X850 - broke off one of the transistor things - Still Works?!?!?!

[a_gunslinger]

I was removing my X850 from my sytem and must not have been paying
attention. I accidentally pulled off one of the cyclinrical barrel-
shaped transitor thingies. Doh!!!! Anyway, it still seems to work.
Is that possible or is it likely to be having issues I can see yet?

Thanks

 

[bubkiebki]

Same thing happened to me with an older Radeon All-In-Wonder. I am so
careful when adding or removing cards. I removed the card and placed it in
a zip lock freezer bag. The cylindrical barrel thing that came off was a
capacitor, but I did not notice it right away. After some time, I pulled
out the card and found a capacitor lying free at the bottom of the bag. I
was crushed. Recently, I reinstalled the card and ran some tests. The card
works perfectly as far as I can tell.

 

[Barry Watzman]

Re: "I accidentally pulled off one of the cyclinrical barrel-shaped
transitor thingies."

Clearly you are a real expert.

It's probably a capacitor, not a transistor. Yes, it may be able to
work without it ... but other things being equal, I'd want to replace it.

 

[First of One]

1. Try both monitor ports, make sure they both work.
2. A missing capacitor may cause voltage fluctuations, so play an intense
game for a couple of hours and see if the card holds up.

A TV/electronics repair shop can solder on a replacement capacitor for a few
bucks.

I once snapped off a resistor on my 9800 Pro while flipping the AGP slot
lock lever with a tool. It was a tiny surface-mount component, so replacing
it was difficult/expensive. The card worked identically as before, even
overclocking to the same level.