Athlon and Asus

[Gianni]

Hi all

a friend gave me some stuff he had in his cellar: two MOBO and 3 Videocard.

I have tested the videocard and they are good (I can see the BIOS setting ): 1 PointofView based on NVidia GeForce4 MX440, one is Sapphire 9600Pro Advantage 256MB and the third one is based on Nvidia chipset but I have not identified it yet.

The MOBO look dead so I have two question:

1) the oldest one M7VIG has some bulging caps and a sign like a small scorch on a RAM socket. I removed the CPU HS and the Athlon looks damaged. Can you tell me looking at the attached picture if I am right? When i removed the HS I found some small pieces of material like metal/glass and the CPU seems erose on one side.

2) The Asus A8V Deluxe doesn't emit any sound. It turns on/off using the power button, the reset works but it doesn't post. It is a pity to trash it because looks like new, it has good Rubycon at VRM Input and unfortunately OST all around but they are not bulging or leaking.
The CPU is Athlon 3000+ and unfortunately I can test it because it is a socket 939 and on my PC I have Athlon 3200+ socket 754.
I have cleared CMOS and nothing has changed, I have no signal from the buzzer.
I want to know if is there something that I can do to be sure that this MOBO is dead because I don't know if I'm missing something because I'm not so expert.

TIA
Gianni

[kc8adu]

Re: Athlon and Asus

the chip may or may not be ok.
the asus board has a clogged hsf so that cpu may be cooked.

[gg1978]

Re: Athlon and Asus

The A8V might be revivable.. Having a clogged heatsink should not cause CPU failure, as that's an AMD64, which didn't have the issues with CPU burnup as some K7's did.. Maybe post it up in the F/S forum here, someone may be interested in fixing them.. I might, but not sure how much shipping from Italy is..

[370forlife]

Re: Athlon and Asus

The athlon xp should still be good. My friend's computer had a 3100+ that he put the heatsink on backwards, it took a large chunk out of it. It still worked, but instead of 2.2ghz it ran at 1.47, and was just identified as a athlon xp, nothing more. My old 1600+ is all chipped around the edges and works like a champ.

[Gianni]

Re: Athlon and Asus

Thanks for your answers.

I will keep the 2 CPU in case I found suitable MOBOs.
If I were sure Athlon 3000+ is good, I will buy a new MOBO for my brother because he has an old MOBO with Duron 1200 IIRC.
I don't know what is wrong with Asus board, I left it attached to PS for 15 minutes and I checked if there was something overheating but I didn't find anything.

@ gg1978: I don't think they can be interesting for someone and I don't like to sell something if I'm not sure it works or it can work.

The only thing I don't know if a missing jumper or in the wrong position can block the MOBO, but it is strange that not a single sound came out from the buzzer: with the CPU mounted and without RAM I expect some BEEP as error message but nothing happens.

Well I will wait till I can test the CPU.

Ciao
Gianni

[Gianni]

Re: Athlon and Asus

The Asus A8V Deluxe is running correctly, this morning I have read the user manual and I discovered that you must place the single Ram in socket DIMM_B1.
When I have tried I put the memory in socket DIMM_A1.
What I don't understand is why this MOBO don't emit any error signal when video card or Ram is not present or is inserted in the wrong socket.

Well now my brother have to buy a cabinet and PS, I suggest him to buy the cabinet Asus TA-881 for 32.5€ .
For the PS I am undecided between these models:
Antec Basiq BP350P - EC for 37.2€
Antec EarthWatts EA 380 for 54€

I have read that somebody here had bad experience with Antec but I have read also that their are better than Allied that usually are sold together cheap cabinet.
OTOH my brother doesn't want to spend much because he has an old Duron with a cheap PS and till now it has given no problem so he is convinced that there's no need to spend more than 50€ on PS. Moreover he need a stable system for browsing, email, to make documents... he doesn't need a powerful system for gaming.

Probably the final configuration will be:

Asus A8E Deluxe
Athlon 64 3000+
2GB DDR PC3200
2 HD PATA 80GB
2 DVD Drive
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600XT 256MB

Any suggestion or comment is really appreciated.

Ciao
Gianni

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Athlon and Asus

The processor on the left photo is an Athlon "T-Bird".

I used to have a 1.3 Ghz 100 Mhz FSB version and it gotten damaged, because I wasn't careful enough when reclipping the heatsink after moving it to another motherboard.

If you get no screen and no sounds, it's probably because the chip gotten damaged.

[Gianni]

Re: Athlon and Asus

@ RJARRRPCGP: if I will found a suitable MOBO I will test this CPU.
The Biostar where it is mounted has several BAD caps and a burnt sign on one memory socket so I don't want to spend money and time on it.

Ciao
Gianni

[zandrax]

Re: Athlon and Asus

@ Gianni: if you can't source a better psu (e.g. the similar priced Corsair CX400), get the Earthwatt. At least Seasonic built it decently: main weakpoints are the Teapo c[r]aps ...

Zandrax

[gustie]

Re: Athlon and Asus

that thunderbird might work
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/AMD...1400AMS3C.html

i had a XP-M 2500+ with chipped corner on the core - worked fine still....

the M versions are better as the multiplier is unlocked also

[Gianni]

Re: Athlon and Asus

At the end my brother bought a Cooler Master Elite 330 Black for 38€ and 2 GB Ram A-Data for 54€.

For the PSU I gave him my spare Newton Power... probably better than Antec 380.

Last night we build the PC and we had some little problems:

1) the PSU is different from mine, he has not the 4 PIN connector CPU... but there was an 8 PIN connector. After testing the voltage we saw it was 12V so we used them. It is circled in a picture.

2) Was not possible to insert the 24 PIN power connector because very close there is the IDE connector. I cut the connector and I rescued the 4 pin connector from a dead unit, I extracted the cable and replaced the cut connector which had the semi-naked contact after I cut it.

3) After installing the OS we discovered that the PC was unable to restart using the restart button from Win and the reset button on cabinet. using one of them simply made the screen black and the PC running without any activity. After looking BIOS setting we decided to reset CMOS and the problem disappeared.

Well it seems good but only using it we can see if this MOBO is good.

Ciao
Gianni

[gustie]

Re: Athlon and Asus

that thunderbird might work
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/AMD...1400AMS3C.html

i had a XP-M 2500+ with chipped corner on the core - worked fine still....

the M versions are better as the multiplier is unlocked also

M ones are nice i have XP-M 2600+ in my DFI board - i tried it in an XFX board and it didnt recognise it was an XP-M and locked the multiplier to 6...

mine has I stepping (A is also good on these) they can get upto 100degrees C too without cooking - where as the desktop family will cook at 85degrees C