DFI Lanparty NF4 bad component.

[JTanczos]

I need some help from the knowledgeable members here. I was given computer with a DFI lanparty NF4 motherboard that had horrible artifacts on the screen. The former owner replaced the northbridge fan by himself which was not exactly the best repair job but it worked. It is NOT the video card because he replaced that first thinking it was bad.

Now here is where I screwed up and need your help. I started turning it into a server. Video artifacts mean nothing to a server. While tinkering around I found a part that looks like a capacitor that had some "gunk" around it. Part number S573 If I slightly moved it the artifacts did not appear when i booted. They would return when the computer came up to temp. When I would press on the part it would shut off the computer. Sometimes the computer wouldn't post until I moved the piece in just the right spot. Well, I tried to slide a piece of paper between the part and the board wondering if it was shorting something and now the computer reboots several times during post.

The Debug lights go in a sequence. 4 lights, 3 *reboot* 4 lights, 3 *reboot* then randomly the 3rd light would stay on then go 3,2,1 but still no video.

If the debug lights go to 1 it should boot! It should have passed post.

Im guessing that the part is directly related to the video of the board. I need to know what it is and how I can find a replacement part. I am more than capable of repairing the board.

It was working fine until I messed with the part.



Thank you

[ben7]

Re: DFI Lanparty NF4 bad component.

Is your power supply good? What brand?

Tried testing memory?

Worst case would be a bad solder joint or two on one of the chips.

[mariushm]

Re: DFI Lanparty NF4 bad component.

That's a clock oscillator, probably running at 32768 Hz (or 32.768 Khz).

It's used by that square chip on the left on that brown plastic socket which is the BIOS, to keep track of time. It shouldn't affect anything else.

What probably happens is that a component is not soldered properly on the board near that oscillator (cracked or weak solder), it's an intermittent contant.
So when you touched and moved the oscillator, you put a slight pressure on the board (you bent it a bit) getting that weak soldered part to make good contact. As the board heats up, the metals expand slightly and the part no longer makes good contact.

First thing I would do would be to get some isopropylic alcohol (99%+ purity) and some lint free cloth (or some cotton tip sticks) and with that stuff dabbed in alcohol, gently clean the area around that oscillator to clean it from all that junk.

After it's dry, get a magnifying glass and inspect the components to see if one of those parts has some cracked/weak solder.

PS. The outside of that oscillator should NOT touch anything... under it there's something that looks like mylar tape (insulating tape like that scotch tape but tolerates lots of heat) but I may be wrong.

[luke10050]

Re: DFI Lanparty NF4 bad component.

slightly unrelated but my father ordered one of these DFI boards, they couldnt even get it to install windows properly... ended up getting a gigabyte one... AKA. not sure if they are really a great board (someone may prove me wrong) but they seem somewhat unreliable

EDIT: just me or is there some scorch marks around the oscillator?

[theokretes]

Re: DFI Lanparty NF4 bad component.

vantec iceberq coolers are actually pretty good.

Yeah, check for a cold solder joint on that little oscillator (in which case it wouldn't be too hard to redo the joints). The "gunk" could be from the sticky pad with dust that got stuck to it. Sometimes they are held with sticky pads, or soldered directly down.

[holmes222]

Re: DFI Lanparty NF4 bad component.

i have this board a year ago ..
this nf4 dfi tends to be very picky about powersupply and memory
did you ever flash/update the bios ??

for graphic corruption ..this board dont have integrated graphic ..what graphic do you use ? what power supply ? what memory ? try to move graphic card to second pcie slot ?