Unusual damage

[tuttopommy]

Hi all,

 

I bought an used Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 Gaming 8G; it was overall good condition, but unfortunately I didn't notice that there was a crack on the female 8 pins pci express connector. The crack is only on the plastic cage of the connector, but it seems that prevents the connector to stand firmly and sometimes, on boot, the PC claims that the connector is not connected.

 

You can see, from the attached photo, that it is clearly replaceable (the two small plastic plugs circled in red make me think it) but I cannot find any spare part on the internet, I am probably using the wrong keywords. Could someone point me in the right direction?

 

Thank you

[BrinkGG]

4 minutes ago, tuttopommy said:

Hi all,

 

I bought an used Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 Gaming 8G; it was overall good condition, but unfortunately I didn't notice that there was a crack on the female 8 pins pci express connector. The crack is only on the plastic cage of the connector, but it seems that prevents the connector to stand firmly and sometimes, on boot, the PC claims that the connector is not connected.

 

You can see, from the attached photo, that it is clearly replaceable (the two small plastic plugs circled in red make me think it) but I cannot find any spare part on the internet, I am probably using the wrong keywords. Could someone point me in the right direction?

 

Thank you

Those are split push pins. Like the ones on the bottom of old intel box coolers.

Totally normal. Nothing to worry about. 

[tuttopommy]

2 minutes ago, BrinkGG said:

Those are split push pins. Like the ones on the bottom of old intel box coolers.

Totally normal. Nothing to worry about. 

Hi, thank you for the reply. The crack is not visible on the photo, is on the other side of the connector. Probably it isn't clear from my first message, but the fact that there are these split push pins make the replacement very easy, the problem is that I can't find this part.

[Doramius]

What would the issue be if you just bought the EPS extension cable on Amazon, and cut off the male head and soldered the wires in place, instead?

Edit:  Here's an amazon link to the extension: https://www.amazon.com/8-pin-Power-Extension-Cable-Female/dp/B00H607PE6

[BrinkGG]

29 minutes ago, tuttopommy said:

Hi, thank you for the reply. The crack is not visible on the photo, is on the other side of the connector. Probably it isn't clear from my first message, but the fact that there are these split push pins make the replacement very easy, the problem is that I can't find this part.

My bad I misread your post!

To be honest, I really don't know where you can buy just that connector. Maybe Ali-Express might have something for you? personally I would go at it with a hot glue gun and see if you can seal the crack. 

[mariushm]

The plastic bits are just for stress relief, so that when you push a connector inside the socket or pull it out, you don't pull on the actual metal bits soldered onto the motherboard.

The statement you made " but the fact that there are these split push pins make the replacement very easy, the problem is that I can't find this part "  is wrong, because you can't replace the housing without desoldering all the pins and you need a good soldering iron for that, as you're dealing with loads of copper in several layers of circuit board there, those pins are meant to carry a lot of power so they'll well soldered there.

 

It's not a problem if that plastic is cracked. Simply insert or remove the cable from the power supply with more care and that's all.

 

The original series of connectors is called Molex Mini Fit Jr. : https://www.molex.com/molex/products/family?key=minifit_power_connector_solutions&channel=products&chanName=family&pageTitle=Introduction

You want the one with 4.20mm spacing between pins.

Note that the series is also sold by a a few companies (at least 3) using other names (see companies like FCI, AMphenol, Tyco, TE Connectivity etc) I don't have access to my regular computer right now to give you the part numbers.

However, that particular connector may be something custom made for Sapphire or whoever made that video card so you may not be able to get exactly that connector. If that's the case, one option would be to buy a damaged / dead video card from eBay and desolder the connector.

 

 

[tuttopommy]

13 minutes ago, mariushm said:

The plastic bits are just for stress relief, so that when you push a connector inside the socket or pull it out, you don't pull on the actual metal bits soldered onto the motherboard.

The statement you made " but the fact that there are these split push pins make the replacement very easy, the problem is that I can't find this part "  is wrong, because you can't replace the housing without desoldering all the pins and you need a good soldering iron for that, as you're dealing with loads of copper in several layers of circuit board there, those pins are meant to carry a lot of power so they'll well soldered there.

 

It's not a problem if that plastic is cracked. Simply insert or remove the cable from the power supply with more care and that's all.

 

The original series of connectors is called Molex Mini Fit Jr. : https://www.molex.com/molex/products/family?key=minifit_power_connector_solutions&channel=products&chanName=family&pageTitle=Introduction

You want the one with 4.20mm spacing between pins.

Note that the series is also sold by a a few companies (at least 3) using other names (see companies like FCI, AMphenol, Tyco, TE Connectivity etc) I don't have access to my regular computer right now to give you the part numbers.

However, that particular connector may be something custom made for Sapphire or whoever made that video card so you may not be able to get exactly that connector. If that's the case, one option would be to buy a damaged / dead video card from eBay and desolder the connector.

 

 

Thank you for the answer. Are you sure about the need of desolder all the pins? Because it seems to me that the plastic cover could be taken out without touching the pins, just slipping it out (see the photo from underneath), like two totally separated parts.

[Doramius]

It's not the plastic part that is giving you the issue.  If you're getting an issue where you get a message that the connector is not connected, it is because a connection is not being made.  My guess, is that by desoldering the connector you'll find a cracked cold solder connection, a severed pad/trace, or pin not making contact properly.  You can try removing an re-applying solder to see if a cracked or cold soldered connection repairs, but I'm betting you'll find the issue is not specifically that the plastic housing is cracked.