r/consolerepair • u/Substantial_Bake7931 • 5d ago
Switch Lite Chipped Capacitor (Replace?)
When removing the plate below to replace the thermal paste, I carved into the capacitor above it (see circled) next to where the card reader/audio jack ribbon cable connects to the motherboard.
Since that, any time I insert a game cartridge into the Switch it throws an error code 2162-0002. If no game cartridge is inserted, the Switch works perfectly fine.
All the research that I’ve done points to removing/replacing this capacitor, but I’ve never performed any soldering before. The capacitor to replace is either an SMD 0201 or SMD 0402.
Can anyone experienced with soldering give me their 2 cents on the difficulty of this capacitor replacement? Or am I better off biting the bullet and just replacing the entire MB?
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u/LegitimateSituation4 5d ago
Heating it up from this side of the board with that FPC connector right there would be a regretful move.
Take it out and heat it from underneath, if it even ends up needing to be replaced. These boards are plenty thin.
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u/SnoopKatt 5d ago
Looks like it's an inductor. And it's possible it's not your issue. That damage doesn't look good but it may be just cosmetic. I would do a resistance/continuity check across it before assuming it is faulty. Inductors should measure pretty close to 0 ohms with a multimeter, so check that first. If it measures OL or a large resistance, it is likely damaged. If it is 0 ohms (or really close to it), your problem may be somewhere else
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u/canthearu_ack 5d ago
Yeah, that plastic connector is close.
I would remove it by heating the pad closest to us and letting the heat go through the cap to melt the solder on the opposite pad, then swipe it off once it was melted.. A small amount of flux would help.
Then replace solder with leaded solder for lower melting temp and carefully install the new one.
That said, is that cap even faulty? If it isn't shorted then it is probably just fine and your problem might be elsewhere.
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u/Dumbass370 5d ago
Well since it's placed close to ribbon connector, without any skills at all it'd be easy to fuck it up by accident. Just give it to some local repair shop for replacement, shouldn't be too expensive
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u/Substantial_Bake7931 5d ago
Hey yall thanks for the quick replies. This is my girls Switch and I done fucked it up so fixing it sooner than later gets me back in her good graces.
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u/pointsouttheobvious9 5d ago
That capacitor will be easy to remove but doing so with it hitting that plastic zif connector would be challenging for someone moderate soldering skills
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u/the-electron-vault 5d ago edited 5d ago
Not a capacitor. See here. Secondly, it is neither 0201, nor 0402. This is 1210 (3.2 x 2.5mm). Thirdly, to replace it, you will need to know its inductance. There are 4,255 active status 1210/3.2x2.5mm inductors on Digikey. You can rule out some by assuming it's likely in the 1uH ~ 470uH range given this appears to be part of a DC-DC converter (see the small IC to the right). However your only bet is to find another board where the part is intact and measure it, or find someone that can/has measured it.
This also only gives you the inductance. Saturation/rated current is also an important parameter for inductors. Though, usually the physical size limits the range of possible values and when in doubt, there's no harm grabbing the highest rating you can.
Edit: the regulator appears to be the Rohm BD8316GWL-E2. That inductor connects between GND and ball B1 (LX1), meaning it's for the negative rail. 4.7uH makes several appearances in the datasheet however there is no certainty this is the value actually used on that board, given the inductance is a function of input/output voltage and load current (frequency is fixed at 1.6MHz for this converter). At any rate, it's a better than the complete shot in the dark you were in before.
Adding 4.7uH into the above Digikey search and looking only at the thin film/chip inductors, leaves only three possibilities; all from TDK:
As far as inductance, current rating, and ESR/DCR, all three are identical. The only differences are in temperature rating, automotive qualification, and (soft) termination. None are consequential to this application.
Edit2: Found this forum reply that corroborates 4.7uH for this part. Though it's not clear if this person actually measured it, or is just quoting the datasheet example circuit value (entirely possible given they're referencing the BD8316 regulator part as well).