MCP61PM-HM Alternative

[oz999]

Hi I'm currently replacing a MCP61PM-HM out of a HP m8300f. A friend of my wife took it to a repair shop and they replaced it with the exact same model, and as one would guess the caps failed on the new one within only a couple months. I noticed a similar ASUS board which is my normal go to, but that one has been listed on several forums as having bad caps as well.

Being a wow fanatic and as she is rather angry about the situation, she does not want to mess with it anymore, nor to wait to have it recapped. Could someone recommend a nforce 430 board or something with really close specs that is not known for bad caps?

[c_hegge]

Re: MCP61PM-HM Alternative

No, I can't because the nForce 430 chipset is just as unreliable as taiwanese caps, since it is affected by the nVidia RoHS soldering bug. I also despise ASUS as a replacement because of how they like to drop dead after a year or two (even on the rare occasion when they don't use bad caps). I'd use a Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2H. AMD chipset with entirely good caps.

[kc8adu]

Re: MCP61PM-HM Alternative

unfortunately you have a lemon.doomed to failure any way you look at it.
i would upgrade and reload.you might get lucky and not have to reload.

[oz999]

Re: MCP61PM-HM Alternative

Yeah, I really probably shouldn't have helped her. I heard all the stories about the owner of the computer store and I'm not so convinced he was as bad as she says. And I can't help but feel if I don't get this perfect that I'll be the next guy she reports, even though I really don't have a biz.

I'm fairly sure if I turn around and tell her to get a new system she will blow a gasket. She's a senior on a fixed income. The refund the guy gave her the other day gives her just enough for a motherboard and thats it. And the GA-MA74GM-S2H actually looks pretty good, so I'm probably gonna go with that unless some others have had a bad experience with it.

[lti]

Re: MCP61PM-HM Alternative

You will need to uninstall the drivers related to the chipset before swapping boards. It isn't very difficult. In Windows XP, you just needed to remove the hard drive controller and change the computer type to a Standard PC (this disables power management) in Device Manager. When the new motherboard was installed, the computer type could be changed back to its original setting. I don't know what you need to change in Windows Vista or 7.

[oz999]

Re: MCP61PM-HM Alternative

I went with the GA-MA69GM-S2H instead due to her needing 3 memory banks.
It also had 1394a and a couple additional usb headers that maybe I could rig the media card thing back up with (odd connecters probably HP specific).

The original MB was already returned for a refund, will be unable to access it for chipset uninstall. Haven't had any problems swapping boards with Win7, in fact the first time I did it I swapped a drive from an entirely different system and it actually loaded the drivers up completely. Where XP would have been irrecoverable.

I'm hoping Vista will be similar, if not I'm in for fresh install.

[lti]

Re: MCP61PM-HM Alternative

You might be able to remove the drivers in Safe Mode. There might be an article on Microsoft's Web site that shows what you need to do if Windows won't install the correct drivers automatically.

[severach]

Re: MCP61PM-HM Alternative

Swapping boards works fine with XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Most of the time all that is required to get the new board to boot is to change the disk controller. Sometimes changing the AGP driver is necessary.

ArsTechnica: How to install a new motherboard without reinstalling Windows

Then there's the problem of getting all the new hardware to work properly.

[Rulycat]

Re: MCP61PM-HM Alternative

The only way to get such a board reliable is to cool the crap out of the chipset, but then it becomes uneconomical.

EDIT: was talking about the Nvidia board.

[glenleslie]

Re: MCP61PM-HM Alternative

2013 Update - found an AM3+ board that worked nicely for me (2 minor caveats..)

See this post for details