EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

[gastorgrab]

Just bought this from Ebay;

http://cgi.ebay.com/AMD-462-Motherbo...ayphotohosting

This board is in NON WORKING CONDITION and is being sold as such.

I do not know what is wrong with this board all I know is that it will power up for a sort time then shut off.

Model Number EP-8RDA+

I'm assuming that the caps are bad, and that it was worth the $15.99 i paid for it. ($0.99 + 14.99 shipping).

I shall soon see.
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[gastorgrab]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

I think i have all the needed caps.

6 - 3300uf, 6.3v, 10.0mm, Rubycon MBZ
4 - 2200uf, 10.0v, 12.5mm, Panasonic FM (i'm hoping that these will fit)
5 - 1500uf, 6.3v, 10.0mm, Panasonic FM
9 - 1000uf, 6.3v, 8.0mm, Panasonic FM
7 - 470uf, 16.0v, 8.0mm, Rubycon MBZ

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[starfury1]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

let use know how you go
good luck too
lets hope caps are its only problems

yeah dont you just hate Ebay and postage

[gastorgrab]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

Hmmmm.

I just checked inside the case of my 8RGA to get an idea of the cap placement. It (now) has the shorter MCZ caps around the RAM slots instead of the tall FM caps i first considered.

9 - 1000uf, 6.3v, 8.0mm, Panasonic FM

The taller caps wouldn't interfere around the RAM slots but the one between the AGP and the first PCI slot might.




If things are consistant with the 8RGA board, the remaining 8mm caps will be 470uf, 16v caps. The only 470uf caps i have are MBZ, and fall well below the height of the PCI slots.
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[gastorgrab]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

The board arrived today and most of the caps 'look' good. The only exception is a GSC with a flat top that appears to be lifted away from the board about 3mm on one leg. The cap feels more loose than if just not installed against the board (it wobbles)







According to the seller, this board would run for a while and then shut off.


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[gastorgrab]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

I noticed that the vent looked different on the 'bent' capacitor, so i pulled it.

WTF is this?



It has the GSC colors but there is a symbol on it that looks like an "H".




--edit--


And the caps that i thought were 'GSC' say 'KQC' on the side.
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[gastorgrab]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

The CMOS socket is cracked!

I'll clean the area well and attempt to repair with a fillet of Tak-Pak.
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[gastorgrab]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

Update - solder pad is missing.

It must have pulled off with the solder wick.......i'm assuming. It was there before i pulled the cap, and nothing is there now. The strange part is that it was no more difficult to pull that particular cap than any other.

Maybe this board has been factory recapped before. It full of strange brand caps; G-Luxon, KQC, and whatever the brand of cap uses an 'H' in a circle.

Now it's a practice board.
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[gdement]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

Maybe you can find somewhere else to tap into the voltage line that was on that cap. If it's an input cap, then you could just solder the replacement on the back of the board underneath the power connector. It's ugly, but it might work out just as well.

It's likely there's something else wrong with the board though, the cap was probably just bent from getting bumped into so many times when the power connector was getting plugged. The eventual power off symptom sounds like his power supply was gradually getting overloaded, like there's a short that gets worse as the board runs somehow.

[gastorgrab]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

The ebay seller had originally pulled the BIOS chip for some reason. It's the most straight forward explanation for the chip socket being broken. Under the chip there was a diagonal scratch where it looked like the tool had slipped.

I won't worry about it. I was a little confused because i usually know exactly when i break something. I'm just glad that i didn't pay a lot for it.

On a side note, the 2200uf, 10v x 12mm caps seem to fit acceptably. The caps didn't interfere with each other in any way but i was concerned that they might be damaged by the sharp edges on the mosfets.
I took a stem from a Q-tip and slid it under the caps to eventually put some space between the two rows.

I'd post a picture of the approximately 5 degree the caps are now installed at but the camera is on it's way to a wedding right now. This is the area i'm talking about though;


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[Sparky]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

I wouldn't worry about the angle the caps are at. Heck my bro's patchworked 8KHA+ has a bunch of 12.5mm caps crammed in that area sitting at all sorts of crazy angles I should snap a pic sometime to show my handywork lol.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

Anyone else saw "H" caps before?

[Big Pope]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

Anyone else saw "H" caps before?

Here is the exactly information you need ---> http://www.cn-huayue.com/e1.htm

[kc8adu]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

thats one i have not seen.
btw i bought a 8kha+ for $1 at hamfest.
same symptoms.scoping vcore showed extreme ripple and hash.
all the teapo's were open but not bulging.
doent look good with yours as someone has been messing around with it.
bad caps and a bad flash?

[gastorgrab]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

Oh-well.........it's a practice part now.

When you buy something that you can hold in your hand first, you have a chance of noticing small area's of damage. Some of the pictures of the boards available on ebay are sorta fuzzy.

I knew it was a gamble.



--edit--


Just a thought, but would one of those USB microscopes (i think intended for kids) be useful for taking close-up pictures of circiut boards?

Has anyone tried it?

I'm wondering if the surface of the solder would be too reflective to get a good picture of solder joints.
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[kc8adu]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

Oh-well.........it's a practice part now.

When you buy something that you can hold in your hand first, you have a chance of noticing small area's of damage. Some of the pictures of the boards available on ebay are sorta fuzzy.

I knew it was a gamble.



--edit--


Just a thought, but would one of those USB microscopes (i think intended for kids) be useful for taking close-up pictures of circiut boards?

Has anyone tried it?

I'm wondering if the surface of the solder would be too reflective to get a good picture of solder joints.
.

look for screwdriver stab marks near the socket clips.
if the p.o was careless about the bios socket they were probably careless in dealing with the hsf clips too.
a busted bios socket can be fixed if thats all thats wrong.

[gastorgrab]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

a busted bios socket can be fixed if thats all thats wrong.

There's also the missing trace on the back of the board.


After so much it stops being fun. I'll just get another board and keep the sanity i have (left).
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[gastorgrab]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

OK, i went with a two-pack this time. I'm hoping that at least one of these boards is fixable.


My latest ebay find:

EPoX 8RDA+


EPoX 8RDA3+



And again, no emergency here. I just like these boards. I've had very good luck with the nforce2 chipset.
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[davmax]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

Yes I agree they are a nice motherboard. A good recap works wonders and a good heatsink (Thermalright HR-09U secured to the MOSFETs with silicone adhesive) to cool the MOSFETS improves life even more. However the chipset does not support high density memory, this can be a trap. 1Gb memory modules will typically not operate with this board. The NF3 250 chipset is the nearest chipset to support high density.

[gastorgrab]

Re: EPoX EP-8RDA+ - Non Working Condition

Boards showed up today and were closely inspected:

8RDA clearly has bad caps. According to the post on ebay the board became unstable.

8RDA3 has junk caps but none of them look bad (or even that old). According to the seller, this board would not enter BIOS.

.......but i'm not surprised since the CMOS jumper was missing.
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