sold a bad motherboard

[silvergoat]

Hi all,

This is my first post- I have visited the badcaps.net site before, but never had a problem until now. I bought a used board from craigslist (first purchase from there too and I had always stayed away because of the fear of getting ripped off).....anyways. During my attempts at overclocking, the system eventually got very unstable even after going to normal settings.

It would fail at many things including cloning my hard drive to a back up drive. Now it does not boot into W7 and restarts while loading the O/S, freezes during BIOS check, during memory checks, and so on.

It reboots during the O/S or randomly as it tries to boot....... I've ruled out the HD, RAM, PSU--- it's just the motherboard now (at least until I check each RAM stick individually with Memtest).

How can I tell if a chip is fried or if a capacitor problem exists?

[Topcat]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

if a chip were fried, it would be dead as a hammer.....it wouldn't even post. Sounds like caps to me. What board is it, and lets see some pics.

[silvergoat]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

MOBO: Asus P5E3- Deluxe

I just reset the CMOS and it boots fine right now- I will likely be removing the board tonight, but I don't have a digital camera (I'm a tinkerer and I broke it when I opened it a few weeks ago).

When I did have it out I did give the caps a brief look and it all seemed okay. This system has likely been abused because the settings in the BIOS were pretty extreme (not sure if that would contribute to capacitor failure).

One thing that did stand out was that the capacitor by the RAM and near the southbridge heatpipe was bent.....not as in uneven, but the capacitor leads looked like they were yanked out and the capacitor was sideways rather than vertical. Looks like a manufacturing defect since the pictures I've seen of this board all show that capacitor straight up.

Please, let me know what you think.....

[shovenose]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

Probably just rough handling or being bumped around during building the system. doubt it was like that from the factory.

[silvergoat]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

Probably just rough handling or being bumped around during building the system. doubt it was like that from the factory.

It just crashed again---- time to take it apart.............I'm sooooo angry that I got ripped off like this, there is no recourse against people like this and I took his word that everything was functioning perfectly.

[silvergoat]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

Also, the capacitors are all covered on top so I can't tell if there is any bulging......computer is being taken apart right now.

[c_hegge]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

What brand are they?

[silvergoat]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

no markings to indicate brand-

The caps are all silver covered with a colored marking on the left side. The biggest ones have a blue mark, the others all have red on the left.....there are a few very small ones that have a purple marking.

[Toasty]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

Sounds like polymers. They shouldn't need replacing.

Found a pic via Google. Looks like this? They're all polymers and are most likely okay. The problem lies elsewhere.

Toast

[EDIT]
Check out this thread on Xtreme Systems:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...unds-BIOS-info

First thing that strikes me is make sure the RAM is correct type (DDR3) and seated fully.

.

[silvergoat]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

yeppers-

I'm confused now as to what the issues could be-

[silvergoat]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

Well, I just installed the semi-new 1050W Corsair PSU into my old PC and I'm having trouble with it....could just be the new hardware (hard drives, video card, dvd drive and such) but I will be baffled if it is the PSU because it's supposed to be one of the highest quality units out there.

.......PSU would be the only other component that could cause errors like this so I'll have to see if I can get it to randomly restart.

[silvergoat]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

Well, it's definitely the mobo in one place or another- the power supply is holding up fine.

I have not yet checked the RAM extensively, but I did run the W7 diagnostics on it, and I ran Memtest on it---- both checked out fine, although I hear that memtest should be run with 1 stick at a time for more accurate results.

I think it's the motherboard, but I will follow any suggestions given.

[silvergoat]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

pic of the capacitor in question-

[Evil Lurker]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

I would say replace it. You pull one of the leads of the foil on the inside of a cap or damage the bung and your asking for problems. And considering the angle at which the cap has been bent, I would say there is a good chance it has been damaged.

[silvergoat]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

I might just try, but I have to say that there is a hesitation- The owner of the site and the business is 1 state away. I'd like him to do the work, or at least to provide the parts and knowledge.

I'm in Chicago btw- I tried to edit my profile with the user CP, but I did not have sufficient privileges.

I want to be able to do this myself, but there are times when the handy-man has to outsource- Any advice or suggested purchases for an inexperienced solderer?

[silvergoat]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

25 big red ones (6.3v /561 above the voltage 7x2k above that)
18 smaller red ones (16v /101 above the voltage 7x1e above that)
4 blue ones (16v /270 above the voltage c 701)
6 purple ones (10v - looks like but they are too small to differentiate between 10 and 16 ea432? above)

[silvergoat]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

The more that I think about it, the more I'm sure I need to replace it.

Where can I find a replacement capacitor? I would like at minimum to have the same quality......I hope my soldering iron can do it- I tried to remove capacitors from an old xbox 360 board I had from a failed box, but it just wouldn't get hot enough to remove the cap.

[c_hegge]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

the cap in question is a 16v 100uF Poly. Topcat, unfortunately doesn't have them (although he may be able to order them). Maybe you could send him a PM if he doesn't chime in.

[kc8adu]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

that cap is damaged.might be the problem.

[mockingbird]

Re: sold a bad motherboard

The seal is compromised on that cap... Also, stay away from Asus boards of that generation. They're for sale by the boatload as-is and broken.