed to pass FCC
regulations. And, as Andrew said, it's possible only one of the two monitor
ports are impacted.

Take a photo of the board and the "coil", showing where it came off. You can
take it to a privately-owned TV/VCR repair shop and have the "coil"
reattached for $10-$15.
 
JRC said:
No traces of anything torn off or damaged. And I installed the card
with the coil thingie off -- probably not a wise move -- but it
powered up and seemed fine. I just worry about long-term problems.
Click to expand...

I suspect it's a filter on one of the card's power supply outputs.
Surprised it runs w/o it....

Don't run the card as-is. Take it to a TV/stereo repair shop and have
them solder it back on.
P.S. Sorry to throw so much technical jargon at you guys like "thingies."
Click to expand...

LOL! Them THINGIES 'r import'nt! ;)

Good luck.
 
I once knocked off two surface-mount capacitors from my 9800 Pro while
trying to flip the AGP slot lock with a screwdriver. Card operation was not
affected at all. A lot of components on the board are installed to pass FCC
regulations. And, as Andrew said, it's possible only one of the two monitor
ports are impacted.
Click to expand...

They are not just for FCC regulations, but also help keep down tiny
power fluctuations as a chip's power demands constantly change.
 
No traces of anything torn off or damaged. And I installed the card
with the coil thingie off -- probably not a wise move -- but it
powered up and seemed fine. I just worry about long-term problems.

It looks like there is residue glue at the bottom of the coil thingie
that came off below two metal plate thingies (the metal plate thingies
show no damage). I'm thinking I can just glue the thing back on since
the metal thingies on the coil just need to connect to the metal
thingies on the card, right?

P.S. Sorry to throw so much technical jargon at you guys like
"thingies."
Click to expand...

Not sure of the component that fell off but it was most likely surface mount
soldered on the board and no you CAN NOT just glue it back on. If you have a
very small soldering iron with very low wattage, you can sometimes resolder it
back on, but best bet is to conact ATI and get it replaced undr warranty.
 
True, and I've probably been lucky. My 9800Pro performs identically now as
it did before I knocked out the caps; it even overclocks to the same level
as before. :-)

That said, one shortcoming the large VGA Silencer is the shroud impeding
access to the AGP lock lever. The lever was easy to engage, but a pain in
the butt to disengage without sharp tools.

Recall an issue few years back, where the Visiontek Geforce4 cards fouled
against a cylindrical capacitor near the AGP slot of a popular Epox board.
It turned out the capacitor exceeded the max. height restrictions in Intel's
ATX standard. Epox's official workaround was to simply snip off the
capacitor, since it didn't affect board operation. :-)
 
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