Is Lazy Recapping a Problem?

[bgavin]

I recapped a KG7 board that needed (1) cap done (cuz I'm out of stock).
It has an Alpha PAL8045 on the processor, so I got lazy and left the board populated.

It no work.

Just curious, did I shoot myself in the foot by recapping with the board populated?

[Harvey]

Re: Is Lazy Recapping a Problem?

Populated? What do you mean by that? You left the RAM & CPU etc. in, or you just changed the one cap?

[Scenic]

Re: Is Lazy Recapping a Problem?

that Alpha PAL8045 heatsink is screwed onto the board (instead of using clips).. so i guess he was too lazy to undo all that stuff and left the heatsink + CPU on...

[ss627]

Re: Is Lazy Recapping a Problem?

Wouldnt be surprised if the flexing broke a solder joint somewhere.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Is Lazy Recapping a Problem?

Try clearing CMOS by removing battery

[stevo1210]

Re: Is Lazy Recapping a Problem?

I've recapped boards whilst leaving the CPU and RAM attached and it still worked fine, and I've done this multiple times as well.

[bgavin]

Re: Is Lazy Recapping a Problem?

By populated, I mean leaving the CPU and memory in their sockets.

The single cap changed out was EC15, 3300/6.3 single cap close to the ATX connector, East of the CPU, and North of the NB.

I suspect this one might be a VRM for the memory sockets.
It is not part of the VRM cluster for the processor.

When I get time to diagnose it, I'll do the CMOS thing, strip the memory, etc. Other work is far more pressing, so this one goes on the back burner.

I was just curious if anybody here has gotten burned by recapping with the processor and memory in their sockets.

[Gianni]

Re: Is Lazy Recapping a Problem?

bgavin I have recapped few boards till now and I left most of them populated without any problem.

Only on 2 I have removed the CPU HS because was easier to replace some caps.

Ciao
Gianni

[kc8adu]

Re: Is Lazy Recapping a Problem?

i often leave the cpu in to protect the pins.
sometimes the hsf too.
i would double check your work if it worked before.
as for emergency stuff i once fixed a mission critical industrial motherboard by shutting it down,ripping the only vrm cap i could get to off the board,and soldering 1 fujitsu 820@2.5 poly in its place.this machine was being used to work on a gov project so critical that if someone handled the part they had to let it settle to the specified temp before machining further.
the board was crashing during the operation and they could not take the downtime for me to do it right.it ran fine and everyone forgot it for several months till a scheduled downtime.the poly was not damaged.
this was a fujitsu-siemens custom board and it was buried well.

[yanz]

Re: Is Lazy Recapping a Problem?

80% of my work were done by leaving the CPU in their socket. though i failed last week, one bx motherboard can't be installed again with windows after recapping. before, it was fine. sad.

[kc8adu]

Re: Is Lazy Recapping a Problem?

check your soldering and clear cmos.
boards that worked before a recap but not after are usually something stupid.

[bgavin]

Re: Is Lazy Recapping a Problem?

I'm out of stock on 3300/6.3 caps, or I would just pull it and use another cap.

It took me about 10 days to get my refund from Wai Fong, with their system problems and all.

I'll retry ordering those MCZ again through Wai Fong, but this time I will skip FF and use IE6.

CMOS clear was no help.
I get long continuous beeps when it powers up.
Swapped out the CPU, same error.
Same noise, with/without memory sticks installed.

[ratdude747]

Re: Is Lazy Recapping a Problem?

i always remove everything except for non-removable chipset heatsinks. less things to worry about damaging. dont be lazy. it will only lead to more work in the end.