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A television game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment, also known as PS4. First announced February 20, 2013 and released November 15, 2013.

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Popped SMD Capacitor Replacement

Hey guys and girls. My PS4 recently developed a power issue that I thought was due to a faulty power supply. It would turn off about a second after I turned it on and would show no life until I unplugged it from the main and plugged it back in. Changing the power supply did not help.

This evening I tried turning it on because I hadn't tried to in a while and for the first time I noticed a tiny spark close to the fan. There was also a slight smell of burned electronics. Being the DIY guy that I am, I took it apart to find that a SMD capacitor had ruptured.

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Does anyone know the rating of the broken capacitor I've highlighted in the photo? The mainboard is the PS4 SAA-001 from the PS4 CUH-1001A model. Your help is highly appreciated.

Update (02/17/2021)

Hi @honakrisi

Thanks for your response. In my spare time today I managed to get the blown capacitor off the board. It just fell away in pieces as soon as I put a pair of tweezers to it.

Just as you mentioned, I do see some damage to the adjacent capacitors. I will take your advice and have those replaced as well. You also mentioned damage to the pad below the cap. but I'm not at all sure if it's the case here. Please take a look at the pics and let me know what you think.

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Does it look repairable?

On a side note, I wish there was a way of knowing the capacitance without having to remove a good one from the board.

Update (02/18/2021)

Hey @honakrisi

Got you on the pads. I’ll try to get them cleaned up soon and report back on their condition. Thanks a million for going the extra and demonstrating what healthy pads look like. On the board, there are some sections with pads where capacitors would be installed but are left blank. The empty pads are copper color (pictured). Hopefully this is a tiny indication that the pads where the capacitor exploded are still healthy.

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Hi @x3remes ,

I think you will be fine, once is it cleaned up. There are some copper colour showing on your first pictures so hopefully you will be able just to solder back the new caps.

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Hey @honakrisi, I'm hoping the same. Today I borrowed a microscope from the lab at work and picked up some flux and a heat gun, but I wasn't able to get wick. Electronic hobby stores are not very common here in Jamaica. I plan on doing the removal of the other 2 caps and cleanup of the pads this weekend. Do you have any suggestions as to what I can use as an alternative for the wick?

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Hi Roneil i think i have some problems same with your defective smds, have you successfully managed to replace them? What is their rating / specs? Did the console work after? Thank you

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@x3remes did you ever get through with this? I am having the same problem right now and found the same exact popped capacitor. Any guidance would be appreciated.

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@x3remes

You can use some stranded wire form an old cable and it should have the same effect. You might need to use a longer piece, as the wicking capability is not as good as the braids/wicks.

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Hi @x3remes

It is really difficult to tell from these images, because it still has some residual solder on the board, but once you cleaned it up you will be able to tell.

I had a scrap PCB lying around so I intentionally damaged some pads and cleaned up the board for your reference. The green markers show healthy pads, that will accept new solder, the red ones are damaged and you may need to use jumper wires or solder bridges to get a good connection.

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Once you removed the other two capacitors, you will be able to see the difference in the pad conditions yourself and hopefully that is just corrosion that you need to clean up. I suggest you use a fine solder wick and a light scraping action to clean up the boards. If you have flux, even better, because it removes the oxidation of the copper and helps your solder flow better.

If it was just the one failed capacitor that is damaged, you would probably be fine without it (as these are some filter capacitors) but having all 3 damaged, I would definitely replace them all.

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Hi @x3remes ,

All the capacitors next to each other should be the same value. I think it should be the same value across all 4 rows with the same setup. De-solder one from the row below and check the value of it, in case the adjacent caps are damaged too.

When it comes to replacing that capacitor, I would change all 3, as you might not see the micro fractures on the adjacent caps and your PS will die again shortly after.

These components are quite inexpensive and pretty sure you would get them cheaper buying them in bulk. After de-soldering the damaged parts, check if the explosion didn’t damage the pads underneath them.

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Hi @Sanjeev Ballyram

Yes, I did get it sorted out and my PS4 ended up working well again. What I did was get a non-working mainboard from which I lifted the capacitors. I used them to replace the ones that got damaged (all 3 in the row) and then powered on the console. It fired right up and now it's as if nothing happened. I didn't get the rating of the caps, but I can and inform you if you're still interested.

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@x3remes Hello, mate.

I want to ask you what is specifics of this capacitors?

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Hi mate, did you find out? I wanna know also, my ps4 has the same issue

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Roneil Napier will be eternally grateful.
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