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**shadow** · 06-22-2009, 08:24 AM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

That looks like a decent board (based on capacitors).
Hopefully someone on the forum can help you more, this is one of those weird problems.

Some quick questions.
Did you try using different RAM in this board? That is a different brand.
Have you tested this board outside of a case?
Have you tried to boot Linux and use that? I recommend a LiveCD version so you don't actually need to install an OS.
Have you run any diagnostic software? Particularly with memory. I recommend Memtest86 or Memtest86+. Let the diagnostics run for several hours just to make sure that the memory is fine.

The silver cans are solid polymer capacitors. They are of a higher grade than normal electrolytic capacitors. Although cheap Chinese and Taiwanese polymer capacitors are propping up which are not of the same quality.

By the way,
Welcome to the forums!

**momaka** · 06-22-2009, 10:22 AM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

Brown KY caps should be United Chemicon -a good brand of caps.

What PSU did you use to test the board with (Make and Model)? Also, have you tried a different PSU of a reputable brand?
Have you tried cleaning the RAM slots?
Have you tried reseting the BIOS?
Try what shadow said as well.

**370forlife** · 06-22-2009, 10:36 AM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

The blue aluminum solid capacitors are also United Chemicon.

**metalfab_101** · 06-22-2009, 03:02 PM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

Hi guys. Thanks for the welcome and comments!

Originally posted by shadow

Did you try using different RAM in this board? That is a different brand.

I have tried 2 different brands of RAM and the result is the same with both.

Originally posted by shadow

Have you tested this board outside of a case?

I haven't tried this yet. It's out of the case now so i'll be doing this next

Originally posted by shadow

Have you tried to boot Linux and use that? I recommend a LiveCD version so you don't actually need to install an OS.

I have tried XP & Vista but not Linux, but I might give that a go, thanks!

Originally posted by shadow

Have you run any diagnostic software? Particularly with memory. I recommend Memtest86 or Memtest86+. Let the diagnostics run for several hours just to make sure that the memory is fine.

No diags at this stage, but I think it will be a good next step to try to narrow down where the problem lies.

Originally posted by momaka

What PSU did you use to test the board with (Make and Model)? Also, have you tried a different PSU of a reputable brand?

This was the first PC I have built for a number of years and I hadn't realised how bad PSUs had become. I suspect my PSU may be a problem as the case was only very cheap. I might crack open the PSU and take some pics, that may shed some light on things.

Originally posted by momaka

Have you tried cleaning the RAM slots?
Have you tried reseting the BIOS?

I have done both of these so far.

Getting back to the PSU issue, is there anything I can do to test the output of the PSU?

Thanks again for the help

Damo.

**shadow** · 06-22-2009, 07:45 PM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

Pictures tend to speak a thousand words in this regard.

Although a brand and model series is very helpful as well because people here have had experience with a huge number of different power supplies.
Say for example, if the power supply was a DEER brand one, everyone here would say that this is an inferior power supply that can cause all sorts of weird problems, therefore you should not rely on it and should get it replaced.

To test a power supply without any sophisticated equipment is reasonably difficult.

You can take DC voltage measurements with a Digital Multimeter, however this will only give you the average voltage. If the average voltage is out of whack, then the power supply could definitely be causing something weird. The voltage should fall within the ATX standards which basically says that the voltage should be within 5% of the nominal value. For example on the 12V rail, the voltage should be somewhere between 11.4V and 12.6V.
Most power supplies require a load to be present before they turn on and can be tested reliably. Therefore you need something hooked up to it. Usually old, useless hard drives come in handy for this.

Although anything should be alright. I do not think case fans load up the power supply enough thou, you may need to hook up a fair few of those if you plan to use case fans as a load.

An oscilloscope would be ideal to test a power supplies output. A Digital Multimeter will not tell you anything about the noise in the system or the quality of the output. With an oscilloscope, you actually see the output from the power supply and can judge whether it is any good. However most people do not have one, and they are quite expensive unless you get one second hand (and hopefully calibrated).

Usually it is more than enough to post pictures of the insides of the power supply along with the brand and model of the power supply.

**metalfab_101** · 06-23-2009, 05:25 AM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

Anything that's overrated, or seems to be, is a bit suspect in my mind.

Does this look like the inside of a 550w power supply to you? Caps are either Canicon or Teapo.

I ran it up with a hard disk connected and the 12v and 5v rails both looked ok. In any case I will get another PSU and try the motherboard with that. We have some HP7700 at work, I will pinch a PSU out of one of them for testing purposes

**kc8adu** · 06-23-2009, 10:19 AM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

lets see the power supply.

Originally posted by metalfab_101

I've been having some wierd problems with a motherboard I was using in a media centre PC. When loading windows it will reboot, and it will really object if I put memory in slot 2. Honestly I can't remember exactly what it was doing with the memory because it's been a few months since i've worked on it.

It did my head in troubleshooting it (I came to the conclusion that the board is cactus) and I haven't used it for 6 months or so when a colleague suggested it may be caps. Considering it was a pretty late model board I had never really considered the caps but it seemed to be feasible. So after a bit of googling and next thing you know here I am

Anyway, so I did a bit of searching on the forum and decided to have a look at the caps on my board. As soon as I saw "Rubycon" down the side 1500uF beauty i pretty much figured it must be something else. All the caps physically look OK as far as I can tell. Most of them are Rubycons, but there are some 100uF 25v caps with a brown casing that have "KY" marked on them. Also, some silver can looking things with blue printed on the top that I assume are caps but am not sure.

Anyway, in short i'm pretty sure it's not going to be the caps but i'd like some opinions of people that have some cap replacement experience!!

Some Rubycons

An example of the "KY" marked caps

Here are some of the aluminium can ones. Are they caps?

**370forlife** · 06-23-2009, 10:24 AM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

Originally posted by metalfab_101

Anything that's overrated, or seems to be, is a bit suspect in my mind.

Does this look like the inside of a 550w power supply to you? Caps are either Canicon or Teapo.

I ran it up with a hard disk connected and the 12v and 5v rails both looked ok. In any case I will get another PSU and try the motherboard with that. We have some HP7700 at work, I will pinch a PSU out of one of them for testing purposes

550W max

,

Not it looks more like a 200-250W (and who knows how clean it is doing that)

Ya, replace the psu with something more reliable (that shaw looks like a LWPS) If you have a decent psu lying around, that would be best. You don't want to have to spend $50 on a nice psu and have it not be the problem.

**370forlife** · 06-23-2009, 10:46 AM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

Its also worth noting 1 hard drive=about 8 watts.

jonnyGURU testing one of these LPSW power supplies.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php...Story&reid=123

Originally posted by OklahomaWolf

...we get to see new records for suck being established with 12V ripple hitting 3V. Seriously! Three volts! That's twenty five times higher than the ATX spec!!! And look, 5V isn't much better at 1.3V by test four. Do you have any idea what that would do to attached hardware? Bye-bye hard drive. Bye-bye CPU. Bye-bye, motherboard. Nice knowing you. Only the 3.3V stays clean at all loads, but that's small consolation for that 12V based video card this thing just smoked. Heck, I could see this kind of ripple taking out a fan or two.

The only time we get ripple fully in spec, in fact, is test one. You get fifty watts clean on this thing, people. Good luck staying under that.

**metalfab_101** · 06-23-2009, 02:46 PM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

Originally posted by 370forlife

Its also worth noting 1 hard drive=about 8 watts.

jonnyGURU testing one of these LPSW power supplies.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php...Story&reid=123

Thanks for the link, i'll have a read.

Regarding the wattage of the hard drive, are you suggesting I need to put the PSU under more load to give a reasonable indication of it's output?

thanks!!

Damo.

**shadow** · 06-23-2009, 05:05 PM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

Well I guess possibly.

However just by the pictures, we can tell that it is not a very good power supply.

There is no way in hell that thing will handle 550W, maybe for a fraction of a second before the smoke comes out!

**momaka** · 06-23-2009, 05:41 PM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

PSU is no good - looks like a typical generic. If you add all of the missing caps and PI coils on secondary side you might be able to use it for a PII/P3 PC, but this is definitely not suitable for anything newer. The Teapo caps are ok, but Canicons not so much.
If you're not going to run a fancy video card you'll probably be fine with a nicer 300-400 watt PSU. For $30 you can get a 300w FSP or for $40 you can get a really nice Seasonic. Or if you have anything else in mind, let us know before you buy it (in case it's a bad brand).
By the way, some people here have bought used Delta PSUs for under $10 on ebay and had really good experiences.
Let's hope this PSU didn't kill your motherboard so the new one can bring it back to life

.

**metalfab_101** · 06-23-2009, 05:51 PM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

Originally posted by shadow

Well I guess possibly.

However just by the pictures, we can tell that it is not a very good power supply.

There is no way in hell that thing will handle 550W, maybe for a fraction of a second before the smoke comes out!

A new power supply is on the list by the looks of it! Does anyone have a recommendation?

I've been doing some testing this morning, and a little googling, and I think I might have narrowed it down to memory. Scuttlebutt on the interwebs leads me to believe that these boards are a bit picky with RAM. Tests so far are consistant with that.

I'll run memtest on it like you suggested, Shadow.

thanks!!

Damo.

**ratdude747** · 06-24-2009, 01:16 PM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

who in their right mind labes a ps "shaw"

almost looks like l&c although it might need some antlers, oh DEER

**shadow** · 06-24-2009, 05:03 PM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

It probably came with a "SHAW" case.
Around where I live, you can pick up a SHAW case from around AU$45, and that includes a power supply!

metalfab_101, if you are planning to get a new power supply. It is important to get at least a half decent one.

If you are on a tight budget, FSP power supplies (along with whoever they do OEM's for) are decent power supplies for a very reasonable price. Delta power supplies are decent too, the last Delta power supply I had was a FSP thou.

If you are prepared to pay more, or you simply can not find any low cost decent units around where you are. Antec are decent, however they are overpriced and I am not sure whether their capacitor problems have been rectified. Many consider Seasonic to be good too.

**ratdude747** · 06-25-2009, 12:49 AM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

just dont buy a-power. the box may look sweet, but the guts are ugly as hell (had one with all large caps on secondary badly blown)

also, if you see one, consider AGI/hipro (same thing). the teapos are ok in a power supply most of the time- everything else is good

**metalfab_101** · 06-25-2009, 01:35 AM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

I'll be on the lookout for a PSU next week, i'll post up what i'm looking at before a shell out any $.

Thanks guys!

**Per Hansson** · 06-25-2009, 09:17 AM

Re: Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

370forlife; thanks for the JG link, gave me a good laugh!

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Abit AB9 Pro, i think the caps are OK

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