Epox 8K3A

[puterfixer]

Hello everyone,

I've had problems with swollen capacitors on my old Epox 8K3A motherboard twice. I have replaced the capacitors myself and detailed the problem and the procedure on my blog: Lucky discovery saved my PC and Odd problems, again .

The original capacitors are green with gold markings, GSC brand, which appear to be a common problem for many motherboard models that use them. The replacements are black with grey-white markings and behave much better.

The first capacitors I have replaced were 2200uF, 10V, 105 degrees C, about an inch tall - you can see them in photos, crammed together next to each other. The second time, only two 1000uF, 6.3V, 105 deg. capacitors needed to be replaced, I only found 10V replacements which worked well because this time I had no space constraints.

Hopefully my experience will help others in similar situations. All the best!

[yanz]

Re: Epox 8K3A

Yea, i have the same board too. GSC caps is evil. I heard they are now merged with fuhjyyu and Teapo?

Your experience ofcourse will encourage the other with the same exact problem to recap their beloved mobos

This situation isn't beautiful. The company like epox and the others just denied their fault at all.

[yanz]

Re: Epox 8K3A

I can't find the pics of my epox 8k3a, but this 8kha look exactly the same with the 8k3a...



pics is taken from a source on the internet wich i forgot its link

[Rainbow]

Re: Epox 8K3A

The replacement capacitors appear to be non low-ESR. It's not recommended here, but I use non-low ESR caps too and I had no problems so far.

[puterfixer]

Re: Epox 8K3A

There was only one kind of replacement capacitors I could get, so they'll have to do. There still are smaller capacitors on the motherboard which will eventually swell and need replacement, but I can't find 6.3V or even 10V capacitors in stock at three major electronic component importers in Romania, so they'll have to wait.

Epox and other manufacturers will never acknowledge it was their fault. That would have negative consequence over their business and probably force them to replace all the motherboards with similar components. The fault is at the company who stole the cheap but deffective electrolyte formula. And then, in manufacturers' quest for cheaper products, cheaper components were included. When you compare two motherboards with similar features and one is $60 and the other $100, the first one is cheap for a reason, and people need to realize that and accept the consequences when making decisions.

[linuxguru]

Re: Epox 8K3A

You've used Samwha for the replacement caps - which is a little dicey. I've seen some earlier Samwha caps that have bulged and failed. They're apparently better now after the acquisition of Samsung Electrolytics division, but YMMV. Keep us posted on how it holds up.

[puterfixer]

Re: Epox 8K3A

Ohhhh so that's what the oval logo says!!! I couldn't make out the letters no matter what. Anyways, I'm checking them once a month now

[linuxguru]

Re: Epox 8K3A

BTW, the recommended practice is to replace *all* large caps of certain series with known-good series, regardless of external experience. That includes replacing all GSC, Wendell, YEC, G-Luxon, Gloria, Lelon, etc. Also, if you find a single bulging capacitor of a certain series, replace *all* the caps of that series on the board.

(This is mainly a logistics issue. I used to work on a factory shop floor a long time back - they had the practice of replacing about 400 or so flourescent tubelights from all fittings as soon as a certain threshold number (say 10) started flickering. They explained that it saved money, even though the remaining 390 had some life in them. If left unreplaced, some of those 390 were bound to fail in a few months, and that would cost more money from work stoppage. The same philosophy can be applied to bad capacitors, or bad PSUs, or maintenance of taxicabs in a fleet, etc. It's a pre-emptive approach.)

[gonzo0815]

Re: Epox 8K3A

Does this mobo have an PCI fix to go at least to 166Mhz FSB?
I have one laying around here, but i hesitate to recap it due to the low FSB. i doubt if this is wort recaping.

[yanz]

Re: Epox 8K3A

this mobo would be able to go sincronously FSB:Mem 166:166 and at this setting PCI clock and AGP will set back to 33Mhz and 66Mhz. cmiiw.

[MD Willington]

Re: Epox 8K3A

Via KT333 chipset, IIRC they do not lock the AGP and PCI, Only the nforce and SiS chipsets do.

200/266 bus...

for 333 i.e. 166MHz KT333A or KT400 chipset

those do not lock the bus speeds either.

MD

[gonzo0815]

Re: Epox 8K3A

THX for answer. may be i recap it if i find a purpose fo it. Have tested it with an Duron 800, so far this G-Luxons seems to can hold that Duron. So i Leave at the moment.