No Timer Tick Intterupt

[4tified]

So....I've been recapping boards for a while now, most of them have been Dell Optiplex SX270's. (97% success rate). However, just recently, I've had two computers in a row display a "Timer Tick Interrupt" after a recap. I know what timer tick interrupt means, but I'm not sure what I did to cause this. When the first board went bad, I was a little irritated (after all that hard work), but I shrugged it off. Well, I just got finished with another board...low and behold, THE SAME THING! Now I'm pissed.

Has anyone else experienced this after a repair? Am I doing something wrong? I re-checked my work twice and couldn't find any cut traces or cracked solder joints, and all my tracks were clean before I resoldered the new caps on. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Per Hansson]

Re: No Timer Tick Intterupt

Possibly ESD damage to the southbridge
Or damaged crystal

I take it both these boards did POST before cap and did NOT show this message?
So is your iron grounded properly? (and you?)

Oh, I could just be way off too :P

[4tified]

Re: No Timer Tick Intterupt

Possibly ESD damage to the southbridge
Or damaged crystal

I take it both these boards did POST before cap and did NOT show this message?
So is your iron grounded properly? (and you?)

Oh, I could just be way off too :P

I had no way of telling, the computer would not power on at all. I'm guessing these computers did POST prior to the power problem, so I may have screwed it up. The soldering iron is grounded properly, and I try to discharge and electro-static prior to working on any board, but my mind was somewhere else yesterday, so I may have forgotten to do so.

I had no idea the southbridge chipset had anything to do with the timer crystal.

[hardwareguy]

Re: No Timer Tick Intterupt

The usual troubleshooting steps apply...check for burned traces, solder bridges and bent pins, especially near the crystal.

Beware of tiny solder balls that can sometimes drop off your iron.