Nvidia chip capacitors

dehydrated_lemur · Jan 29, 2023

I was just checking out things around the Nvidia chip. I noticed a lot of the capacitors have continuity on each side and are shorted to ground. I thought that was weird. Is this normal? Around sp1 and sp2.

When I check continuity on sp1 and sp2 my meter beeps.

binkinator · Jan 29, 2023

dehydrated_lemur said:
I was just checking out things around the Nvidia chip. I noticed a lot of the capacitors have continuity on each side and are shorted to ground. I thought that was weird. Is this normal? Around sp1 and sp2.

When I check continuity on sp1 and sp2 my meter beeps.

What brought you to measuring continuity all of a sudden? Was the Switch misbehaving or were you doing something else that would warrant concern?

Clean up the paste on the caps with IPA and take a closer pic please...under a scope if you can.

dehydrated_lemur · Jan 29, 2023

The switch is not misbehaving. I was just replacing the thermal paste and decided to to start probing things. My switch works fine I just thought it was weird that sp1 and sp2 are grounded. A few of the other caps here also beep when I touch both sides of them and are grounded

It doesn't make sense why capacitors would run to ground on both sides of them.

I'm sorry I don't have a microscope

BigOnYa · Jan 29, 2023

https://www.electronicshub.org/how-to-test-a-capacitor/

dehydrated_lemur · Jan 29, 2023

Thank you but im not trying to test the capacitor. I was just worried I ruined something by opening this up because both ends of the capacitors go to ground.

binkinator · Jan 29, 2023

dehydrated_lemur said:
The switch is not misbehaving. I was just replacing the thermal paste and decided to to start probing things. My switch works fine I just thought it was weird that sp1 and sp2 are grounded. A few of the other caps here also beep when I touch both sides of them and are grounded

It doesn't make sense why capacitors would run to ground on both sides of them.

I'm sorry I don't have a microscope

Hmmm. Typically an array of components flaking out would manifest itself in a malfunction of some sorts.

Here’s a thread that goes into more detail:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/capacitors-grounded-on-both-sides.550799/

…but yeah, hard to tell from this vantage point and since you weren’t soldering anything in the area I’d say something else in the circuit is giving you that apparent reading and it’s operating correctly.

dehydrated_lemur · Jan 29, 2023

binkinator said:
Hmmm. Typically an array of components flaking out would manifest itself in a malfunction of some sorts.

Here’s a thread that goes into more detail:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/capacitors-grounded-on-both-sides.550799/

…but yeah, hard to tell from this vantage point and since you weren’t soldering anything in the area I’d say something else in the circuit is giving you that apparent reading and it’s operating correctly.

So you think it might just be a "false" reading?

swutch · Jan 30, 2023

SP1 & SP2 can only be measured in ohm mode. One side should be 0 the other 10-40 ohm.

dehydrated_lemur · Jan 30, 2023

swutch said:
SP1 & SP2 can only be measured in ohm mode. One side should be 0 the other 10-40 ohm.

mine do show 0 on one side and about....18 on the other.

swutch · Jan 30, 2023

These are good values.

binkinator · Jan 30, 2023

nice moves @swutch !

More on the SP1 and SP2 caps here.
https://www.tronicsfixforum.com/t/sp1-and-sp2-capacitor-value/2929

seems people (here?!?!) have even knocked them off and their system still works with the flex cable in place…may have to try this one day…for science.

dehydrated_lemur · Jan 30, 2023

Thanks fellas.

thesjaakspoiler · Jan 30, 2023

seems people (here?!?!) have even knocked them off and their system still works with the flex cable in place…may have to try this one day…for science.

Those caps are there for stabilizing the voltage peaks inside the CPU.
If you don't fully stress out the cpu then you might get away with it.
There are also other capacitors next to the CPU which can remove the noise on the power lines.

binkinator · Jan 30, 2023

thesjaakspoiler said:
Those caps are there for stabilizing the voltage peaks inside the CPU.
If you don't fully stress out the cpu then you might get away with it.
There are also other capacitors next to the CPU which can remove the noise on the power lines.

That makes a heck of a lot more sense. Thank you!

dehydrated_lemur · Jan 30, 2023

So they're similar to bypass caps?

Deleted member 194275 · Jan 30, 2023

binkinator said:
nice moves @swutch !

may have to try this one day…for science.

I laughed hard here because I know you will... maybe after you reach 24h of playtime on a single battery charge

wscp · Mar 26, 2023

so, it's okay to see the three capacitors near sp1 have continuity? Coz I'm running into that at the moment and am very scared of accidentally bricking the cpu.

dehydrated_lemur · Mar 27, 2023

wscp said:
so, it's okay to see the three capacitors near sp1 have continuity? Coz I'm running into that at the moment and am very scared of accidentally bricking the cpu.

Yes

doom95 · Mar 27, 2023

the threshold for 'continuity' on your multimeter is apparently under the resistance value measured on the positive side to gnd

wscp · Mar 27, 2023

Yeah, also, sp1 (the left horizontal cap, I assume) has a 16ohm resistance across it as well. is that normal?

Nvidia chip capacitors

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