Help, after recap problems

[doveshack]

I have recapped my MOBO and I now have new problems. Before I was able to POST and the computer would crash but when it was running it was running at the correct speed. Now after replacing all the caps that came in the pack of 24 (swollen and not swollen) my computer is so slow. I don't just mean 286 slow I mean real slow. I thought it wasn't working but it just took for ever to load. I went through and reloaded windows and wiped the drive. This has taken a week to get it done at this speed. But now I finally have it booting up to Windows Vista. There must be some problem. I don't know if I did something wrong or what. Any ideas? My computer is an Athlon 64 with a ECS (Elitegroup) MCP61PM-HM motherboard Compaq Presario.

[Koda]

Re: Help, after recap problems

Try entering into BIOS and check your cpu and memory settings or reset BIOS to default settings, also some pics would help from both sides of the board and solder joints of the caps you replaced. Also try reseating the cpu heatsink and apply new thermal compund. Memory might be a culprit, try a good working stick. Try troubleshooting with only minimum components. Check Video card if it's seated properly. Try a good PSU especially if youre using the old one you did before the recap, often bad PSU's are the cause for bloating caps on mobos. Hope this helps.

[selldoor]

Re: Help, after recap problems

Hi can you get this MCP61PM-HM into the title.
What make caps did you use - where from?
Can we have a pic of the motherboard (max resolution 2000x2000 and 2MB) using the manage attachments button, which is found by clicking "go advanced" under quick reply.

Please do not post inline and offsite as they slow down the loading of pages.

[doveshack]

Re: Help, after recap problems

Attached are pictures from my Ipod Touch, I know it is real grainy but I lost my good camera. I pulled the battery for the BIOS when I soldered so it should be reset. I also pulled the memory, CPU and heatsink before soldering. I ran the computer with no cards and used the onboard video. I did remove old and apply new thearmal wax to the CPU and heatsink. I got rid of all my spare parts so I really dont have anything to swap power supplies, CPUs or Memory sticks. The video card I used prior to the failure had the capacitors go and the vented. After pulling the card I examined the MOBO and found the swollen ones on there as well. Do you think investing in a new Power supply is a good idea? Funds are low.

[doveshack]

Re: Help, after recap problems

The caps I used I bought from badcaps.net. They are Nichicon, the old ones were TK (swollen), Ost and Teapo. The thearmal compound I used was Ceramique 2 from Arctic Silver.

[selldoor]

Re: Help, after recap problems

Its getting late over here - couple of things- did memory show in my computer and in the bios. As koda says try one stick at a time if they are not a matched pair try changing slots.
If its not a solid check that the heating compound has not spread over
and down the edge of the cpu.
Did you loose any drivers when you wiped disks.
Check the bios carefully for wht speed things are running at.
Anthing show up as odd in device manager.
As your not really running anything it probably wont make any difference
but have you set up a windows cache.
How much ram is in there.

[Koda]

Re: Help, after recap problems

On the PSU
If you don't have a good known PSU at the very least open up the unit you're using and check visually for bloating caps. Do a voltage test if you know how, if you don't know just search google, lots of info how to do it, also check voltages during load and write them down and post them here (when plugged in and running on the motherboard). Those are simple tests and easy to do if you are careful, if you dont feel up to the task don't do it, just buy or borrow a good PSU.
Since your graphics card had vented caps my money are on the PSU going/being bad.
Also as selldoor said if you have multiple sticks of ram try using one at a time in different slots and see if that improves the situation.
As for the BIOS, I have seen mobos holding BIOS settings for quite some time without battery so just try loading the BIOS default settings, it will only take you a minute.
One more thing to check, that heatsink in the lower right corner, see if it gets too hot to hold a finger on it.
If you have a POST/PC Diagnostics card do a test with it and see what comes up. If you don't have one I recommend you get one from ebay. Costs a few bucks but can be very useful sometimes.
Also do visual examination on the whole board to see if you damaged some traces.
Last thing to do, download a windows/linux live cd and boot windows from it without your hard drive being connected to the motherboard. Swap of cables for the hard drive and the cd rom drive is also preferred.
That's all I can think of at the moment, do these tests and post the results and we'll move on from there.
Also don't forget to plug in the 4pin connector next to the CPU heatsink, it's a rookie mistake that anyone can make and can cause symptoms such as yours.

[doveshack]

Re: Help, after recap problems

I owe you!! I have a new computer again!! I'm so happy!! I reset the BIOS and pulled the memory sticks out and put them in one at a time in each bank. Now they are both in and the computer is fast again. Thanks so much!! So I either didn't have the memory sticks seated or the Bios needed to be reset. Either way it works now!!

[doveshack]

Re: Help, after recap problems

So the question is now... should I work on this PSU?

[Koda]

Re: Help, after recap problems

Well since you got bad caps on the motherboard and the graphics card while using that PSU it is probably failing and puking horrible amounts of ripple into the motherboard and will most likely damage your new capacitors or fail and take another component along with it so I would opt for a change of a PSU. Maybe you could open the PSU and take a few pictures of the guts and post them here so we could see if any caps are bloated and what brand of caps it uses. Btw I'm glad I could help, congratz on the working unit

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Help, after recap problems

I owe you!! I have a new computer again!! I'm so happy!! I reset the BIOS and pulled the memory sticks out and put them in one at a time in each bank. Now they are both in and the computer is fast again. Thanks so much!! So I either didn't have the memory sticks seated or the Bios needed to be reset. Either way it works now!!

It was more likely the CMOS reset that did it. CMOS corruption causes bizarro things to occur!

With my Acer Aspire M5630, it caused USB 2 to get detected as USB 1 only, even when I didn't touch anything related to USB!

Windows refused to put my USB ports in USB 2 mode!

Windows gave me BS about my USB being outdated.

[doveshack]

Re: Help, after recap problems

As an update...

I went ahead and replaced the original PSU and upgraded it to a 500W and put in a new 1Gig mid grade video card.
I have had no problems what so ever since I reset the bios. My computer is running well.

[ratdude747]

Re: Help, after recap problems

What brand and model PSU?

500W means nothing, as there are plenty of junk units out there with "500W" slapped on them.

[ThePCDoctor]

Re: Help, after recap problems

I'm forever answering peoples questions about PC Power Supplies (PSU's).

The main thing I tell them is "Read the Label"!!!

No label ever says anything like "500watt forever".
NO, it's more like "500watt MAX". The "MAX" means that's the power that the supply can deliver for a few brief seconds while a PC is booting up, charging all the caps and starting all the fans and drive motors.

Then derate that by 25 to 30% for the All-Day power rating.

Any more, with all the stuff that people want to add to their PC's, a 650 to 750 watt PSU is not at all out of reason. I have a main PC and a Backup PC and both are fitted with "Antec Earthwatts 650W Max" PSU's. They run cool and do a great job.

If there's a lot of heat coming out of your PSU, you can bet it's working very hard, to power the PC. Heat Kills! If a PSU is running HOT, it won't last long.

Cheers Mates!
The Doctor

[mariushm]

Re: Help, after recap problems

That's totally incorrect, disregard the message above.

Cheap power supplies (< 30$) are often based on obsolete designs and LIE about the power they're able to deliver, so often these 400-500w power supplies can only do about half of that continuously.

The cheaper power supplies based on old designs were made to provide a lot of power on 5v and 3.3v because that's what the systems were demanding at the time, while the current systems demand a lot of power from 12v nowadays.

Then , you have to keep in mind that a power supply will divide the watts of power it can provide into into the three main voltages a computer needs: 3.3v , 5v and 12v and each of these reserves a certain amount of watts. For example, a modern 500 watts power supply will be able to provide 125 watts on 3.3v and 5v and on 12v will provide about 360 watts... but an older power supply will do the opposite, will give 150-200 watts on 3.3v and 5v and less on 12v because back then 12v was not important.

So now, if you put these two together... You have one of those cheap power supplies that has a label saying 500 watts, but in reality it's a 250-300 watts power supply, and in addition, it is designed to provide 150 watts on 3.3v and 5v and only 100-150 watts on 12v, because it was made for old systems who used 5v a lot.

Modern systems have a hard time working with just 100-150 watts on 12v, therefore often these cheap power supplies are "stressed" and driven over what they can do and will eventually die.

Relatively modern power supplies from brand name manufacturers are properly balancing these 3 rails (3.3v , 5v and 12v), putting the most wattage on the 12v, which is used nowadays.
Even a 40-50$ Corsair 430w CX v2 will do about 300 watts on 12v, which is enough for simple systems with a single video card.

Also, these modern power supplies are actually often able to do MORE than what's on the label and they'll do what's on the label continuously.

The modern power supplies are sometimes rated as lower wattage power supplies so that the manufacturer will be able to classify them as 80% bronze or silver efficient.

The modern systems are also more and more power efficient and are using very little power while idle (in Windows, watching a movie, typing something)... such system would hover around the 100 watts mark. When gaming or doing something intensive, modern systems barely use 300-400 watts (if you have a single video card).

[dmill89]

Re: Help, after recap problems

^
I would have to mostly agree with the post above. Many good quality PSUs these days can run their rated outputs continuously and many can deliver more than what the label states. For example most of Antec's PSUs are rated for continuous output and all of PC Power & Cooling's PSUs have been rated (usually underrated) for continuous output for years i.e. example my Silencer 910w can actually output 1000w. Now I wouldn't recommend running any PSU at 100% continuously but many good units are capable of handling it.