PCB Capacitor Question

[KCW]

I have a Double Dragon I PCB. It works great and I just installed it in a 6-in-1 switcher with 5 other boards. Everything is working well.

The Double Dragon I and II boards have two layers, that is, there are two board mounted on top of one another. I noticed when examining both that there were small cylindrical capacitors in the four corners on the top of the upper boards and the bottom of the bottom board. I once mishandled the Double Dragon II board and one of these capacitors broke off. The board didn't work, but when I replaced the capacitor it worked fine.

I've never mishandled my Double Dragon I board but I recently noticed that one of the capacitors has a broken connection. One of the capacitor pins is stilled soddered in and one of them has broken loose and is not connected to anything. The funny thing is, the board is working fine.

Can anyone explain this? What specific function do these capacitors serve (the ones on the corners of Double Dragon I and II boards). Should I be concerned that one of the capacitor pins is no longer connected on my Double Dragon I board? I don't want to mess with it because the board is working fine. Any information on this would be greatly appreciated.

THANKS!

[boardjunkie]

Its either a local filter cap or a bypass cap. Maybe not totally essential, but I'd replace it just for reliability. Game boards can do strange things when they have some noise (created by the state change of a logic gate) there that shouldn't be.