Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

[Mad_Professor]

One of my dad's friend's friend has a Dell Inspiron 531 with asus m2n61-ax mobo. He only had it maybe a year and half and the thing abruptly died in operation with the computer locking up and the screen flickering to black. I'm still trying to find out if the thing ever has had problems with BSOD or spontaneous rebooting. The motherboard won't post, no bios beep codes. I've remove everything down to the processor and still no beeps codes or anything.

edit: got in contact with person, They said the computer loved to BSOD often and reboot once in a while. I'm pretty confident that it's bad caps.


Visual inspection of the board reveals nothing of interest.

So I'm wondering if this is a case of bad caps?

Caps:
Around the processor and memory dimms
5x Panasonic FL series 1800uf 6.3
8x UCC KZG 1500uf 6.3
5x UCC KZG 1000uf 16v

Around PCI-e PCI slots
10x UCC KZE 330 6.3v *1 at the dimm, 2 at USB and 1 at cpu socket

Misc/ Generally around the board
7x Rubycon MBZ 820uf 6.3v
1x Panasonic 470 uF 16v
abunch of smaller caps less then 100uf around the audio ports.


I suspect the KZG the most since they are known to fail without physical anomalies.

Stuck between whether to replace the motherboard or recap it.
Either way it's a win/win for me, if I replace the board, I get to keep this one, and I'll just recap it anyways and hope.

Ideas? or is it something more? recap or no?

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

Yup that sounds like bad KZG.
Might also be a bad PSU.
.

[Scenic]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

nForce 430 / GeForce 6150 chipset. there's your main problem.

[Mad_Professor]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

nForce 430 / GeForce 6150 chipset. there's your main problem.

what problem is that?


bonez that was the first thing to come to mind was to change out psu to test.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

what problem is that?

I think he means this.
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=12918

[Mad_Professor]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

Come to think of it, I have a laptop with Nforce4 with a disabled 6150 running a 8600GS, damn thing ran hot due to poor cooling design. Tied both cpu and gpu to the same heatsink. Overclocked it few times to play assassin creed and I bought this laptop in 2008. What are the chances? either they correct the problem in manufacturing or the high failure rate is exaggerated a bit.

Eh... I mean it's a random chance, I've already order new nichicon caps, HM and HN it only cost $8 plus S+H.

I'll know by Friday.

[Mad_Professor]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

Replacing the caps did the trick, it fired right up with no issues.

I also scared myself, I thought I burned off one of the copper tracks, but testing it with DMM it showed ok and when re-soldering it, the solder was pull to what look like a burn brown/charred hole. I was scared for a few minutes.

I'm happy that it working, now I need to run a prime95 torture test for 24 hours to make sure the system is stable.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

Caulk up another one to KZG!

CONGRATS!

[electro452]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

Replacing the caps did the trick, it fired right up with no issues.

I also scared myself, I thought I burned off one of the copper tracks, but testing it with DMM it showed ok and when re-soldering it, the solder was pull to what look like a burn brown/charred hole. I was scared for a few minutes.

I'm happy that it working, now I need to run a prime95 torture test for 24 hours to make sure the system is stable.

Did you replace all the caps or just cetain ones? I have the same motherboard from my dads computer that he just sent me and the board seems to have a power issue.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

Bad caps basically are a power issue as most of them filter noise out of the power.
.
Post some pics or tell us what caps you have.
.
To post pics go to advanced mode and look for the upload box near the bottom of the screen.

.

[Mad_Professor]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

God it's been that long I can't remember the computer the board came out of.


If I remember correctly I replaced the kzg caps.

[electro452]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

Bad caps basically are a power issue as most of them filter noise out of the power.
.
Post some pics or tell us what caps you have.
.
To post pics go to advanced mode and look for the upload box near the bottom of the screen.

.

I have the exact same ones listed by Mad in the above post. I've been trying to find a pre made kit but no luck so far. I was mainly wondering if I should replace all the caps or just start with the the KZG.

The motherboard fans run but I get no video or ethernet power.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

If you have the same set of caps and the PSU wasn't an issue then just replacing the KZG -should- be all that's needed.
.

[electro452]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

If you have the same set of caps and the PSU wasn't an issue then just replacing the KZG -should- be all that's needed.
.

I tried a different known working PSU ( Power Supply ) with the same results. Now should I just change those brown KZG caps or all the caps on the board?

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

The Panasonic and Rubycon should be fine.
Of the list you said yours is the same as, KZG are the only suspects.
.

[electro452]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

The Panasonic and Rubycon should be fine.
Of the list you said yours is the same as, KZG are the only suspects.
.

Thank you...

[electro452]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

Replacing the caps did the trick, it fired right up with no issues.

I also scared myself, I thought I burned off one of the copper tracks, but testing it with DMM it showed ok and when re-soldering it, the solder was pull to what look like a burn brown/charred hole. I was scared for a few minutes.

I'm happy that it working, now I need to run a prime95 torture test for 24 hours to make sure the system is stable.

Did you replace all the KZG?

I found the 1500UF, 16v as well as the 1000uf, 16v but I can't find the 330uf, 6.3v or the 10uf, 25v. I'm looking at the master list on Badcaps.

The 330uf and the 10uf are the small caps arounf the audio/video and lan jacks.. also scattered around the board in various spots

[Mad_Professor]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

Did you replace all the KZG?

I found the 1500UF, 16v as well as the 1000uf, 16v but I can't find the 330uf, 6.3v or the 10uf, 25v. I'm looking at the master list on Badcaps.

The 330uf and the 10uf are the small caps arounf the audio/video and lan jacks.. also scattered around the board in various spots

Just replace the 1500 16v and 1000 6.3v kzg with nichicon HM and HN caps unless your board is different.

Order them from the badcaps store or digikey use first class mail, and your done.

[electro452]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

Just replace the 1500 16v and 1000 6.3v kzg with nichicon HM and HN caps unless your board is different.

Order them from the badcaps store or digikey use first class mail, and your done.

Thank you...will do...

[Behemot]

Re: Asus m2n61-ax doesn't boot, worthy of fixing?

As for the chipset, heard from repair guy that the problem even with chips suspected from bad substrate is quite often just BGA related.

NVIDIAs chips are quite affected because of heat, more likely on ASUS boards (bad cooling, I have here one board with NO heatsink on southbridge, its even darkened arround) or in laptops.

As for Chemi-Con KZG, for me so far they were all blown, so sign of being optically good but bad inside. Anyway I change them on sight just because they will pop later anyway.