Soyo SY-6VBA133 - no POST

[Dan81]

Got one of the oldies here, and it finally bit the dust.


Originally came with Wendell caps and would not power on until I replaced all the bigger Wendell caps with 1500uF Panasonic FL.


It will now power on fine, but will not POST - on power on I just get a continuous rapid clicking from the speaker, regardless whether I have RAM inserted or not. CPU is a P3 500MHz Katmai, but I have tried a 550 Katmai and a 650 Coppermine model as well.


Any help is appreciated, as I would love to get this board working and replace the Acorp 6VIA81P I currently have, as Soyo makes much better boards than Acorp.

[cpt.charlie]

Maybe more caps are failing without visual signs of damage, clicking from the speaker could be some kind of reset behavior.

[Dan81]

I was thinking of reset too, could the small caps (22uF 25V to 100uF) cause this issue?

[cpt.charlie]

Small caps tend to have a shorter life.

[momaka]

Could we see some pictures of your board and work? If it worked before (or at least POSTed) and not now, then it may help to trace back what you did. Not necessarily implying that your broken it, as there could have been an issue with the board beforehand, waiting for someone to touch the "right spot" on the motherboard to break it.

So the more info and pictures we have, the better.

[Dan81]

Originally Posted by momaka

Could we see some pictures of your board and work? If it worked before (or at least POSTed) and not now, then it may help to trace back what you did. Not necessarily implying that your broken it, as there could have been an issue with the board beforehand, waiting for someone to touch the "right spot" on the motherboard to break it.

So the more info and pictures we have, the better.

Check the best cheap/free scores thread. I already scrapped it in favor of a 6BA+IV model that also has a HPT366 RAID controller, as well as the more versatile 440BX chipset instead of VIA 693.

Wasn't such a big loss. I'm holding off recapping the 6BA+IV until I can get a proper wattage soldering iron that is more powerful (at least 60-100W) because of the huge power planes around the CPU. A low wattage iron was the 6VBA133's demise - because it was 40W, I struggled so hard to get the caps out that I destroyed the internal layers of the board and also somehow I managed to fuse the cap holes with the whole plane they were on, shorting out the VRM.

All in all, it wasn't worth beating a dead horse - I already took all jumpers and BIOS chip, and scrapped it in favor of a 6BA+IV I just got from the same dude that sold me the 6VBA133. This one just had some scratched traces, nothing a cutter and a few dabs of solder couldn't fix.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Dan81

Check the best cheap/free scores thread. I already scrapped it in favor of a 6BA+IV model that also has a HPT366 RAID controller, as well as the more versatile 440BX chipset instead of VIA 693.

Yeah, I saw that. Just wasn't sure if you kept it around and still wanted to take a stab at fixing it.

Oh well...
R.I.P. SY-6VBA133

Originally Posted by Dan81

I'm holding off recapping the 6BA+IV until I can get a proper wattage soldering iron that is more powerful (at least 60-100W) because of the huge power planes around the CPU. A low wattage iron was the 6VBA133's demise - because it was 40W, I struggled so hard to get the caps out that I destroyed the internal layers of the board and also somehow I managed to fuse the cap holes with the whole plane they were on, shorting out the VRM.

Yup, too weak an iron will do that.
Though if it was a well-built 40W iron with a very thick copper tip (my dad has one like that from the late 70's / early 80's and it's tank), it could work OK. It's mostly all about heat transfer. If you have low power, you can substitute that with large thermal mass and vice versa. But if you have poor heat transfer (thin tip or tip made of cheaper materials), nothing will save you.

That's why with hot air, you need so many Watts to heat something to remove it - because air has pretty poor heat transfer. But then its advantage is that you can remove things without any physical contact from the tool.

[Dan81]

Originally Posted by momaka

Yup, too weak an iron will do that.
Though if it was a well-built 40W iron with a very thick copper tip (my dad has one like that from the late 70's / early 80's and it's tank), it could work OK. It's mostly all about heat transfer. If you have low power, you can substitute that with large thermal mass and vice versa. But if you have poor heat transfer (thin tip or tip made of cheaper materials), nothing will save you.

That's why with hot air, you need so many Watts to heat something to remove it - because air has pretty poor heat transfer. But then its advantage is that you can remove things without any physical contact from the tool.

It is one of those Radioshack style chinese crap irons. I had a 60W one with a really thick tip but that one died. (wouldn't heat anymore - mica based, like the 40Ws I have are made - ceramic stuff is way too expensive here)

I was thinking of asking one of my friends who runs a repair shop if I can use his solderi g station (it's a Pro'sKit station) as it's temperature controlled and I might have better results.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Dan81

It is one of those Radioshack style chinese crap irons. I had a 60W one with a really thick tip but that one died. (wouldn't heat anymore - mica based, like the 40Ws I have are made - ceramic stuff is way too expensive here)

They probably used too thin NiChrome wire on it, so it ran too hot for its own good.

That said, you can buy cheap NiChrome wire online and rewind it. Maybe even make it more powerful, if you like? Or dual-power with dual windings?

And instead of temperature control, you can put a switch to toggle between full power and half power (for half power, just put a single diode in series with the live - this should be about enough to keep the iron up to temperature once it's hot enough and not over-burn the tip as fast.)

Originally Posted by Dan81

I was thinking of asking one of my friends who runs a repair shop if I can use his solderi g station (it's a Pro'sKit station) as it's temperature controlled and I might have better results.

Only if it's a good quality station.
Just because it's temperature controlled doesn't really mean anything. The cheapo Hakko 936 clones that use 900M tips are about as sad as any other cheaply-made wall / constant power iron. The iron that came with my KADA 951D+ is pathetic. Last time I used it was probably 2 years ago. It just sits down in the garage uselessly. I only keep that station for the hot air (and even that rarely sees a use anymore, but at least it's a working hot air station. The temp-controlled iron, on the other hand... ).

[Dan81]

Originally Posted by momaka

They probably used too thin NiChrome wire on it, so it ran too hot for its own good.

That said, you can buy cheap NiChrome wire online and rewind it. Maybe even make it more powerful, if you like? Or dual-power with dual windings?

And instead of temperature control, you can put a switch to toggle between full power and half power (for half power, just put a single diode in series with the live - this should be about enough to keep the iron up to temperature once it's hot enough and not over-burn the tip as fast.)


Only if it's a good quality station.
Just because it's temperature controlled doesn't really mean anything. The cheapo Hakko 936 clones that use 900M tips are about as sad as any other cheaply-made wall / constant power iron. The iron that came with my KADA 951D+ is pathetic. Last time I used it was probably 2 years ago. It just sits down in the garage uselessly. I only keep that station for the hot air (and even that rarely sees a use anymore, but at least it's a working hot air station. The temp-controlled iron, on the other hand... ).

I ended up getting a Kemot soldering iron. Ceramic resistor that heats up, and tip is a strong one that doesn't eat itself lol.

Recapped the 6BA+IV w/ Panny FJS (from an dead NEC machine, board had bad SuperIO chip) and Rubycon MBZ from same board, along with two Sanyo WF in the corner of the board. POST'd just fine, though it's picky about what RAM sticks it eats.