Another classic combo revived! Abit BP6

[Topcat]

Re: Another classic combo revived! Abit BP6

I scored 10x celeron 366's (SL36C) for peanuts. The first pair I pulled out of the box and stuck in this BP6 POST'd @ 550/100 @ 2.0v vcore, and are perfectly stable! YAY

[ratdude747]

Re: Another classic combo revived! Abit BP6

yikes didnt realise stuff that old could be polymodded safely, considering it has only a single power phase per cpu. looks like hardware back in those days were tough ol' boats! cant say the same for current "modern" hardware which break waaay too easily. its like having a computer made out of thin glass or joss paper!

you go, errr man?

You should see what KC8ADU has posted about in the past... he's been polymodding ancient stuff for years, mainly old motherboard for CNC machines. Cool stuff.

[Topcat]

Re: Another classic combo revived! Abit BP6

Another polymmodded BP6 is born, this one using all SEPC polies.....it was also a testbed for another mod, using caps so short it will allow clearance of larger heatsinks....it worked!

[Topcat]

Re: Another classic combo revived! Abit BP6

Digging up a skeleton to add another rescue. Very cheap ebay score....and I can understand why. This board was disgustingly filthy. Smelled like a moldy basement.....but I got it for about what it cost to ship it.

It's hard to tell from the pics....but it's caked in dirt. Not just dust, these pics were taken AFTER it was blasted by the air compressor! The filth seems to have embedded itself into the board. It will have to be hotwashed and scrubbed real good.





I took a different approach. I usually recap them and then wash them. This time I removed every cap; to include the small ones. None of the caps vented/leaked. I checked them all upon removal with my LC102. All of the 1500uF caps were all reading crazy high (~2500uF) and the ESR was high. The 1000uF caps weren't as bad but still out of tolerance. The 100uF caps were still in spec....but anyway, I usually recap the board and then wash it. This time, I washed it with all the caps out; just to give a little extra clearance around the CPU sockets for cleaning and to make sure that whatever was all over this board was cleaned off even under where the caps live. I've rebuilt enough BP6's, I know what goes where by heart..... All cleaned!





All new caps.....





Tested with a pair of Celeron 366's. No, I don't collect pokemon cards....it was in the trash...but there was a standoff that didn't line up with the board, so I just slipped it under there to make sure it wouldn't short.



No overclocking tests yet..... I've got 2 firmwares to update....and not going to risk an overclock failing while executing flash utilities!

Blurry....but you can still see it.



Here was firmware # 1.....a Voodoo3 2000 that had v1.00.01 on it....screw that!! That flash was successful (v2.15.07).



Then I updated the motherboard firmware to my custom RU version that I had removed the HPT366 option ROM in the BIOS. These are horrible controllers, and it can not be disabled (either with jumper or in BIOS). I always add either a good ATA100 IDE or a SCSI controller.... Removing the option ROM eliminates some boot time headaches... The controller will still show up in the device manager, but it's no longer bootable; which is all I care about. Anyway, that update was successful....and now let's overclock!!

Solid 550/100 as expected on stock VCORE of 2.0v



I don't have a build in mind for this, it was purely a rescue that I'm sure was otherwise bound for the scrapper. I didn't test the board prior to recapping it, but as filthy as it was and as out of spec as the VCORE caps were, there's no way it would have worked. I just have a soft spot for these boards when I find them cheap or free. Undoubtedly the most prolific enthusiast board in computer history!

[Dan81]

Re: Another classic combo revived! Abit BP6

I'll be getting a dual CPU to revive too.

Does MSI 694D Pro ring a bell?

[Topcat]

Re: Another classic combo revived! Abit BP6

I'll be getting a dual CPU to revive too.

Does MSI 694D Pro ring a bell?

Yup. I've recapped oodles of those back in the day! They weren't as fancy as the VP6, but they were still a very solid board.

[Dan81]

Re: Another classic combo revived! Abit BP6

I'm waiting to see which variation is mine... IIRC there is one of them with a Promise controller so I guess if I hit that one, it'll be a good opportunity to see how it fares against ABIT's Highpoint chips. (e.g the HPT366 on my BE6-II)

On a side note, I wish I'd be able to find dual-socket ABITs that easy. As I might have said - they're awfully scarce where I live - the only ones I have in my collection are BE6-II, IS7-E, IP35 Pro XE and a fake NF-M2S. (the reason I call the last one fake is because it's nothing more than a rebranded ECS GeForce6100SM-M)

Ah well, at least I'll get to enjoy your dual CPU experience through a MSI

[draxx]

Re: Another classic combo revived! Abit BP6

Hi Topcat - I'm interested to know what values you used for the last two repairs. I never got around to recapping my BP6, but looking to do it soon, and I like the idea of the shorter caps around the CPU

[Topcat]

Re: Another classic combo revived! Abit BP6

Hi Topcat - I'm interested to know what values you used for the last two repairs. I never got around to recapping my BP6, but looking to do it soon, and I like the idea of the shorter caps around the CPU

Here's the values of the polymodded ones:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...2&postcount=16

The ones redone in lytics were of their original values.

[draxx]

Re: Another classic combo revived! Abit BP6

Thanks for the info. Did you use original values in https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...8&postcount=23

[Topcat]

Re: Another classic combo revived! Abit BP6

Thanks for the info. Did you use original values in https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...8&postcount=23

No, those were the same as the post above.

[Dan81]

Re: Another classic combo revived! Abit BP6

I'm waiting to see which variation is mine... IIRC there is one of them with a Promise controller so I guess if I hit that one, it'll be a good opportunity to see how it fares against ABIT's Highpoint chips. (e.g the HPT366 on my BE6-II)

On a side note, I wish I'd be able to find dual-socket ABITs that easy. As I might have said - they're awfully scarce where I live - the only ones I have in my collection are BE6-II, IS7-E, IP35 Pro XE and a fake NF-M2S. (the reason I call the last one fake is because it's nothing more than a rebranded ECS GeForce6100SM-M)

Ah well, at least I'll get to enjoy your dual CPU experience through a MSI

Welp, quoting myself on the loss with the MSI. I'll leave the pics speak for themselves.






Oh well. The chap who sent it had no idea how bad it was in decay so can't blame him. He full well told me it looked nasty... though neither of us thought it was anything else besides bad caps. Was free (didn't have to pay anything) so no real loss financially wise.

[Topcat]

Re: Another classic combo revived! Abit BP6

The chipped corner of the NB chip is the deal breaker.... Bummer.

Why the hell did they desolder the CNR slot>?

[Dan81]

Re: Another classic combo revived! Abit BP6

It wasn't desoldered. I didn't notice and it shorted the trace you see it's ripped there.
Whoever had the board before them somehow bent the pins inside the CNR slot.
I ripped that slot off with pliers and removed all pins (CNR is useless anyways...) by snapping them off. Where needed though, I did whip out the soldering iron and removed a few pins. (the recap job on it is my own work)

The only way I might be able to revive this board is if I transplant the standard 694X (since even the BIOS states the XDP is nothing more than plain 694X, and your VP6s further confirm this by their very own BIOS string) off a LuckyStar 6VA694+ mobo.
That one's death cause was bad lytics that corroded traces beyond any repair level.

Lately luck avoids me it seems - 6600GT AGP from MSI artefacting, nearly zilch 370/Slot1 mobos (besides a Luckytech P6VBX7 that is awfully picky about AGP cards) and mainly just a whole sea of laptops.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: Another classic combo revived! Abit BP6

u also have more issues. i noticed the heatsink retention tab on the cpu1 socket is broken off on the right side? on cpu2, it is okay. so u need to either pry off the plastic part of the socket and replace it or just desolder and replace the entire socket. im guessing cpu sockets of that era were through hole? if so, desoldering a through hole cpu socket is about the same bang up job as removing a cnr slot? lol!

[Dan81]

Re: Another classic combo revived! Abit BP6

The issue with 370s is the plastics are somehow glued - on 462 a flathead screwdriver gets me a socket swap in no time without desoldering. 370 and older though, it's impossible (tried it, broke a bunch of already dead mobos in the process with no success.).

As for the tab, I have a 462 cooler to use on it so I'm not bothering to replace that socket.