ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

[Dan81]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

A lot of brands use the AT-2005B platform. The most complete i've seen was in a Spire 450W. It still had crap caps (CS) but otherwise the construction was very good.

Okay,a Google search of this forum turned up that AT-2005B = Sun Pro.

[c_hegge]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

Isn't it ironic how this thread has turned into a PSU discussion while P4's thread on PSUs has turned into a motherboard discussion?

[momaka]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

Isn't it ironic how this thread has turned into a PSU discussion while P4's thread on PSUs has turned into a motherboard discussion?

Yeah, I noticed that too. I think some of the blame can be put on me, because I just dislike both Intel and ASUS designs and couldn't stop that discussion .

[Pentium4]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

Isn't it ironic how this thread has turned into a PSU discussion while P4's thread on PSUs has turned into a motherboard discussion?

That's funny, weird how that worked. I highly prefer Intel over Asus when it comes to motherboards. I really enjoyed Intel's 775 line with the 31 and 41 chipsets. They must be well designed, because I've seen KZG last over 20,000 hours on the VRM high side, and the 1500μF KZG's would read within 3% spec almost every time. And this is running in warm cases too (Low power CPU's but with no exhaust fan)

[c_hegge]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

^
Yeah, me too. Some Intel boards did have hot VRMs but I've had far fewer problems with Foxconn made Intel than Asus boards.

In later years, though, Intel boards were mostly made by Asus anyway. The backwards capacitor polarity markings gave it away. These days, I don't think Intel still sell boards under their own brand. Well, at least there are no H/Z97 Intel board available.

[Pentium4]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

Yes, that's true. Intel is leaving the desktop board market. We have a connection with Intel at work and we found out almost a year ago that Intel will no longer be making desktop boards by the end of 2014. They might have already stopped, it's getting hard to find brand new Intel boards.

[c_hegge]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

Ah, well, now I know for sure. We usually use Gigabyte boards in new PCs and on occasion, MSI. I've had pretty good luck with both over the years (although Gigabyte's use of Apaq caps in a lot of their new H and Z97 boards is a little disappointing)

[Pentium4]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

Yeah, it's disappointing. I like MSI more than Gigabyte. We were ordering some cheap low end S1150 boards, and the MSI (B85M-E33) was comparatively priced to the Gigabyte (GA-H81M-S2PV) the main difference was that the MSI used exclusively Chemi-con polymers, and the Gigabyte used exclusively Apaq polymers. I'll take the MSI!

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

I've seen several MSI boards (new-ish, core i-series support) with really lousy soldering. Lousy enough for them to stop working. Considering that so far very few failures of "lower quality" polymer capacitors have been observed, i'll take Gigabyte over MSI any day.

[Almighty1]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

I'll bring this back to a motherboard thread, which cap in the picture is actually for the Ethernic NIC? Is it possible that a failing PSU can make a built-in Ethernet NIC perform badly and now after replacing the PSU without a -5VDC rail on a ASUS P4C-800E Deluxe, it seems the led's on the Intel Pro1000 jack are orange and windows claims the device fails to start up properly.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

windows claims the device fails to start up properly.

The BIOS may be corrupted. I would clear the CMOS first before deciding the BIOS' fate.

[c_hegge]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

^
Read the previous post again. It only occurred after replacing the PSU with a different one with no -5V. It's more likely to be power related - either it needs the -5V (which I will stress again, is a ridiculously bad design, but knowing ASUS, is entirely possible), or the original PSU took the Ethernet controller out.

The cap in question is circled here. It wasn't installed from the factory, and so I added it.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

^
Read the previous post again.

I only said that, because the PSU may have borked the BIOS or CMOS.

[c_hegge]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

Maybe, but if everything else on the board is working, it's more likely to just be the Ethernet controller. It's rare for a BIOS to fail in that manner. They normally either work fine or stop the board from starting.

[Almighty1]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

Yeah, forgot about clearing the CMOS but if the BIOS is corrupted, wouldn't it require reflashing the BIOS in addition to clearing the CMOS?

Basically, this is what happened. About a year ago, the built-in NIC would no longer do 1000Mbps as in Windows, it would think the network cable is unplugged and the only way to get it working is to force 100Mbps inside Windows. In April 2014, there was a weird smell from the computer and I thought it was the motherboard's capacitors and had been buying replacement capacitors to recap the board but due to the top of the case requiring lifting the table before I can get the full tower SuperMicro SC750 case out, I was postponing the recap of the mobo then of course on September 10, 2014 - I was using the system and it all of the sudden turned off but the status light on the motherboard remained on and only on the first push of the power button on the case after AC power is connected, would the front case panel lights blink once quickly. The PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 450ATX has a -5vdc rail and basically is waiting to get recapped as soon as I order the capacitors. I am using a Corsair CX750m which does not have a -5vdc rail and the only thing not working is the on-board Ethernet so I want to see if it is the -5vdc rail causing it as I will know when I get the PCP&C recapped and working again just so I don't mess up two items and can't figure out which one is working and which isn't so better to do one at a time.
If that doesn't fix it, it can be the caps of the motherboard as it is at least 11 years of the system running 24x7x365. So I'm hoping that the ethernet NIC does actually go through caps in the circuit and replacing it will fix it since I am replacing all 34 caps on the board including the 5x 16v 100uF caps with the Rubycon ZLH that I have while the others will be replaced with the following:
Nichicon HZ 6.3v 1000uF 8X15mm
Nichicon HZ 10v 1500uF 8X20mm
Nichicon HZ 16v 1500uF 10X20mm

Is the chip right above the cap you added the NIC controller? I know on the motherboard I have, it's capped exactly like the one in the attached picture with all those spots for caps without installed caps from the factory. The chip with the Pulse on it is part of the NIC as well as the PCI Intel Pro1000 cards also has it. It's not a biggie as I can always replace it with a PCI Intel Pro1000 card if nothing else fixes it.

Not everything on the board is working because there has been a problem with a USB hub which was hanging the BIOS at the main POST screen before the PSU failed once and once after the current PSU is in there, basically I would need to unplug the DC Adapter to the USB hub to power cycle the USB hub before starting the system if it hangs at the BIOS start screen, the one with the big ASUS logo to get it to work normally.

[c_hegge]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

Yeah, forgot about clearing the CMOS but if the BIOS is corrupted, wouldn't it require reflashing the BIOS in addition to clearing the CMOS?

Yes, it would (and possibly a replacement BIOS chip too).

Basically, this is what happened. About a year ago, the built-in NIC would no longer do 1000Mbps as in Windows, it would think the network cable is unplugged and the only way to get it working is to force 100Mbps inside Windows. In April 2014, there was a weird smell from the computer and I thought it was the motherboard's capacitors and had been buying replacement capacitors to recap the board but due to the top of the case requiring lifting the table before I can get the full tower SuperMicro SC750 case out, I was postponing the recap of the mobo then of course on September 10, 2014 - I was using the system and it all of the sudden turned off but the status light on the motherboard remained on and only on the first push of the power button on the case after AC power is connected, would the front case panel lights blink once quickly. The PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 450ATX has a -5vdc rail and basically is waiting to get recapped as soon as I order the capacitors. I am using a Corsair CX750m which does not have a -5vdc rail and the only thing not working is the on-board Ethernet so I want to see if it is the -5vdc rail causing it as I will know when I get the PCP&C recapped and working again just so I don't mess up two items and can't figure out which one is working and which isn't so better to do one at a time.
If that doesn't fix it, it can be the caps of the motherboard as it is at least 11 years of the system running 24x7x365. So I'm hoping that the ethernet NIC does actually go through caps in the circuit and replacing it will fix it since I am replacing all 34 caps on the board including the 5x 16v 100uF caps with the Rubycon ZLH that I have while the others will be replaced with the following:
Nichicon HZ 6.3v 1000uF 8X15mm
Nichicon HZ 10v 1500uF 8X20mm
Nichicon HZ 16v 1500uF 10X20mm

It's hard to say what the problem is. It might be the PSU, but it may very well be the Ethernet controller IC as well.

Is the chip right above the cap you added the NIC controller? I know on the motherboard I have, it's capped exactly like the one in the attached picture with all those spots for caps without installed caps from the factory. The chip with the Pulse on it is part of the NIC as well as the PCI Intel Pro1000 cards also has it. It's not a biggie as I can always replace it with a PCI Intel Pro1000 card if nothing else fixes it.

The IC immediately above the cap I installed is indeed the Ethernet controller. Your board appears to have the same cap missing as mine did. You could add a 100uF or 220uF 16V cap there if you care to.

[Almighty1]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

I tried reflashing the bios and clearing the CMOS but it doesn't make a difference as it's still shows the exclamation mark on the device and when one clicks on the device, it shows "This device cannot start. (Code 10)". I'm trying to see if I can get a live CD on a USB Flash of a Unix Like OS like FreeBSD or Linux to see if it works there as it can just be a Windows issue as I can see on my HP ProCurve Switch that it does have activity and also the Boot rom of the NIC shows up during the POST. I'll just stick with not adding a cap there to be on the safe side as I could mess up the board more by accident even though I do happen to have a few spare Rubycon ZLH 16v 100uF caps since it didn't have problems for the first 10 years running 24x7x365. If you didn't add the cap to the ethernet controller, wouldn't it still have to go through the other caps on the motherboard anyways?

[c_hegge]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

^
No. I'm pretty sure there are no other caps to filter it. If your other power supply got bad caps, then that might explain why it was one of the first things to stop working.

[Almighty1]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

Good point, for some reason I thought the ATX Power has to go through caps before it reaches the other things on the motherboard. What I couldn't figure out is on my HP ProCurve Managed switch, it actually shows activity about every second, it's on 100FDX too.

[Almighty1]

Re: ASUS P5LD2 SE Recap and partial Polymod

I couldn't get the card working under FreeBSD Live USB Stick either.... I wonder if somehow the system from the BIOS level is somehow making the IRQ's share as the onboard NIC shares with PCI slot 2 which is a Adaptec 39320A-R Ultra320 SCSI controller. Before the PSU went down, the only HDD was no longer recognize since March 2011 but with the new PSU, the HDD works fine. Took out the Adaptec SCSI controller, made no difference. Noticed one of the capactors, I think these are surface mounted has a bulge on top, it's labeled 16v 22 and has the R logo for the brand, wonder who made that one.