graphics card - Solid capacitors burst, PC seems fine, how safe is it to keep using it?

Tonight while I was using my desktop PC, I heard a very loud pop from the inside of my case. After investigating I found that two capacitors on the graphics card had burst, and yellow fibers were poking out of them.

Now,

• The capacitors were the newer solid-state type with flat tops, not the older type.


• The computer seems to work fine regardless. I've shut it down now just in case though.


• The graphics card is an Nvidia Geforce 8600GT if it matters.

As I mentioned the computer seems to work fine - maybe the capacitors are part of the card I don't use, like the analog output section...

Given that it seems to run fine, how safe would it be to use it for now until I get around to replacing the graphics card?

Answer

If it's running fine now, it'll probably stay running fine for a little while. Eventually after another one fails the screen will get all squiggly looking, then the next one will fail and your computer won't boot...

I recommend replacing the card with something else. We've had probably a dozen Nvidia cards fail that way here. I've repaired a couple of them by replacing the blown caps, but eventually other parts on the card end up blowing up too.

I'll even go further and say that anyone with an Nvidia 8600 should just go ahead and replace it now. If it hasn't failed yet, it probably will pretty soon...