Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

[Topcat]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

I don't have any disassembly pics.....but here's a few, from one of the two.... This one also has a T9900 in it, but only 4gb RAM. The other one has 8gb....but they're both sporting Kingston SSD' that function wonderful!

[4DSC]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

Oh and I'll take any screenshots you care to share, or even photos of the internals if you have them. (I always take photos of my chips, serial numbers, etc., before I close up a PITA-to-open system like this one.)

[4DSC]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

Sure you didn't get another bad board? I have 2 of these systems (came across another one a few years ago with the same bad seagate hdd issue), didn't have any issues with either one. Both have SSD's in enhanced mode....be glad to take some screenshots if you want.

I suppose it could be random chance, though it could also be that the boards were different batches and they used slightly different parts along the way. I've seen a couple different revisions of the board, and there are both ET2203 and ET2203T models. My boards are the non-touchscreen kind. In the 2203T universe, there's a guy on youtube who (apparently) successfully upgraded his, and a guy on the Win Raid forum who had the same problems I have.

Strange thing is that these boards work perfectly with spinning HDs. Other than maybe differences in power draw between SSDs and HDs, I can't figure out why that would be.

[Topcat]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

Man, you must have hit the silicon lottery with that ET2203 that you found! I just can't get mine to work with an SSD.

I did spring for a replacement motherboard from ebay and I'd say that it works even worse with the SSD than my original one. It took some work just to get Windows setup to recognize that the drive is present and, once it did, it never made it anywhere near 25% in the installation process.

As a last resort I tried repurposing the machine to run Ubuntu 20, but the support for the video card and sound chip is poor.

Oh well, guess this old thing has truly met its end. Can't say I didn't try.

Sure you didn't get another bad board? I have 2 of these systems (came across another one a few years ago with the same bad seagate hdd issue), didn't have any issues with either one. Both have SSD's in enhanced mode....be glad to take some screenshots if you want.

[4DSC]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

When it happens, I'd just replace the board or scrap the system....

Man, you must have hit the silicon lottery with that ET2203 that you found! I just can't get mine to work with an SSD.

I did spring for a replacement motherboard from ebay and I'd say that it works even worse with the SSD than my original one. It took some work just to get Windows setup to recognize that the drive is present and, once it did, it never made it anywhere near 25% in the installation process.

As a last resort I tried repurposing the machine to run Ubuntu 20, but the support for the video card and sound chip is poor.

Oh well, guess this old thing has truly met its end. Can't say I didn't try.

[Topcat]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

Not sure if it's the actual southbridge chip that fails or if it's perhaps the passives.....but I've seen some systems of this chipset fail by not communicating with the SATA port. When it happens, I'd just replace the board or scrap the system.... Never invested in a reballing/rework station....a good one is several thousand, I wouldn't have had enough client work for it to earn its keep.

If he's willing to do it, it might be worth a $8 gamble.

[4DSC]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

HDD is a kingston v300 120gb, in enhanced mode. win7 did not ask for a driver, saw the hdd no problem. Make sure you have the latest BIOS on it.

Sounds like the OP in that incident has a faulty controller. Apparently it's not uncommon with this chipset. That issue he's describing is exactly what happens, it really isn't the SSD. I've seen it on these chipsets before (not on this particular system), and they behave exactly that way....they get drag-ass slow accessing the HDD (even a SSD), and the BIOS gets finicky in detection, even an old spinner.

Okay, I tried the same Kingston SSD as you with no luck. Basically hangs while trying to install Windows 10 on the SSD from a USB. (Installed on a spinning HD no problem.)

So when you say "faulty controller" do you mean that the southbridge I/O chip (see pic) is bad? I can buy a new one for $10 shipped; and a buddy of mine has a full rework station.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Piece-New...t/271913871350

[Topcat]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

Oh man I just realized that I actually did type "IR receiver" way back up there, huh. Oops. Definitely meant to say "RF" receiver!

...and you wondered why I questioned it...

[4DSC]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

Fun fact related to that ebay listing: The internal IR receiver for the mouse and keyboard (the ER-C21) has a standard USB interface. I found the pinout attached to an FCC filing. I removed it from my machine and used a cannibalized USB cable and a JST SH 1mm connector to make a homemade dongle so that I can use the wireless mouse and keyboard with any computer. Not pretty but it works! And it keeps a perfectly good wireless combo out of the garbage once the computer expires.

Oh man I just realized that I actually did type "IR receiver" way back up there, huh. Oops. Definitely meant to say "RF" receiver!

[momaka]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

Fun fact related to that ebay listing: The internal IR receiver for the mouse and keyboard (the ER-C21) has a standard USB interface. I found the pinout attached to an FCC filing. I removed it from my machine and used a cannibalized USB cable and a JST SH 1mm connector to make a homemade dongle so that I can use the wireless mouse and keyboard with any computer. Not pretty but it works! And it keeps a perfectly good wireless combo out of the garbage once the computer expires.

I guess I learned something very interesting today.
Thanks for sharing this!

[4DSC]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

The receiver may be a combo unit with IR build in, but the keyboard & mouse themselves are indeed bluetooth. IR would require them to be in 'line of sight' like a TV remote, that's not the case with these....they work from a BT radio. If you look at the board you modified above, note the 'squiggly trace' on the back side of the metal shield, that's a small antenna.

Oh I agree that it's RF. What I meant by "tether" is that the RF connection is proprietary, akin to the Logitech mice and keyboards that require their "Unifying Receiver" to connect (but without the ability to take the receiver with you). You can't pair the Asus mouse or keyboard with any old Bluetooth-enabled laptop (I tried). So the mouse and keyboard go down with the ship, so to speak, upon the computer's EOL.

Also, I think that the component that looks like an IR receiver in my photo is actually just a capacitor. Here's a much better photo:



Here's the main listing on the FCC site, btw: https://fccid.io/MSQER-C2I

[Topcat]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

Nope--proprietary. Silly to tether them to the machine like that, but that's what Asus did.

The receiver may be a combo unit with IR build in, but the keyboard & mouse themselves are indeed bluetooth. IR would require them to be in 'line of sight' like a TV remote, that's not the case with these....they work from a BT radio. If you look at the board you modified above, note the 'squiggly trace' on the back side of the metal shield, that's a small antenna.



Nice job modifying that though.....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/392334876311

[4DSC]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

Nope--proprietary. Silly to tether them to the machine like that, but that's what Asus did.

[Topcat]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

I always thought the KB & mouse for these systems were bluetooth.

[4DSC]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

Worst case scenario, there's this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/293711025640

Fun fact related to that ebay listing: The internal IR receiver for the mouse and keyboard (the ER-C21) has a standard USB interface. I found the pinout attached to an FCC filing. I removed it from my machine and used a cannibalized USB cable and a JST SH 1mm connector to make a homemade dongle so that I can use the wireless mouse and keyboard with any computer. Not pretty but it works! And it keeps a perfectly good wireless combo out of the garbage once the computer expires.

[Topcat]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

Many thanks. That OP is me, by the way. I'm going to give it one last try with a $20 used V300 from ebay. I've never had any issues with spinning HDs in it, so hopefully it's just a finicky controller and not a faulty one. Fingers crossed!

Worst case scenario, there's this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/293711025640

[4DSC]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

HDD is a kingston v300 120gb, in enhanced mode. win7 did not ask for a driver, saw the hdd no problem. Make sure you have the latest BIOS on it.

Sounds like the OP in that incident has a faulty controller. Apparently it's not uncommon with this chipset. That issue he's describing is exactly what happens, it really isn't the SSD. I've seen it on these chipsets before (not on this particular system), and they behave exactly that way....they get drag-ass slow accessing the HDD (even a SSD), and the BIOS gets finicky in detection, even an old spinner.

Many thanks. That OP is me, by the way. I'm going to give it one last try with a $20 used V300 from ebay. I've never had any issues with spinning HDs in it, so hopefully it's just a finicky controller and not a faulty one. Fingers crossed!

[Topcat]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

HDD is a kingston v300 120gb, in enhanced mode. win7 did not ask for a driver, saw the hdd no problem. Make sure you have the latest BIOS on it.

Oops... wrong link above (and I can't edit my post). The first link should be:

*link: https://linustechtips.com/topic/8887...ergic-to-ssds/

Sounds like the OP in that incident has a faulty controller. Apparently it's not uncommon with this chipset. That issue he's describing is exactly what happens, it really isn't the SSD. I've seen it on these chipsets before (not on this particular system), and they behave exactly that way....they get drag-ass slow accessing the HDD (even a SSD), and the BIOS gets finicky in detection, even an old spinner.

[4DSC]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

Oops... wrong link above (and I can't edit my post). The first link should be:

*link: https://linustechtips.com/topic/8887...ergic-to-ssds/

[4DSC]

Re: Garbage Find: Asus ET2203T - T9900 & Memory Upgrade

@Topcat, I have the same model Asus (except that I wasn't lucky enough to find mine--I paid $800 for it). It's three desktops old at this point but I can't bear to part with it. It's useful for watching Netflix. I did the same CPU upgrade that you did, and I upgraded the wireless card. It's running Windows 10 64-bit but it chugs. I also found (miraculously) a 4GB SoDIMM for less than $20 that will put the RAM at 6GB total (won't be fully dual channel but better than just 4GB for now).

The real issue has been the hard drive. I have tried in vain to upgrade to an SSD but had no luck.* The chipset doesn't support AHCI.**

I see that you were able to upgrade to an SSD. Which model SSD did you use? Are you using the Enhanced or Compatible controller setting in the bios? Finally, did you use an F6 driver during Windows setup?

This is my first post on the forum here--thanks for all the great info! And for allowing me to respond four years later to your post from five years later, haha.

*link: **********

**link: ******************