are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

[paganic12]

recently , my friend gave me a mobo ...i believe it's from emachine..w/e
so ...the problem is it can't boot into OS or install OS...
it keeps rebooting and never gets to the OS...even if I try to reinstall it, it reboots and never shows the installing screen...
then I guess there should be some badcaps...
unfortunately , of what i see, there' s no bad cap on the mobo...i mean i don't see one ... can anyone tell me if I should replace all the caps ( which is not a good idea. there are more than 50 caps on board)

here are the pics:










well, some of them might look like bad caps , but i;m just not sure which ones ... are there any suggestions guys ?
thank you

[paganic12]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

oh btw, ignore the black marks on some caps :P

[linuxguru]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

All the caps look OK, but if you're paranoid, you can replace everything except the Rubycons in the VRM.

[lucky13]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

As linuxguru said, all caps look OK.

What CPU you were using to test this? Check if CPU is supported.

Also, check you P/S has enough juice to run this board.

Stick a PCI video card to see if it behaves differently.

Also, hook up a speaker to the board to hear if any beep codes.

Ask your friend what happened before he yank out the board.

[Leopard]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

All capacitors rated for 85c are general purpose and not suited for motherboard use. The board looks like someone attempted a recap on it, since some caps are quite high above the board with long legs.

The Rubycons in the VRM area are ok, but all 85C caps should be replaced. I don't think the board was originally fitted with them.

[Krankshaft]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

Geez 85C GP caps a little knowledge is dangerous.

Hopefully the through holes weren't botched when those caps were replaced.

I mirror that replace all of the 85C caps.

[jedwar10]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

I have the exact same model board sitting in my shop. It has all the same caps including being raised up off the board like that. I just ordered a Blue ESR Tester from anatek today, as soon as it arrives I will test it out and see if I can give you any suggestions.

[willawake]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

85c caps are often used by intel on their boards in some areas. but for replacement are not appropriate unless you know what you are doing with regard to the cap specs so its best to stick to low esr caps which are anyway vital in vcore vdimm circuits

raised caps do not necessarily indicate a recapping but rather a manufacturing error. recapping could be confirmed by looking at the rear of the board and seeing hand soldering. anyway if they are soldered to the thru holes then will still work although lead length should be minimised for best performance

this board is a trigem imperial gv. trigem is an off-brand korean manufacturer

your basically looking at either
- other problem as indicated earlier in the thread
or
- the unknown brand caps are bad but without visual bulging and should be replaced (the over 330uf ones)

but cos its not working much now, the chance of success after recapping remains unknown

[paganic12]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

As linuxguru said, all caps look OK.

What CPU you were using to test this? Check if CPU is supported.

Also, check you P/S has enough juice to run this board.

Stick a PCI video card to see if it behaves differently.

Also, hook up a speaker to the board to hear if any beep codes.

Ask your friend what happened before he yank out the board.

sry i didn't mention tat :
It is Intel celeron 2.5ghz which my friend said it came with the mobo

oh yeah ! I was using a 150wattpsu to test it ...not sure if the system requires more than that ...I will try to hook it to my other 300watts psu

yes, it has a speaker which only beeps once when the system starts
i dun hv a PCI video card ...can't try it

my friend just told me he got it from somewhere .,,i hv no clue
thanks!

[paganic12]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

All capacitors rated for 85c are general purpose and not suited for motherboard use. The board looks like someone attempted a recap on it, since some caps are quite high above the board with long legs.

The Rubycons in the VRM area are ok, but all 85C caps should be replaced. I don't think the board was originally fitted with them.

i agreed ! some of them are tall and their tops look kinda diff...some of them is like a K shape on top, some are X shape....

[paganic12]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

I have the exact same model board sitting in my shop. It has all the same caps including being raised up off the board like that. I just ordered a Blue ESR Tester from anatek today, as soon as it arrives I will test it out and see if I can give you any suggestions.

Really ? is it from emachine ? my told me it was from emach ...meh XD
yeah, I really want to know how's ur test been :P
thank you !

[paganic12]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

85c caps are often used by intel on their boards in some areas. but for replacement are not appropriate unless you know what you are doing with regard to the cap specs so its best to stick to low esr caps which are anyway vital in vcore vdimm circuits

raised caps do not necessarily indicate a recapping but rather a manufacturing error. recapping could be confirmed by looking at the rear of the board and seeing hand soldering. anyway if they are soldered to the thru holes then will still work although lead length should be minimised for best performance

this board is a trigem imperial gv. trigem is an off-brand korean manufacturer

your basically looking at either
- other problem as indicated earlier in the thread
or
- the unknown brand caps are bad but without visual bulging and should be replaced (the over 330uf ones)

but cos its not working much now, the chance of success after recapping remains unknown

thank you, yeah, I heard the small ones are rare to be defective...
I heard ppl had that problem and simply just changed some caps near the cmos chipset...then it worked.. iono if I should try that

[golemmaster]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

Hmmm. Is that northbridge heatsink making full surface contact with the chip? I see a screw was substituted for the spring-loaded pin. Over heat?

Have you used memory tester software to give the board+chip+ram some exercise and check for errors? See if the BIOS will allow you to turn off the L2 cache and try the install again. It will run very slow. I have run into a cpu with bad L2 before even though memtest passed.

[paganic12]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

Hmmm. Is that northbridge heatsink making full surface contact with the chip? I see a screw was substituted for the spring-loaded pin. Over heat?

Have you used memory tester software to give the board+chip+ram some exercise and check for errors? See if the BIOS will allow you to turn off the L2 cache and try the install again. It will run very slow. I have run into a cpu with bad L2 before even though memtest passed.

oh..!! U did remind me something ! when the mobo came , I noticed the heatsink on N.B was missing one chip, so then I used the scew instead... How to know if it's overheated ? If it's the N.B , then i think my problem is solved T.T

and how to install L2 cache ? sry, I never try b4

[paganic12]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

Hmmm. Is that northbridge heatsink making full surface contact with the chip? I see a screw was substituted for the spring-loaded pin. Over heat?

Have you used memory tester software to give the board+chip+ram some exercise and check for errors? See if the BIOS will allow you to turn off the L2 cache and try the install again. It will run very slow. I have run into a cpu with bad L2 before even though memtest passed.

from what i see, the northbridge looks fine ...it does not have any burnt phenomena...
and yes , I do make sure the Heatsink is making full contact with the N.B

[golemmaster]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

oh..!! U did remind me something ! when the mobo came , I noticed the heatsink on N.B was missing one chip, so then I used the scew instead... How to know if it's overheated ? If it's the N.B , then i think my problem is solved T.T

and how to install L2 cache ? sry, I never try b4

The heatsink doesn't look straight and level to the board. How is that screw holding the heatsink on? I hope it's not digging into the PCB. Take that screw out and remove the other pin and heatsink. Examine the chip for damage. The surfaces of the chip and heatsink should make full and flat contact. Clean and add a little heatsink compound to each surface before reassembling. Find a spring-pin or another way to hold that heatsink corner down.
L2 is built into the CPU. The BIOS may or may not let you adjust or disable the L2. I was suggesting disabling the L2 for additional diags only. Not for a permanent setting.

[paganic12]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

The heatsink doesn't look straight and level to the board. How is that screw holding the heatsink on? I hope it's not digging into the PCB. Take that screw out and remove the other pin and heatsink. Examine the chip for damage. The surfaces of the chip and heatsink should make full and flat contact. Clean and add a little heatsink compound to each surface before reassembling. Find a spring-pin or another way to hold that heatsink corner down.
L2 is built into the CPU. The BIOS may or may not let you adjust or disable the L2. I was suggesting disabling the L2 for additional diags only. Not for a permanent setting.

I see...thank you

yeah, what i did is try to push a lil bit down to make sure the HS makes a full contact to the board...I tried to take out the hs ...the northbridge looks fine and still has some thermal compound on it...
and what would happen if the northbridge dies ?

[etnietering]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

if the northbridge is fried, the board is a goner. The northbridge controls pretty much everything, the connections between CPU, memory, PCIe/AGP and the southbridge, which controls everything else. Here's a simple diagram: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Schema_chipsatz.png

[paganic12]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

if the northbridge is fried, the board is a goner. The northbridge controls pretty much everything, the connections between CPU, memory, PCIe/AGP and the southbridge, which controls everything else. Here's a simple diagram: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Schema_chipsatz.png

isee ..i can post to Bios...but tat's southbridge ...
wat else can I check if it fries ? except observing it
I can check the information like CPU type and ram ... does it mean the northbridge is fine ?

[gdement]

Re: are there any bad caps on this mobo ?

I have 2 or 3 of those boards, not working. The caps are all similar to yours, I think yours are original.
I remember reading about all the problems people have with these boards, it's a pretty troublesome board apparently.

I was using a 150wattpsu to test it ...not sure if the system requires more than that ...I will try to hook it to my other 300watts psu

It's probably a power problem.
Since it basically runs, I doubt there's anything wrong with the chipset.