# [SOLVED] Accidently bent a capacitor



## Sammo315 (Oct 8, 2010)

I accidently bent a capacitor on my motherboard, not much about like 20-30 degrees. It felt little loose in the direction i bent it in but i put pushed it down slightly, back into its 90 degree position and now seems fine. Should I still get it checked out? I'm not experiencing any problems yet.

Other than that there's no signs of leaks, damage, etc.


----------



## [email protected] (Nov 16, 2004)

*Re: Accidently bent a capacitor*

If it were mine, I'd pull the mobo and inspect it closely. IF if was originally mounted slightly above the board during manufacture then bending it 20-30° is probably OK. Or if a solder joint failed, allowing it to bend without distorting the caps case, probably OK but the solder joint would need to be re-soldered.

Then of course it depends on where in the circuit that cap is. If it's a minor filter cap in the audio section, or one of many filter caps on a power supply rail, probably not a problem. The thing is though, a distorted cap case can ultimately fail internally, sometimes shorting.


----------



## Sammo315 (Oct 8, 2010)

*Re: Accidently bent a capacitor*









Here, it's right underneath those cables. This is located on the top left hand corner of my motherboard


----------



## [email protected] (Nov 16, 2004)

*Re: Accidently bent a capacitor*

Can't see the pic Sammo.


----------



## Sammo315 (Oct 8, 2010)

*Re: Accidently bent a capacitor*

Fixed the link


----------



## [email protected] (Nov 16, 2004)

*Re: Accidently bent a capacitor*

Looks like a large filter cap for the low voltage power for the CPU. Not a good place if it shorts. 

I can't see if there is any case distortion and 20-30° isn't that acute, so you have a choice. Take it in and have a tech replace it, or cross your fingers that it's not potentially harmful. Your choice depending on your financial situation, the age of the computer, and your desire to be without a computer suddenly.

The good news is that in the event of failure, it's likely your HDD will come through it OK.


----------



## Sammo315 (Oct 8, 2010)

*Re: Accidently bent a capacitor*

I just opened up my motherboard and had a look, the angle is around 15 degrees at most. When I looked from above I was an angle.


----------



## [email protected] (Nov 16, 2004)

*Re: Accidently bent a capacitor*

Well, now that we're talking 15°, I don't think you have a thing to worry about. I can't tell from the 2nd picture if those are cold solder joints so you should take a magnifier and inspect them. Look for movement of the leads while you gently move the cap back and forth over it's range (don't force it). If there isn't any movement, you're good to go. If there is movement, then you had a cold solder joint from the beginning and the joints need to be re-soldered. Not a big deal.

Now the tricky part: In the 1st picture, see where your thumb is? When you first pushed the cap, did you do it in that plane? Or 90° from there? (That wouldn't be good, it's much better if you'd pushed it in the orientation your thumb is in in that picture).

Finally, with a magnifier, look at that portion of the cap that's closest to the mobo. It should not be canted. It should look the same all the way around. If it shows that some of the plastic case is pulled away at the bottom, that wouldn't be good.


----------



## Sammo315 (Oct 8, 2010)

*Re: Accidently bent a capacitor*

I just noticed that the two wires connected are infact vertical to the direction it got bent in so they couldn't have been pulled out. Yeah I checked with a magnifying glass and the wires are all intact. The joints in the back did not move or anything either.

Thanks for you help!


----------



## [email protected] (Nov 16, 2004)

*Re: Accidently bent a capacitor*

OK, you're good to go. 

We really dragged this one out didn't we? But it was fun to exercise the old brain cells. 

Nice pics btw.

In general, many large components such as electrolytic capacitors are mounted to the board slightly raised. For two reasons, one is to get the body of the cap away from the heat of wave soldering a little to prevent overheating, and two, to allow a little freedom of movement to prevent damage if it's pushed a little during manufacturing, inspection, or by the end users during assembly or cleaning.

If you're satisfied with the results of this thread, navigate to the top of this page, choose 'Thread Tools' and click on 'Solved'. Thanks!


----------

