Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

[tibimakai]

I would like to repair this mobo.
It's completely dead. Not sure what happened to it. Maybe when I was adjusting the custom heat sink mount, I may have touched something, I don't know.
All I know that is completely dead, fans don't turn on at all.
I was wondering, if by any chance anybody has a schematic for this board, I would appreciate it a lot.
It's a new board, I was installing Windows and some other software when the problem happened. This was a couple of years ago though.
I'm thinking that, if I could revive it, I could build a NAS out of it.

[stj]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

test the battery and clear the cmos.

i have the dual-core version and can tell you for a fact, if the battery is missing it will act totally dead!
other than that,
short the power-on jumper and meter the voltage across the electrolytics near the center of the board.
there are a pair of switching regulators there with shit samxon caps around them.

btw, what sink did you change?
only the gpu gets hot enough to care!

[tibimakai]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

I wanted to build a carpc and I replaced the heatsinks with a Pentium 3 heatsingk and transferred the cpu heatsink to the gpu.
I had to do some Mickey mouse "strapping down" the heatsink and I guess, once when it was on, I tried adjusting the heatsink and it lifted at one corner and it may have touched something on the mobo.
This may have not caused the problem, but this is the only once, I had did something stupid.
I will check those things and I will let know, thank you.

[stj]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

just so you know, the cpu generates hardly any heat,
the gpu gets so hot that you MUST use a decent fan.
no passive sink no matter how big will work!

[tibimakai]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

It had fan, I have just increased the size of the heatsinks.
The whole box it was a double din radio's size. I had an HD radio adapter, a 2.5" HDD and a four channel amp in that small box, so there it was some heat.
I have stopped with the car pc, after I have upgraded the mobo with an Intel D525 Atom and SSD HDD.
I may go back to car pc, but for now I will install a Kenwood nav unit.

[tibimakai]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

OK, I have pulled out the mobo and powered it up, with a new battery.
The GPU fan, actually starts and the motherboard LED turns on too.
There are voltages at the VDOs, but I don't know how much they should show.
Nothing shows on a monitor.
I have a problem finding the CPU heatsink and clip for it. This way, I can't do measurements for to long. The CPU starts heating up.
I just don't know if it's worth investing in new heatsink, memory and such.

[stj]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

you can probably get away with a large chipset heatsink from an old p4 mobo.
they use the same spring under hoops clamp system.

[tibimakai]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

This one uses wire clip.

[stj]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

yes, under hoops on oposing diagonal corners.
that's what i meant.

[tibimakai]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

Heatsink I have from an old Pentium, I just need the clip. I have to look at my workplace, maybe I can find something.

[tibimakai]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

I have found another heatsink on Ebay from a Foxconn board.
No matter what I try, it won't show anything on the monitor.
I have watched a Youtube video about this type of issue and that person said, that more then 50% of time is a bad EEPROM issue.
On Ebay somebody sells BIOS chip, but it's $25. I could buy a used good board for $40.
I would get the IC, but I would like to be sure that I have tried everything before I would buy it.
I have tried a couple of memory sticks, with and without hard drive, different power supply, test card was showing - - - -, which I guess it means that there are no error codes.

[stj]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

download the manual from intel,
it has a flash recovery mode from a usb stick.

[tibimakai]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

Thanks for the idea, but it did not work.
USB stick, did not show any kid of life.

[stj]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

check if you have voltages on the electrolytics near the center of the board.

[tomich]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

Hello tibimakai.

I'm in your exact situation. D945GCLF. Exact situation as you have described. Tried everything mentioned in this post. I also bought a PCI POST card wich just stays blank and i get no error codes from 80h.

I'm using headphones on the green back audio connector, as this motherboard does not have any speaker pins and I was wondering if the error beeps should get to the back port or if I should be connecting my small two cable speaker somewhere in the board. All this of corse, assuming BIOS POST even works (wich at this point i think is not the case).

Please fill me in if you have made any progress on this. I will do the same.

[tibimakai]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

I'm out of ideas myself.
I was thinking to use a PCI graphics card, to see if anything shows up that way, but I don't have one.
I will start measuring the capacitors as suggested above.
If nothing will surface, I will just give up.

[tibimakai]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

I while back, when the problem started, the mobo, was completely dead, no green LED on it would lit up, no fans were turning on.
Now at least the mobo's green LED turns on, the GPU fan turns on, the hard drive starts spinning up for two-three seconds, but that is about it.
Maybe the mobo's cell battery it was dead and by replacing it turns on now?
How it went bad yours?
The only bad thing that I did is, when I have installed an early Pentium cpu heatsink, which it was a lot bigger then the original and once I was twisting it left and right and accidentally I have flipped it to one side and It touched something on the mobo. Not sure though, if this caused the problem or not.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

tomich & tibimakai
In the thread below you can find expected voltages for the capacitors for the chipset.
I'll hook up a Port80h device to it tomorrow and see if it shows anything aswell.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=14924

[tibimakai]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

I just went and replaced the two 100uf capacitors, did not have the 22ufs right now.
I have measured the four capacitors and I'm getting the same voltages: 1.11V, 1.55V, 1.55V and 2.54V.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Intel D945GCLF(Atom 230) schematics anyone?

The board does output to Port80H
See the attached movie, shot with a 10+ year old camera