SMD Capacitor missing from motherboard. Will it run?

[jwisdom403]

Hey guys, I recently had a gpu fry on me and it produced a lot of heat. As I was inspecting damage from the incident I saw one of those SMDs missing from the motherboard. This is a MSI z390 tomahawk and it is 3 years old, so it is out of warranty. What should I do? Run it as is or buy a new motherboard?

[RONOTHAN##]

I assume you're talking about this?

Spoiler

 

That looks like a blown mlcc, which when those blow they can short to ground and you have a very bad time. I would take a multi meter and check the resistance between it and ground, and if it's really low (low single digit ohm readings or lower, ~10 or so ohms that will trigger continuity beeps on multimeters is actually relatively common in PCs) I would have a shop solder on a new one, it should be a pretty cheap repair since you know what the exact part is (there's a second one directly above it) and it's a 10 minute job to remove, clean, and put on a new one. 

[mariushm]

Yeah, if you mean the highlighted component, that looks like it's blown out 

It also looks to me like it's in parallel with the one above it, so it provides a "bulk reservoir" of energy for the chip near it, which looks like it's a voltage regulator, a dc-dc converter, basically taking a higher voltage and producing a lower voltage. 

 

Depending on what's powered by the output of that circuit, it's possible the remaining capacitor still provides enough of a "buffer" to keep the circuit working properly, but the circuit could also be unstable, depending on various factors (if what's powered by that circuit consumes much more power, or if the temperature changes significantly - the specifications of these ceramic capacitors varies with temperature and energy going through them)

 

You should go with the motherboard to a place that repairs computers or even a place that fixes phones .. basically some place that has a good soldering iron which would be capable of desoldering the remains of the original part and installing another ceramic capacitor.  The part should be something in the range of 4.7-10uF 25v (or higher) rated, but one could desolder the capacitor above it, or one of those under the inductor (big square gray with R82 on it). Phone repair places may not have such big ceramic capacitors as phones have much smaller components, but it doesn't hurt to ask... and you would probably be fine taking one of the 5 ceramic capacitors on the output of the dc-dc converter (below that inductor with R82 on it) and transplant it on the input, where the capacitor is blown.  There's a small chance those ceramic capacitors are rated for lower voltage, but usually motherboard makers won't bother keeping stock of two different components like these, so you should be fine.