Abit BE6 causing trouble

[pentium]

I finally managed to salvage a spare ATX case so finally I can build my art box.
For this task I selected my trusty Abit BE6 which I used with my first server.
for video I used my prized Intergraph Wildcat 4000 (needs both the agp socket and a pci slot). After everything was installed, secured and pre-checked I pressed power.
Nothing
After some more tests I found that removing the network card got the thing to power on. dd thing was that when I tested the same card in another system the other computer powered on fine.
Then came the second hurdle.
Now that the system was on it was not POSTing. No beeps, not blink from the keyboard and not even activity from the monitor. Thinking that I still had the video card default on a PCI slot I pulled the wildcat und used a spare Mach64 I had.
This time the system came to life and greeted me with the error that the CMOS defaults had been loaded.
This triggered my routine of entering the bios and resetting the clock and the drie assignments.
This is where it got really weird.
After a few keystrokes the num lock, caps lock and the scroll lock lamps began to turn themselves on and off. All the sudden the system was freezing for a few moments or the arrow keys were being pressed by themselves. I tried a second keyboard and got the same result, even when I was not in the bios and the system was complaining about no drives to boot from (because I coudn't set them), after a few keystrokes (random keys) the symptom occured again.
finally, when I restarted after the keyboard trapped me in the bios I was told that the CMOS defaulte were loaded AGAIN. WTF! The battery tested good too!
I assume that either the bios is being flakey or we have a board on the verge of death. I can't seem to figure out what's going on, what's your two cents?

BTW:Are the roumers true that this board has badcaps?

[stevo1210]

Hello pentium,

I have the same motherboard as you and bought it dirt cheap from one of my friends for $10 and it even included a Pentium III 500MHz CPU.... apparently it didn't want to boot up after the previous user fiddled inside thier PC.
In the end it turned out to be that the user somehow put the CMOS jumper on CLEAR and that didn't let the PC boot.... in other words, the motherboard seemed to be dead.

Then one day I had an issue once where my BE6 motherboard could not detect any of my drives after I replaced my HDD. It turned out to me that I connected my ATA-33 drive to the HPT366 ATA-66 RAID Channel and it wouldn't detect my drives.

My BE6 motherboard uses Tayeh caps which are listed as bad caps here on badcaps.net oddly enough my Tayeh caps won't bulge at all.... even after 8 years of use. I think the last user thier PC on all day like me but they never complained about stability issues. So maybe you should check your caps out.... I think I just got lucky with my set of Tayeh caps since they haven't bulged at all.

[pentium]

I got the same caps too. I have never had a crash.
The last time I really used the system was almost a full year ago. After I made my second server I retired this board and it sat in a rubbermaid container located in a cold storage room with it's CMOS battery removed.
Since then and now, the PSU I origionally used has kicked the bucket and I am using a PSU already in the case.
Wait a sec...
The last use for this case and PSU was my last Pentium pro server. It had numerous problems with overheating, freezing and possibly even ripple. How does a Kaypro KTP-220 PSU stand? Bad?

[linuxguru]

Open the PSU and check - most PSUs, even the infamous Deer/Allied/Powmax/Channel-Well can be revived by recapping the secondary side with high-quality non-aqueous Japanese caps.

[pentium]

I'll do that later but will that cure my problem? a PSU recap?

[pentium]

From what I can see, it's filled with Fuhjyyu and Vent.
One of the f-you's might be bulging from underneath but it's hard to be positive with all the glue and the parts soldered in strange angles.
It is however very dusty so it's getting a blowin'.

[pentium]

So nobody knows what's going on?
I really don't want to dump this board. A PSU swap also gives no improvements.

[kc8adu]

most of the bx abits sent to me that act crazy have bad caps even if not bulging.
tayeh,junkcon,ect.

[tazwegion]

Originally Posted by pentium

I'll do that later but will that cure my problem? a PSU recap?

Freezing rebooting & generally carrying on in a disasterous manner is what I'd expect to see from a motherboard powered from a PSU with flaky voltage fluctuations, the fact that the motherboard itself is populated with junk capacitors is in no way going to help out either

Before I realised my Antec TruePower380w had defective fuhjyyu's, I continually experienced reboots/freezes & data corruption... a dose of Samxon's and the nasty little infection cleared up

Personally, I'd recap both of the blighters!

[pentium]

Are you positive?
I don't think you understood what I meant.

This board was working flawlessly a few months ago when I first took it out of service. Unless badcaps get worse when the board is off for long periods and stored in a cold place I highly doubt that we are having a badcaps problem right now. As for the PSU, I managed to track down a good PSU and even then I was still having problems.
I also want to say that the system was not really freezing but more like the system was refusing keyboard input. I still have the feeling the keyboard bios is acting up.

[tazwegion]

Originally Posted by pentium

Are you positive?
I don't think you understood what I meant.

Dunno' let's recap (excuse the pun)

Originally Posted by Stevo

My BE6 motherboard uses Tayeh caps

Originally Posted by pentium

I got the same caps too. I have never had a crash.

Editorial
Tayeh's are infamous for failing without visual symptoms, Abit has admitted to the problems but I digress, let's move on...

Originally Posted by linuxguru

Open the PSU and check - most PSUs, even the infamous Deer/Allied/Powmax/Channel-Well can be revived by recapping the secondary side with high-quality non-aqueous Japanese caps.

Originally Posted by pentium

From what I can see, it's filled with Fuhjyyu and Vent.

So the way I'm reading it, is you've got a flaky Abit BE6 populated with Tayeh caps powered by a PSU populated with Fuhjyyu & Vent caps already showing signs of failure, so could you please explain how have I got the wrong idea?

AFAIK flaky onboard components can manifest themselves due to poor voltage regulation of the motherboard circuit, just because they weren't playing up when you were using it 12 months ago doesn't guarantee they're still ok, I've heard of motherboards with badcaps that never left their box

[pentium]

Okay, so I guess I migh need a recap.
However before I even head off to order the caps, I still have that other set of problems. I tested both the network card and the video card that I thought were bad in a different system and they are fine. Never in knowing badcaps have I ever seen a board b0rk when a piece of hardware was installed. I also still don't understand why the keyboard gets a mind of it's own after so many keyclicks (same number every time before it goes weird).
Ram is fine, bios jumper is properly installed, I even tested with only a PCI video card, a keyboard and one of my good psu's being used. Same result with the keyboard.

[pentium]

A bit of an update.
I did a recap and things got really weird.

-The keyboard is still jamming up
-the system rejects pc100 Sdram
-one of my 128 PC133 sticks looks like 64 megs to the system
-AGP cards are invisible to the system and the system gives me a "no video card" beep sequence however still carries on with boot
-netwok card ar first was accepted by system then after a reset it failed to post with a NIC installed

The list goes on.
What did I say....It couldn't be the caps. This board is causing me so much trouble. If I don't find what is going on soon it's new caps are being removed and the board tossed.

[kc8adu]

where did you get the caps?
brand/series?

[Logistics]

Did you clean the board? I have had boards get flakey because of stupid stuff like the bus slot was dirty or a ram slot was dirty.

Also, back in the days of the old AT style keyboard connector, I had several boards get funky because the solder joints on the connector would get jacked up from people jimmying them all the time. Check the joints at the PS2 connectors.

[pentium]

The caps came from out local RTS electronics shop. Matching specs and low ESR.

The board is spotless. no dents or damaged traces.

Check the joints at the PS2 connectors.

Even if the connectorr was the problem, would it affect the AGP slot and any network cards connected to the system? I checked for cold joints and found nothing.
I'm just about to go through a new box of boards that I picked up tonight. If I find a replacement in there, this board bites the dust.

[pentium]

Yep, forget about this board.
I found an alternative.

[pentium]

Found something interesting.
It seems my intergraph wildcat 3000 will kill the AGP slot of any system it is plugged into EXCLUDING a dell. The dell loves the card however ubuntu was never designed with drivers for the card.

[gdement]

Originally Posted by pentium

Found something interesting.
It seems my intergraph wildcat 3000 will kill the AGP slot of any system it is plugged into EXCLUDING a dell. The dell loves the card however ubuntu was never designed with drivers for the card.

Intergraph? Doesn't sound like a consumer product then, might have really heavy electrical requirements. It might have been intended only for qualified systems, and not really safe to use in just any board. I have an old HP Visualize FX4+ card which I've been afraid to try in anything except the original system for fear that a common consumer board would melt under it. It's almost the size of some people's laptops. After hearing of your misfortune I guess I'll stay afraid.

Sorry to hear about the board damage. I hope you didn't lose anything too valuable.

[pentium]

I hope you didn't lose anything too valuable

No. these boards origionally came from the dump anyways so they don't owe me anything.