Something Broke...

[Bryanosaurus]

Today I noticed something rattling around inside my GP2X and being curious i opened it up, and held it at different angles shaking it slightly. Lo and behold something fell out that I don't think should have. It's a small black thing with two contacts on it which apparently were once soldered to the board. I see plenty of these things on the back of the board (the side with batteries and SD card, I haven't looked at the front side, and would rather not, but that seems to be where this thing came from. It says C106 on the top of it. Unit still works fine, mind you it freezes maybe 1 in 20 times at boot, but I was under the impression that was a regular problem. Anyways, feedback on what I should do, or how imperative/expendable this piece is would be helpful. Thanks.

Btw, mine is a first edition, if that has any bearing on the situation.

 

[iignotus]

Is it the headphone jack?

There are a good number of people that have had this problem, even if it's not the headphone jack, and yes it does have to do with the fact that your unit is a 1st edition.

 

[Bryanosaurus]

Is it the headphone jack?

There are a good number of people that have had this problem, even if it's not the headphone jack, and yes it does have to do with the fact that your unit is a 1st edition.

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The headphone jack is rather large, this is a tiny little thing, perhaps a capacitor? I don't know, I'm not very experienced in such things.

 

[Han]

C usually stands for capacitor, so that’s probably what it is. And although the unit may still work without it, I think it would be a good idea to have it fixed

 

[TelcoLou]

Just return it ... a headphone jack is (somewhat) easy to re-solder back on the board, a tiny capacitor is not.

 

[iignotus]

And although the unit may still work without it, I think it would be a good idea to have it fixed

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Well gee I don't know, if you end up knocking off the right capacitor, you could overclock you 2x INTO TEH NEWS MILENIUMS!!!1WARPSEPEED2

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

shit a capacitor broke off of mine too....so far no probs yet, but im kinda worried.

 

[Bryanosaurus]

As interesting as 'overclocking my 2x INTO TEH NEWS MILENIUMS!!!1WARPSEPEED2' sounds, I think I'll take Telcolou's suggestion. Much thanks for the replies.

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

As interesting as 'overclocking my 2x INTO TEH NEWS MILENIUMS!!!1WARPSEPEED2' sounds, I think I'll take Telcolou's suggestion. Much thanks for the replies.

​

that would be insane. I might downgrade my FW just to try that

 

[Han]

Well gee I don't know, if you end up knocking off the right capacitor, you could overclock you 2x INTO TEH NEWS MILENIUMS!!!1WARPSEPEED2

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random OC hacking... interesting, just drop your GP2X from a random height and hope for a high OC value hehe ... Well its certainly easier than trying to solder on those #"¤€$@£! surface mounted components..

 

[Mr.Jabberwocky]

If a capacitor had fallen off the board, surely there would be an open circuit and it would not work at all ? It is more likely, in my opinion, to be an extra component that was stuck to the top of another and has eventually dropped off. If everything works I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[rokdcasbah]

If a capacitor had fallen off the board, surely there would be an open circuit and it would not work at all ? It is more likely, in my opinion, to be an extra component that was stuck to the top of another and has eventually dropped off. If everything works I wouldn't worry about it.

​

it's really more complicated than that. things that are connected serially to the capacitor might fail to work, yes. but anything connected parallel will still have power going to it. so depending on the component you might have a working unit, but with a lower life span or something like that.

 

[Fishbong]

If a capacitor had fallen off the board, surely there would be an open circuit.

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Um, do you know what a capacitor actually is? Its not supposed to "close a circuit", not even to let any current through...

 

[Mr.Jabberwocky]

it's really more complicated than that. things that are connected serially to the capacitor might fail to work, yes. but anything connected parallel will still have power going to it. so depending on the component you might have a working unit, but with a lower life span or something like that.

​

Thanks for the explanation. Perhaps we need an electronics forum where we can seek advice about re-attaching the various bits that drop off our GP2X's. It seems to affect quite a few of us.

Um at do you know what a capacitor actually is? Its not supposed to "close a circuit", not even to let any current through....

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Not really, that is why I presented it as a question. Thank you for the information about what it does not do - very helpful.

 

[Han]

Quite true rokdcasbah, just because a capacitor falls off doesn't mean that the circuit is broken and that the unit will stop working. A capacitor acts kind of like a battery, it can be charged up. And when you reverse it’s polarity it will discharge. Can be used to even out voltage and numerous other things which I have forgotten about since I studied electronics... I wasn't much good at it anyway

 

[EvilDragon]

And don't forget: We don't know in what part of circuit the capacitor is.
You often use a capacitor to smoothen the voltage, so it's often used where you need a good constant stable voltage.

This could be part of the serial output of the EXT port, for example.
You won't find out if it works or not until you try - the rest of the unit might work fine.

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

er, so what should I do? As I said, everything is working perfect, im just worried a bit. I saved the capacitor that broke off though...

 

[Han]

As I said earlier, you should definitely have it fixed, especially if you still have warranty.

 

[Fishbong]

Take out your gp2x´s PCB, search for a highres picture of an intact one (google) and compare your PCB witht that on the picture to find out where the cap fell off and solder it back. If you´re not good at soldering, you should RMA your gp2x though.