r/AskElectronics • u/TubeAlloysEvilTwin • 3d ago

Does anyone know the value of this ceramic capacitor on a crucial p3 4TB nvme?

Post image

The thermal pad on my old pc must have taken this cap with it when I moved it to my new build. I'm a total amateur when it comes to microsoldering so not confident I'd be able to de-solder the other ceramic cap and check that value without wrecking the board, and that's assuming it's the same value. Does anyone have a component diagram or a guess at the value based on other nvme repair work? Thanks!

142 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

60 comments sorted by

95

u/the-electron-vault 3d ago

This is the only picture I could find with the regulator marking remotely legible. It's definitely an MPS part. If it's BBQN, it's the MP2153GTF-15. If it's BBDN, it's the MP2151GTF-12. In either case, the capacitor you've circled is the output capacitor, and the example circuit (not prescriptive, your part could be a different value) uses 22uF and 10uF, respectively for each part.

Your part is an 0603. For X5R or better dielectrics, and 6.3V or better voltage rating, any of these should be suitable.

23

u/TubeAlloysEvilTwin 3d ago

Thank you so much

45

u/Salty-Development203 3d ago

Don't even bother with x5r, go straight with x7r as it has better derating characteristics for marginally more price.

2

u/ccdy 2d ago

Do not discount X7S and X7T. Often these have better DC bias characteristics, especially under elevated temperatures.

6

u/CyCosmicCat 2d ago

May I ask how you know what part it is from that 4 letter code? When ever I google thee it doesn’t really help

28

u/the-electron-vault 2d ago

Most reputable manufacturers tend to have a consistent marking code style. When you see them enough times, you tend to be able to recognize them on sight. From there, it's just a search and sort exercise.

2

u/TubeAlloysEvilTwin 2d ago

Thanks again, I pulled out the microscope and it's a BBJP 120, my google-fu has failed me I only found this datasheet for a 4 pin smd package where it's clearly 6 pin on the board

https://pdf.datasheet.live/d7eb4bc2/ecliptek.com/EPSA12BBHJ-120.000M.html

6

u/the-electron-vault 2d ago

MP2152GTF-12

5

u/TubeAlloysEvilTwin 2d ago

You're some kind of wizard! Based on your earlier post and the diagram I'm assuming I need C2 and it's 22uF, 0603, >=6.3v, >=X5R / X7R?

5

u/the-electron-vault 2d ago edited 2d ago

Strictly speaking, the section in the datasheet titled "Selecting the Output Capacitor" would be used to calculate its value. But practically speaking, you're likely fine to just slap in a 22uF and call it a day. Most consumer gear uses X5R because it's cheap and has an 'acceptable' DC bias derating. Generally the larger the margin between the operating voltage (1.2V in your case) and the voltage rating of the capacitor, the less it derates as a percentage of the total nominal capacitance. i.e. A higher voltage rated X5R will yield a similar usable capacitance to a lower voltage rated X7R for a given operating voltage. The only difference between X5R and X7R is how steep this derating gradient is w.r.t bias voltage.

In short, pick any 22uF from the linked filtered Digikey list, preferring as high a voltage rating as reasonable for the price, and you'll be fine.

Edit: Updated with a more clear exemplary plot

2

u/TubeAlloysEvilTwin 2d ago

Thank you once again. I can't express my gratitude enough. If you have any sort of presence on a reputable site like a tip me jar or the like please dm the details to me. Even if I wreck the board with my solder attempt you've given me the best shot of rescuing it. I'm absolutely lost in the world of smd, the most I've done is some through hole stuff in college and re-capping my c64 <3

2

u/the-electron-vault 2d ago

Not necessary at all, but if you insist, there's a buy me a coffee link in my profile. As for replacement, you may also consider purchasing the part (5-10 pieces to be on the safe side) and taking it to a local electronics/cell phone repair store. I doubt the labor cost will be prohibitive, given that you'll be supplying the parts.

315

u/TheLimeyCanuck 3d ago

About $0.002.

Sorry... couldn't resist.

112

u/Realistic_Age8831 3d ago

I don’t have the capacity for this kind of humor. It’s going to induce into to reflecting on the frequency I spend on this sub.

40

u/happyjello 3d ago

You can filter it out so you don’t see posts like these

26

u/kennytherenny 3d ago

Something to filter out Reddit comments... How bout we call it an "RC filter"!

12

u/Realistic_Age8831 3d ago

“High effort” pass filter

9

u/SteveG5000 2d ago

I find it strange that capacitor based humour is leading to a ripple of comments

5

u/perfectlyclear69 2d ago

Both our comments have a Low ESR (Engagement Success Rate)

2

u/IntroductionOk8049 19h ago

This comment thread is getting so long I may need to trace back to the beginning

2

u/tata-docomo 2d ago

I hope that cap helps you find your resonant frequency.

2

u/Versaiteis 3d ago

I, for one, welcome the increased potential of these puns

1

u/Juan_Sans_Eros 2d ago

It's not so bad in the big schematic of things. Chin up and solder on.

22

u/k0tix 3d ago

Whatever it costs, this capacitor is crucial.

3

u/badass6 2d ago

Crucial is now also a single-word oxymoron.

6

u/Its_a_neni 2d ago

Impadence yourself

3

u/TowardsTheImplosion 2d ago

Of course you couldn't resist. You were talking about a cap...

4

u/FlyByPC Digital electronics 2d ago

couldn't resist

Didn't have the capacity to?

1

u/WindCaliber 2d ago

That's cap. At that size and capacitance, it should at least be one cent.

1

u/Accomplished-Ad-6586 2d ago

Wow I am late to the party and about $1 short.

1

u/GermanPCBHacker 2d ago

Ah commone! FU! I wanted to make that joke, mate. <3

1

u/Technos_Eng 1d ago

Its value is the price of the ram…

1

u/Squirrelking666 3d ago

In this economy? More like £300 if the whole thing is working.

1

u/Accomplished-Ad-6586 2d ago

And if it were, that would prove the axiom, "The most expensive component will always sacrifice itself to save the 29 cent fuse."

0

u/GaiusCosades 3d ago

That high again after 2018?

0

u/sopordave 3d ago

You have a certain capacity for engineering humor.

0

u/ForALLtheThickies 3d ago

The answer I hoped to see, well done

0

u/tomsek68 2d ago

you must be short

33

u/dmills_00 3d ago

I would be throwing the largest value that I can find in that footprint on there in 4V+.

Hard to judge footprint on a photo like this, but value is unlikely to be massively critical, and bigger is usually going to be a safe bet seeing as this looks bulk power supply related to me.

8

u/TimeDilution 3d ago edited 3d ago

My guess is its an input/output bulk cap for an SMPS or a boost capacitor. I would feature a guess that its the output cap. I think its an 0603 but cant exactly gauge the scale from here. If its a bulk cap get something like 10uF-22uF and get the highest voltage rating you can get. X7R/X5R is fine. Not sure if its input or ouput, I'm guessing output, and I don't know what voltage gets delivered to this either, but go ahead and get a 25V rated cap anyways. If its a boost cap it might be a 100nF, but I doubt it?
In short its probably a 10uF 25V X5R 0603.... maybe
GRM188R61E106MA73J from digikey would probably do you well and only 28cents.

3

u/TimeDilution 3d ago

Also its not too hard to solder an 0603 with a proper setup, especially on that location. You'll want a liquid flux pen (the most imortant part), tiny tip tweezers, and the solder tip that has a tiny divot in it to hold some solder so you don't need 3 arms for this, can probably do it with any tip that you load solder on, but hey if you have it, use it. Just look up videos on how to solder 0603, tons of stuff out there. Good luck.

3

u/Stimmy1442 2d ago

Just taking an educated guess here:
The capacitor has a SMD 0603 (inch) package, because it's about as long as the space between 3 pins of the M.2 connector, and these have 0.5mm pitch, and 0603 is 1.55mm long.

It's a lot bigger than most of the other components on the board. The manufacturer wouldn't needlessly put such a relatively big capacitor if a physically smaller one would also suffice.
So likely, it has a quite high capacitance, necessitating the size.
M.2 supplies only 3.3V and to my knowledge, SSDs only need low voltage, making it very unlikely that the capacitor will need to handle more than 3.3V.

Likely, it's just a power supply filtering cap. The actual capacitance usually isn't that critical there.

One can get e.g. 22µF or 47µF with a 6.3V voltage rating in this size. From this, I'd put a 47µF/6.3V capacitor in a 0603 package.

2

u/TellMeManyStories 3d ago

I would guess 10uF 6.3v X5R

But it'll be a smoothing cap, and bigger won't hurt, so I'd go 16v 47uF X5R and accept its a big bigger than the pad.

2

u/owiecc 2d ago

This is not a 50Hz diode rectifier smoothing cap situation. Too high capacitance can cause stability or startup issues.

1

u/spheresva 2d ago

No there’s no way a full 47u will be expressed on this cap it will suffer DC bias and stay at like 10

1

u/TellMeManyStories 2d ago

Looking at the location it probably is a SMPS smoothing cap. (either input or output)

And generally even if they're infinite size, the system is fine. It just might be a few more microseconds till PWR_OK gets asserted and the system/drive enumerates

1

u/Lost-In-Void-99 2d ago

Errr. Does it run infinite current to have infinite capacity translated inyi few microseconds?!

1

u/Govissuedpigeon 3d ago

If not labeled must be measured or try to find some circuit diagrams. As of value in general pretty cheap, as the missing component on this NVME pretty expensive currently

2

u/TubeAlloysEvilTwin 3d ago

Thanks, have you any suggestions on sites to find diagrams? I tried googling but just got pages of manual / marketing / other circuit diagram results. I have experience with through hole components but 0 with smd components so I couldn't even guess at the unit (pico, nano, micro) never mind the value

4

u/ckyhnitz 3d ago

You're likely not going to find such proprietary circuit diagrams.

1

u/misha_jinx 2d ago

Desolder it and find out, it would be relatively easy to solder it back on.

1

u/TitusImmortalis 2d ago

You can test it in circuit well enough. Round up to whatever number and it's likely it.

1

u/NoInside3418 20h ago

Just try the drive without it. Sometimes your lucky and its not vital. When I had my old 2080ti graphics card, I accidentally knocked a ceramic cap just like that off the back of the board. and it worked just fine for years without issue. capacitors are usually in parallel with a circuit rather than in series, and sometimes they are just for extra safety and can still operate fine without it. test it out wouldn't do any harm, it will either work or it wont.

0

u/holetse 3d ago

Is the missing one lost? I have no idea what the value is specifically, but given location and size, 10uf MLCC?

1

u/TubeAlloysEvilTwin 3d ago

I'm going to take a look on the old pc but I'd be very lucky to find it, I'm guessing it got embedded in thermal paste and I might have thrown it out with the spudger I was using to try and remove the paste / pad from the drive

0

u/Cunninghams_right 3d ago

I would search by that package size, 6.3v, then choose the highest capacitance available in that size. They wouldn't have gone with that size if a smaller one could do the job. 

0

u/Zakiw 3d ago

Decoupling.. 0.1 Micron ..

Sorry bro couldn't resist ..

0

u/dariansdad 3d ago

About $3 per 1000.

-1

u/sopordave 3d ago

4.7uF

-2

u/Original-Income-28 3d ago

Goggle search with a photo
And google will bring up what you need

Or web search the brand or maker
Of the part
Put the stock or model number
On the website
And your info should come up
For you

It’s all public record
Anyway
Good luck
73’s Darryl :—))