EPoX EP-8K7A bad caps BUT EPoX is going to fix it!

[olamoree]

My EPoX 8k7a is almost 2 years old. I started noticing BSOD's and quirky performance and tore it apart a few times to dust and clean and happened to notice some "brown stuff" on one of the caps, then noticed the bulging tops around the AGP socket so looked on the internet and found BadCaps and other news articles finding that I was not alone. Emailed EPoX in California and after a few exchanges and pictures sent, they informed me that they were going to fix it and to get a RMA#, pay shipping to and enclose $14 check for return shipping --must be sent UPS or FedEx in order to have tracking number. They ONLY fix boards from the US and Canada so I sent the board up with a friend together with the purchase receipt (NewEgg) and a copy of the RMA# email and am waiting for them to receive it, fix it and send it back to my Florida address. I think it is an important corporate decision to stand behind a 2 year old m/b and it is unfortunate that other manufacturers are NOT supporting their customers. I went out and bought another EPoX board to use while mine is being fixed and if later the caps go bad, I trust that EPoX will make it right. :P

[EDIT] By Topcat





[/EDIT]

[Topcat]

Consider yourself very lucky! Most manufacturers won't even talk to you. Abit will RMA boards with bad caps, but charge $25.00 to do it plus the shipping fees. Last time I RAM'd an Abit, they made me ship it to Taiwan... That shipping charge bit big time... It also took 2 months to get it back!! They sent me a replacement board, but sent one to me full of the same shoddy caps the old one had when I sent it.

Supermicro was a good one to deal with. I had a 370DL3 with bad caps some time back, and out of curiosity, I called Supermicro, and they couldn't apologize enough and said they'd replace it free of charge, just send it to them. Just to see what they would do, I sent the board in rather than recap it myself, and sure enough about 2 weeks later a box shows up with a brand new retail package 370DL3 inside.

I guess it depends on the manufacturer. I've heard nothing but bad about MSI and Gigabyte when it comes to RMAing boards with bad caps, and I can't stand Abit's RMA policy either... Although, I'm sure Stretch will comment on that one... :roll:

I personally prefer to recap them myself, this way I know they're done right...

Glad it worked for ya, and thanks for sharing that!
TC

[amacapper]

Nice pics! I have recapped(11 caps) on my Ep8k7a ! I started board repairs for my own benefit and now do occasional repairs for several of the local computer recyclers and shops.(I harvest good caps from otherwise bad boards,test them and put them in.)
\Mysoldering experience goes back to the '40s on vaccuum tube eqpt. and naturally progressed to mainboards. Fred

[Sometwo]

I'm having the same problem with mine. In fact, now I'm pretty sure I had this problem with my other 8k7a. The caps seemed a little puffy but I wasn't sure then. I'm going to dig it up and check again. I bought another to replace it, and now the two caps side by side near the memory have the tops covered in electrolyte, and I'm having problems with both IDE channels. What do you guys think would be my best chance to get a replacement or is there none?

[bgavin]

Re: EPoX EP-8K7A bad caps BUT EPoX is going to fix it!

I bought (4) 8K7A from an ebay seller who said they were all good.

They were all bad.

The good news, is he immediately did a PayPal refund of the full amount. (I was amazed, and thanked him).

Problem is, there are 31 caps on each of these boards... Yikes!

Has anbody done a re-cap on this board with success?

[gdement]

Re: EPoX EP-8K7A bad caps BUT EPoX is going to fix it!

I bought (4) 8K7A from an ebay seller who said they were all good.

They were all bad.

The good news, is he immediately did a PayPal refund of the full amount. (I was amazed, and thanked him).

Problem is, there are 31 caps on each of these boards... Yikes!

Has anbody done a re-cap on this board with success?

I've recapped some of these boards. I don't think I've brought any back from stone death (at least not that I remember), but if the board is showing any activity on the LED POST reader then it will probably come back to life with new caps. The 2200uF 10V caps can be replaced with 6.3V types. The capacitance doesn't seem very sensitive either. I've seen some of these boards which were apparently recapped by a previous owner using Sanyo WG's. The sizes they used were 1800uF 16V on some boards and 3300uF 6.3V on others. Both those sizes seem to work fine.

The caps I've used on my recaps were United Chemicon KZE 2200uF 6.3V, and also UCC KY 2200uF 10V. I ordered the KY's only because the KZE's were out of stock. Since the KY series has inferior specs, I ordered the 10V version to offset that (the larger 10V can improves the specs). The KY's worked perfectly, so as far as I know the 6.3V version might have also been fine.

The +5V PSU requirements for this board are pretty demanding. Some PSU's seem to only regulate the combination of +5V and +3.3V. The 8K7A draws almost exclusively from +5V, so it doesn't work well with PSU's that don't regulate the +5V rail independently.

My InWin 350W (5V@30amps) can't even turn these boards on half the time, and when it does the +5V line is sagging. Meanwhile, my old 300W Vextrec only supports 5V@20amps, and it runs these boards perfectly. I don't know what symptoms you're seeing, but it might be worth trying some different PSU's in case it's a +5V problem.

[gdement]

Re: EPoX EP-8K7A bad caps BUT EPoX is going to fix it!

I'd be curious to know what kind of caps Epox uses when they repair these boards. Are they the same junk as before?

By extending the warranty for this long, Epox does seem to have the best attitude (in the mainstream market) for getting this problem fixed.

[bgavin]

Re: EPoX EP-8K7A bad caps BUT EPoX is going to fix it!

Newark sells the Panasonic FM series for $31.00 per 100 count. I figure as a newbie recapper, I'll give them a try. The FM series have gotten good nods from the smart guys here.

In another thread, a poster mentioned the Nichicon HE series from Mouser at $41.00 per 100 count. I don't know where the HE fits in the quality range, but they are more expensive. The data sheet says high reliability / long life.

I'm not an overclocker, just want a stock, stable set of boards.