2 motherboards - 2 problems....

[ikeray]

yeah, apparently my problems come in pairs - my only other post is about my 2 dead/dying tv's.

so, I have a Presario 5010us (I think), that isn't really itself anymore...

I've replaced the motherboard with a gigabyte board, the CPU to 1.4 instead of 1.2, the RAM with 2 sticks of Samsung 256mb PC133, a video card, a OCZ power supply, and 160gb HDD. I think thats everything. basically, the computer is now a throw together and was working great for being 10 years old.

one motherboard, the original intel motherboard, had an issue with restarting on me under load, if I scrolled a page too quickly in FF it resetted, or if I did certain things in games it'd reset.

I replaced it with a gigabyte because they're known for working well. less than 1 year later, the gigabyte board is refusing to boot, it was being sporadic at first booting sometimes, sometimes not, but now its decided not to boot at all anymore.

I'd rather replace the caps and see if that fixes the problems (does this sound like a cap problem or something else?) instead of buying yet another board and having it fail on me with in a year.

so I guess my question is, does anyone know where to start? does anyone know which is the better board to repair? can anyone verify these are bad capacitor issues or another problem? yes I've looked for physical damage to the caps but I was mainly looking for bulging tops and didn't see any, didn't think about looking for exploded bottoms...

[c_hegge]

Re: 2 motherboards - 2 problems....

What brands are the caps, and what models are the motherboards?

[gdement]

Re: 2 motherboards - 2 problems....

The Intel sounds like a power supply issue. Maybe also the Gigabyte. When it was still able to boot (but failing), did you check the voltage readings?

When you replaced the Intel board with the Gigabyte, is that also when you started using the OCZ power supply?
If so, have you tried using that power supply on the Intel board? Or the old PSU on the Gigabyte?


Gigabyte motherboards from the P3/P4/Socket-A age did have bad capacitors, so that's certainly a possibility. Intel boards normally don't have that problem but some were hit by defective Nichicon HM/HN caps (2004 and earlier).

[c_hegge]

Re: 2 motherboards - 2 problems....

I've known 2005 dated HMs to fail. I wouldn't trust nichicon HM or HN any older than 2006

[ikeray]

Re: 2 motherboards - 2 problems....

The Intel sounds like a power supply issue. Maybe also the Gigabyte. When it was still able to boot (but failing), did you check the voltage readings?

When you replaced the Intel board with the Gigabyte, is that also when you started using the OCZ power supply?
If so, have you tried using that power supply on the Intel board? Or the old PSU on the Gigabyte?


Gigabyte motherboards from the P3/P4/Socket-A age did have bad capacitors, so that's certainly a possibility. Intel boards normally don't have that problem but some were hit by defective Nichicon HM/HN caps (2004 and earlier).

I tried the Intel with the OCZ, the problem didn't arise until about 3-4 months ago, it would start more often than not, then about a week ago it was starting less often than not, then one day it didn't boot at all until like 3-4 hours later I tried it and it booted. I didn't mean to shut it down that night, I accidentally (by force of habit) put it into standby, thus it wouldn't wake up/boot the next morning.

the old power supply "works" but it smelled bad when running, hence it got replaced. I haven't tried the gigabyte board with the old PSU but the intel posted fine with the OCZ PSU. the intel booted up and then crashed as soon as I clicked a file....drove me up the wall. it was the reason I replaced it in the first place.

as for the brand of the caps. the gigabyte board the only caps I could read were the tall caps and they said, I believe, nichicon. the intel caps were rubycon (K type shape on top - none blown that I saw) and 2 blown caps that were G-luxon (if thats a brand of caps).

I've included some pics of the blown caps as best I can. the one on the intel board is oozing orange and the ones on the gigabyte board are just bulging badly (can't believe I didn't see that before).

here are the gigabyte caps:
the 3 bulging caps

I tried to show an angle so you can see the bulging

and here is the tall cap

note the nichicon just above the numbers also no bulge on top

intel board:
major bulging - some orange ooze

another bulging cap, located closer to the CPU

[Pyr0Beast]

Re: 2 motherboards - 2 problems....

Might be good to check the PSU for badcaps as well.

EC33(near the AGP slot) is probably for AGP 3.3/1.5V. I have seen mainboards failing to detect the graphic card due to such bad capacitor.

[c_hegge]

Re: 2 motherboards - 2 problems....

Replace the G-luxon on the gigabyte, even if they aren't yet bulged. They are one of the most failure prone brands out there (prabably second to GSC/Evercon/Sacon). The nichicons will have to go too if they are dated 2005 or earlier. The date codes look something like Hxxxx. the first two digits indicate the year, and the second two indicate the week. Eg. H0425 means that they were made in week 25 of 2004, and are defective.

[c_hegge]

Re: 2 motherboards - 2 problems....

Oh, I forgot to add that the rubycon can stay. They are regarded as the most reliable brand available.

[370forlife]

Re: 2 motherboards - 2 problems....

What model is the OCZ? If it's a newer one, you may be damaging it by running it on, what sounds like, a p3 or athlon xp system, as these are heavy 3.3v and 5v boards/cpu's, and almost all new psu's are concentrated at the 12v now, so you may be running it dangerously close to the trip point which will wear it out quicker (which also might explain the shutdowns when under higher load, though that is also a symptom of bad caps on mobo which you obviously have,) and with OCZ's track record (unless it's a 3Y one,) most of them are topower or Sirtec. Might want to pop it open and check the caps unless it's under warranty still.