MS-7548 Failed TK Caps

[c_hegge]

If the shorted cap was on the VRM out, then yes, it could, but it was the caps which blew in both of these cases, not the FETs.

[lti]

For some reason, Asus boards like to blow the polymer caps on the VRM input. Both of the boards pictured above are made by Asus. They have even blown Sanyo caps.

[c_hegge]

Huh? I've never seen them use Sanyo.

[xgsound]

Update: Parts received, installed, and the repair is a success. I only ordered the parts on Sunday night!
Original symptom was fans only and no post. Now it works like new. For an HP this is well equipped. It is a Phenom II X4, 650Watt PSU, 8Gb mem, and a Geforce 9800GT. The brother in law thanks you and so do I.


Jim

[Uranium-235]

Originally Posted by mockingbird

c_heggeYes, but you don't need a Sandy Bridge processor to use Windows Aero and surf the net... Like I said, the Llano is more than adequate and there's that added benefit of being able to play games in the future... The point I'm trying to make is that it's more likely that a person who is buying a budget computer will use the additional graphics acceleration features of the Llano than it is that they would use the processing power of the Sandy Bridge.

I'm talking a system for like my mom. She plays solitare. bare bottom budget you get more for a basic system with that then you would get with an FM1

in addition the lower FM1's are pretty sucky for games, the A4's suck. Get an A6 if you want to do minimum gaming, and that is a bit more. I actually built a system with an A6-3650 for someone and was impressed by the areo 5.9 gpu score. but I soon realized the $99 price of it was just too much for what he needed it for.

would I want an A4-3400 for games? sure, if I was playing UT2003, half life 2 on medium settings. But newer games are gonna be bad for such things.

don't kid yourself, if you want a gaming system, get an external video card.

you get what you pay for. and if you want to game, unless its older games, get something other then an APU

[LLLlllou]

Originally Posted by Peacemaker45

so no need to post new pics.

You do realize most of us enjoy pictures of failed caps almost as much as good porn, right?

[Uranium-235]

do you realize any of you who do have more problems then me.

[mockingbird]

I'd probably go with the MSI A55M-P35. It's out of stock there, but I can get the board here for a little under $60.

All Samxon (Manyue / X-CON) "ULR" series... I have practically no experience with them, but they're supposed to be good polymers. I like MSI boards bios/feature wise, but am a bit wary of their hardware...

Got the board today. I'm very impressed... Overall, a much better value than the Gigabyte equivalent with the Apaq caps. Has extra goodies like 8-channel audio, LPT and COM ports, even a TPM port... A75MA variant is practically the same board, uses the same BIOS, but has the A75 Southbridge so it also has USB3 support.

Board has all Samxon/Manyue/X-CON Polymer caps. "ULR" series for the VRM and "UER" series scattered throughout the rest of the board just like in the pictures (Unlike Asus which alternates capacitors for different batches).



My only small chagrin is that they used some sort of proprietary header for the LPT port (COM header is normal size). It's the same pinout as any other LPT header but it's micro sized and most likely needs a special connector (Not that I think this guy is even gonna use his LPT port).

Still haven't used the board, have to flash it with SLIC modded BIOS... Great job on this one MSI.

[Scenic]

Originally Posted by mockingbird

Still haven't used the board, have to flash it with SLIC modded BIOS... Great job on this one MSI.

You can insert SLIC tables (for NT6.x, i.e. Vista/7/2008/2008 R2) from within the installed windows.
Google keywords: "daz mydigitallife"

The first result will be a forum post that says "archived:", but it contains a link to the current release version.
I won't post direct links here. That would be something for the VIP room.. away from the eyes of googlebot :P

[mockingbird]

Yes, I am well acquainted with MDL...

What DAZ did is nothing new... They had that many years ago for Vista... It's a driver which does it so there's no need to hack the BIOS... Microsoft blacklisted it one day back then so it's not foolproof (Not to mention that if the system needs a new install, this hack has to be applied again)... The BIOS method is permanent and makes the system indistinguishable from any other legit Windows 7 install (i.e. the only way for Microsoft to know would be for them to physically see that a clone PC has an SLIC table in its BIOS... Hypothetically, if someone used mismatched keys and certificates, which is allowed - only the SLIC Table and Certificate must match, then they might be able to tell).

I had to get the BIOS from a Chinese site. The modded version from MDL was no good. I posted the working one there.

An update with the board... Just a correction, VRM in are ULR and VRM out and the rest of the board are all UER. Great board so far... A few more minor things: The LAN was glitchy like someone stated in the Newegg review, cutting in and out... All I had to do was disable "Green LAN" and "Power Saving" (Or something like that) in the adapter settings and now it's doing fine. Also, there's no chassis intrusion detection connector.

A nice surprise was that they have a PC Speaker connector as well as an onboard buzzer - a small thing but still nice. System is rock solid running rthdribl now for a while.

[Scenic]

On my boards (with an older Daz loader version, been some time since I installed it), it actually inserted the SLIC table into the BIOS.
Found that out when I tried to un-hide some options with a BIOS editor on a crappy low-end MSI board.

And MS' blacklisting obviously didn't work, at least for Daz' loader thingy. It still works just fine, no matter which updates I install on any of my PCs. I do have a few legitimate Win7 licenses, but for a test-computer, the activation crap when you fiddle around with different hardware is just annoying.. so Daz it is (or WPAKill for XP/2003)

Stuff like RemoveWAT and other crappy "loaders" instantly stopped working with a Win7 update ages (over a year?) ago..

Not criticizing or anything, but for testing purposes (playing with different hardware in a PC etc.) it's just easier to use a cr*ck. Basically the same thing as with WinXP and WPAKill. Made life much easier.

edit:

Originally Posted by mockingbird

Also, there's no chassis intrusion detection connector.

It's been ages since I last saw one of those. Some boards had an option for it in the BIOS, but no actual connector for it, which is kinda stupid..

And Gigabyte sadly seems to be on a cheapo polymer trend or something at the moment
Even on rather "high end" boards.. Like this H77-DS3H
http://www.nix.ru/autocatalog/mother...2245_draft.jpg

Pretty disappointing. MSI on the other hand seems to go for Samxon a lot recently.. seems like the "manufacturer of choice" is shifting around, with Gigabyte going the cheapo lane and MSI catching up.

[mockingbird]

On my boards (with an older Daz loader version, been some time since I installed it), it actually inserted the SLIC table into the BIOS.
Found that out when I tried to un-hide some options with a BIOS editor on a crappy low-end MSI board.

!!??!?? Are you sure!? It's not that simple to add an SLIC Table to a BIOS. Each BIOS is different and there are different methods... How did it add it without you having to re-flash? If you generate an R/W Everything report, it will tell you if you really have the Table in the BIOS...

And MS' blacklisting obviously didn't work, at least for Daz' loader thingy. It still works just fine, no matter which updates I install on any of my PCs. I do have a few legitimate Win7 licenses, but for a test-computer, the activation crap when you fiddle around with different hardware is just annoying.. so Daz it is (or WPAKill for XP/2003)

It's unlikely that they will, because they seem to be moving towards a new method (encrypted UEFI - whatever it means) with Windows 8, but they did do it before with Vista like I mentioned.

Regarding Windows XP... I don't see why anyone would ever have to resort to using something like that... Does Windows Update work with WPAKill? There are still some good VLK XP keys floating around, nevermind the fact that you can easily use any legitimate OEM key and get a legitimate activation.

Yep, they seem to like Apaq... I would still like to see some more non-anecdotal evidence that Apaq is indeed completely unreliable... I still have this Asus board out in the field and so far, I haven't heard of any problems.

MSI on the other hand seems to go for Samxon a lot recently.. seems like the "manufacturer of choice" is shifting around, with Gigabyte going the cheapo lane and MSI catching up.

I have to say, I had a little problem... I enabled C6 in the BIOS and Windows 7 wouldn't even go to the installation screen, just kept rebooting... I'm not sure if this is the fault of Microsoft or the fault of AMD or maybe even MSI. Took me a few minutes to narrow it down to that because when I loaded the BIOS defaults, it had no problem going to the installation.

[Scenic]

Originally Posted by mockingbird

!!??!?? Are you sure!? It's not that simple to add an SLIC Table to a BIOS. Each BIOS is different and there are different methods... How did it add it without you having to re-flash? If you generate an R/W Everything report, it will tell you if you really have the Table in the BIOS...

AFAIK, Daz loader reads out the BIOS, modifies it and reflashes it, then installs the certificate and changes the key. Attached pic is from my main PC. The windows install is about 2 1/2 years old, so the Daz loader must've been pretty old too. Not sure if it still uses the same methods in more recent versions.

edit: One side-effect I've noticed: My BIOS now says "Dell Systemar BIOS v6.00PG" instead of "Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG", so it definitely modified the BIOS on the board.

Originally Posted by mockingbird

Regarding Windows XP... I don't see why anyone would ever have to resort to using something like that... Does Windows Update work with WPAKill? There are still some good VLK XP keys floating around, nevermind the fact that you can easily use any legitimate OEM key and get a legitimate activation.

WPAKill patches the winlogon.exe on XP/2003, so it always returns that it's already activated no matter what. Any update (or more like Service Pack) that replaces/updates the winlogon.exe will revert it, but that doesn't normally happen unless you for example apply the patch to XP SP2 and then install SP3 afterwards. Windows updates work just fine, but without a legitimate XP key, WGA won't (obviously).
I've attached the readme.txt of the most recent version, which explains what it can/could do. Had to .zip it though (It's ~28KB and the limit for .txt is 19.5KB)

[shadow]

There is another version of WPAKill (version 3.0 and above) that uses a different method. From memory it used memory hooks to directly change the required parts of winlogin.exe whilst it is executing (and hence loaded in memory). This method does not get affected by installing updates or anything of the like as it did with version 2.x as winlogin.exe is never modified.

Just checked the readme file you attached. It is for version 2.3 which was not the last version of WPAKill released.

[shadow]

After digging around a bit. Found out that the software is actually called AntiWPA and not WPAKill (although I believe that exists as well). Attached is the readme on how it works.

It explains how the software is able to redirect certain windows function calls to functions in a different (custom written) DLL which in turn 'tricks' winlogon.exe into thinking the system is in safe mode (where product activation is not of concern) whilst it is in fact not in safe mode.

It is a very clever trick and it is not affected by any windows updates. Only thing I have noticed (when I was still using the software) was that antivirus software started detecting key generators and hack applications as 'viruses' and I think some antivirus software started detecting this as a 'hack tool' or something similar.

[slowhand4955]

Howdy, I have one of these HP machines with the MS-7548 boards in it and I replaced all the cps in it. Everything seems to work but I think maybe my CPU is shot because I don't get anything out of the video. I even bought a Faster video card for it and still no video. The computer was given to me for junk, but if I can repair it it would be a very nice machine once all the bugs were fixed! Come on an icore 4! Heck yeah! Great gamer computer! The least expensive CPU I could find was $135.00 and that's a lot of money if it doesn't work even after I replaced it. I replaced all the caps on the board after reading this site, the caps should not be a problem now. I only found two caps blown closest to the CPU but again I replaced all the caps all over the board. Is it possible that this thing could have blown the memory and or the Video chip? If so, then I'll have to replace the board altogether. I'm just guessing here and don't really know what's going on with it now. When it was working, it was a great system, I even had to clean out all the junk files and remove some trojans for the lady that originally owned it. After it stopped working she bought another one and gave me this one. It's only about three years old or so maybe 4 years old and the replacement boards are extremely hard to find except from Sever.com. I could still have a bad CPU and or bad Memory sticks. Any thoughts? Help? Thank you

[Player2]

Originally Posted by slowhand4955

Howdy, I have one of these HP machines with the MS-7548 boards in it and I replaced all the cps in it. Everything seems to work but I think maybe my CPU is shot because I don't get anything out of the video. I even bought a Faster video card for it and still no video.

What seems to be working? Is the CPU fan spinning? Does it stay on, or cut out after a second? Are you getting any beeps when it powers on? Have you tried a different VGA cord and monitor?

Originally Posted by slowhand4955

The least expensive CPU I could find was $135.00 and that's a lot of money if it doesn't work even after I replaced it.

You can pick up a used AM2 CPU on eBay for around $15-20 to test it. Wouldn't hurt to have one on hand for testing purposes in the future anyway. It's pretty rare for a CPU to fail though.

Originally Posted by slowhand4955

I replaced all the caps on the board after reading this site, the caps should not be a problem now. I only found two caps blown closest to the CPU but again I replaced all the caps all over the board.

What type of caps did you use as replacements? Have you double-checked to make sure none of them are in backwards (i.e. reversed polarity)? You can compare your board to the pics at the beginning of this thread to make sure the stripe on the cap is facing the right way. Also make sure you didn't miss any spots that are supposed to be populated.

Originally Posted by slowhand4955

Is it possible that this thing could have blown the memory and or the Video chip? If so, then I'll have to replace the board altogether.

Sure, it's possible, but unlikely. This board doesn't use an nVidia chipset, and those are the ones that seem to be more prone to failing on AM2 boards. If there was a problem with the RAM, you'd probably get some POST beeps. Try installing only one stick of RAM, and swap it to each slot. I recently fixed one of these boards, and there were some failed MOSFETs on it. If I remember correctly, I think a couple were by the RAM. Let me look into it and I'll see if I can give you a pointer there.

If all else fails, there is a board on eBay right now. It's only got one bid, but a lot of time left. Not my listing, just trying to help.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Desktop-M...item416e606c91

[Player2]

Finally got around to checking my notes on this board, been out of town for Thanksgiving. The MOSFETs I had to that I mentioned were Q54 and Q55, by the end of the RAM slots, and Q29 and Q30 between the RAM slots and the floppy connector.

[larrymoencurly]

Be careful about updating any MSI BIOS because the company seem to have more BIOS flash problems than anyone else. MSI officially sanctions 3 methods, but their programmers at their user forums recommend not using any of them but instead running their own update method from a USB flash drive. Also MSI's BIOS updates for Ivy Bridge CPU support can cause problems for older CPUs, even the fairly new Sandy Bridge series.

I ended up having to flash the BIOS of my MSI through its SPI program pins (connected directly to the serial BIOS chip) and a parallel printer port controlled by SPIPGM2.EXE.

[Peacemaker45]

Great Success! Well, it has been a YEAR since I originally sought guidance on here regarding failed Vcore TK caps on an MS-7548. I originally quoted a few weeks turn around, HAHA, life got in the way!

Anyways, I finally got around to the task and brought new life to the MB. The TKs looked like mazade's pics on page 1 of this thread. I replaced them with Nichicon's I bought thru this site.

Thank you all for the help!