MCP61PM-HM rev 1.0b/blue screen errors

[N1DPW]

Good afternoon,

I've read postings here regarding this motherboard but I don't see any blue screen error discussions. My Compaq Presario SR5710F with a ECS (Elitegroup) MCP61PM-HM rev 1.0b motherboard has been giving me increasing blue screen error messages at start up and during run time. I've run multiple BurnInTest diagnostic tests, multiple passes of Memtest 86 and everything checks out OK. Drivers and software are all up to date. I don't have any memory to swap out but I believe it's OK. So I think it's time for cap replacements. OP system is VISTA Home Premium.

I do notice a couple of caps. appear to be leaking at the top with a slight bulge. They are 1800uF 6.3 v electros. Without removing the motherboard it's hard to tell if others are bad. I'm not sure if a single bad cap can contribute to blue screens.

I'm going to order a kit from the Bad Caps store this week. Has anyone recently replaced all 25 caps that are in the kit which resolved blue screen errors?

Thanks, Paul

[momaka]

Re: MCP61PM-HM rev 1.0b/blue screen errors

I do notice a couple of caps. appear to be leaking at the top with a slight bulge. They are 1800uF 6.3 v electros. Without removing the motherboard it’s hard to tell if others are bad. I’m not sure if a single bad cap can contribute to blue screens.

Yes, a single bad cap can contribute to a BSOD (blue screen of death) or even prevent the system from booting, depending on where the bad cap is located on the motherboard.

These ECS motherboards (the MCP61xx-xx series) are notorious for developing bad caps. Therefore, I suggest you get the kit and replace all of the caps on the board, not just the one or two that are leaking. Eventually, all of the ones that are from bad brands will go bad. The most common ones that go bad are TK, OST, and G-Luxon.

The board is not super-tough to work on, but make sure you have at least a 50W soldering iron. I recommend 60W-80W. Flux (either liquid and paste) will also help a lot. Apply a tiny bit to all joints before soldering/desoldering.

[N1DPW]

Re: MCP61PM-HM rev 1.0b/blue screen errors

Thanks momaka for the info. I'm not sure if the 1800uf caps supplied in the kit are from the Nichicon HZ or HN series. From what I've read the HZ series seem to be preferred.

I replaced several caps in this Samsung SyncMaster 204B a few years ago. Before the replacements I bet it took at least 15 minutes before it reached full display. After I replaced several caps the correct brightness was pretty much instant! Soldering was easy. Getting the case apart and back together with it's shields, etc. was not much fun.

Paul

[c_hegge]

Re: MCP61PM-HM rev 1.0b/blue screen errors

The soldering will be a little harder on a motherboard than a monitor power supply, since it is a multi-layer PCB. It's still easy enough with a decent iron, though. It won't matter whether you get HN or HZ for this board. HZ do have somewhat superior electrical specifications, but either will be an upgrade over the original caps.

[Topcat]

Re: MCP61PM-HM rev 1.0b/blue screen errors

The kit will cure it. I have recapped hundreds of these. With good caps, these boards are rock solid.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: MCP61PM-HM rev 1.0b/blue screen errors

CPU caps? I would expect the Linpack math burn in test to fail right off the bat, Linpack may fail with "STOP: 0x0000000A" BSOD.

[Uranium-235]

Re: MCP61PM-HM rev 1.0b/blue screen errors

The kit will cure it. I have recapped hundreds of these. With good caps, these boards are rock solid.

it has MCP61 infront of it, therefore its an nvidia chipset, so I would put 'rock solid' off the table, as it can die a BGA death at any time of its choosing

[c_hegge]

Re: MCP61PM-HM rev 1.0b/blue screen errors

^
Was gonna say that. I've seen a couple of these boards die or become unstable without bad caps. I always add a 40mm fan to the chipset heatsink when I recap one of these boards.

[Topcat]

Re: MCP61PM-HM rev 1.0b/blue screen errors

it has MCP61 infront of it, therefore its an nvidia chipset, so I would put 'rock solid' off the table, as it can die a BGA death at any time of its choosing

Never seen it happen.........

[momaka]

Re: MCP61PM-HM rev 1.0b/blue screen errors

The kit will cure it. I have recapped hundreds of these. With good caps, these boards are rock solid.

Yeah, they do seem pretty solid indeed. The CPU VRM area tends to quite run hot, though (at least with OEM manufacturers that have a lousy CPU fan thermal management - which many do). Well, okay, nowhere near as bad as on Intel motherboards, but considerable, nonetheless. In a room at 20C, the coils run 60-70C and that tends to heat the caps on the 12V rail for CPU a lot. Could probably use polies there.

I haven't tried a full poly mod, but my guess is it will work fine. The first MCP61PM-HM I did was a partial poly-mod, though. I did all of the CPU VRM with 820 uF 2.5V caps, except for two 2700 uF caps which I stuck on the end to bump up the capacitance. The RAM and chipset VRM will probably take polies too, since they are buck rails. I did it on the RAM on my MCP61AM-PM. Works great, and RAM voltage is dead-on 1.8V. Before, it was always 1.78-1.79V.