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    #1

    Asus A8N-E with possible bad caps?

    Hi guys,

    I have this motherbaord that won't POST. I have checked to make sure the BIOS is not corrupted by swapping the BIOS chip with a known good chip, which didn't remedy anything. I'm wondering if it is possible that one or more of the capacitors are bad.

    Looking around the motherboard there seems to be no really obvious visible signs of blown caps or leaking residue. However, the board is mostly made up of KZG caps which seem to have a bit of a rep around this forum for popping without visible signs. There are 6 FJ caps on the board too.

    My questions are: do you think this could be symptoms of bad caps? Also, if I am going to replace the caps, should I replace all of them of just certain ones and where do I start?

    Cheers
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Asus A8N-E with possible bad caps?

    KZG are a bad series.
    They fail without bloating.

    With KZG there, yes it's probably a caps issue.

    Working fine on one day and no boot on the next is common way bad KZG show up.
    I had two do that in the same week before I knew KZG had issues. [None bloated.]
    Replaced the KZG with MBZ and everything worked again. - Was that easy.

    Replace all the KZG and [if you have any] the OST.
    Asus likes OST a lot and they will fail the same way as KZG.

    .
    Last edited by PCBONEZ; 09-22-2010, 07:56 AM.
    Mann-Made Global Warming.
    - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
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    Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
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      #3
      Re: Asus A8N-E with possible bad caps?

      Working fine one day and not POSTing the next is also a common ASUS issue. If replacing the caps doesn't help, then the board's toast. I see that a lot with ASUS. nothing obvious wrong with them, but they just die.
      I love putting bad caps and flat batteries in fire and watching them explode!!

      No wonder it doesn't work! You installed the jumper wires backwards

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        #4
        Re: Asus A8N-E with possible bad caps?

        yep...older asus boards can be finicky. i had one (amd socket a/462) that randomly wouldnt detect the hard drive. (i tried 3 different drives)...
        and then the psu blew up due to a short in a fan header (the mobo caught on fire and the already overstressed 185w powmax went >BAM!<

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          #5
          Re: Asus A8N-E with possible bad caps?

          Originally posted by shovenose View Post
          yep...older asus boards can be finicky. i had one (amd socket a/462) that randomly wouldnt detect the hard drive. (i tried 3 different drives)...<
          One of my nieces had a board that did that. [Wasn't Asus, was Soyo.]
          Had a bad 5 mm 22uF Sacon cap in drive controller circuit.

          Asus uses LOTS of OST for the little caps. - May be a big part of their 'weird' problems.
          Few people ever check the little caps because there is this mindset that they never go bad,,, but they do...
          .
          Mann-Made Global Warming.
          - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
          -
          Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
          - Dr Seuss
          -
          You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.
          -

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            #6
            Re: Asus A8N-E with possible bad caps?

            Thanks for the advice guys. Once I get the capacitors I'll let you know how it goes.

            Comment

              #7
              Re: Asus A8N-E with possible bad caps?

              Right guys,

              I replace all caps on the boards with a value of 820uf or higher with Rubycon caps. The result is exactly the same except this time the board turned on, fans spun up but then the whole system shut off after about 20 seconds and will no longer turn on - one toasted board

              Oh well it was worth the shot and I can say I'm better at removing and replacing caps - just not making things work

              Comment

                #8
                Re: Asus A8N-E with possible bad caps?

                May be a PSU issue too.
                Mann-Made Global Warming.
                - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
                -
                Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
                - Dr Seuss
                -
                You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.
                -

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: Asus A8N-E with possible bad caps?

                  Checked that out, switched with two other PSUs, same result. I'm pretty sure it's shot.

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Re: Asus A8N-E with possible bad caps?

                    My son's computer (which also uses an A8N-E motherboard) has been acting really flaky lately; he came home from college for the weekend so I could take a look at it. I opened it up yesterday and discovered several bulging 6.3V 820uF KZG caps. I replaced all of the 6.3V 820uF caps (not just the bulging ones).

                    I did not have any 820uF on hand, so I used some 1000uF from United Chemi-Con. They're a little taller than the KZGs, but I checked for clearance with the video card before proceeding (one of the caps was right next to the PCIe x16 slot) and it still fits.

                    After reading this thread, I'm a little concerned that I should've replaced all of the larger (1000uF and up) electrolytics as well, even though none of them were bulging. I didn't realize that the KZGs are prone to failing with no outward signs of damage.

                    Oh well, I guess we'll see if stability has been improved with what I've done so far. It is running Memtest86+ right now; if it completes two passes error-free I will boot it into Windows so we can run some further stress tests.

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Re: Asus A8N-E with possible bad caps?

                      Originally posted by c_hegge View Post
                      Working fine one day and not POSTing the next is also a common ASUS issue. If replacing the caps doesn't help, then the board's toast. I see that a lot with ASUS. nothing obvious wrong with them, but they just die.
                      that just happened to me with a recapped Asus A8V (Socket 939) a week or so ago.
                      normal windows shutdown one evening, and the next day it just wouldn't turn on. no reaction to the power button whatsoever.
                      manually starting the PSU up (PS_ON jumper wire trick) didn't help either.. no POST and the POST code PCI card just says "FF"..
                      died for no reason.. really great, as this board was in a PC i built for selling on ebay.. FFS -.-

                      Asus

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                        #12
                        Re: Asus A8N-E with possible bad caps?

                        Yes, the 1000uF and the 1500uF around the VRM will fail without bulging. I replaced mine with Nichicon HM.

                        Luckily, everything else on the board was Panasonic, and needless to say, my A8N-E is working flawlessly.
                        "We have offered them (the Arabs) a sensible way for so many years. But no, they wanted to fight. Fine! We gave them technology, the latest, the kind even Vietnam didn't have. They had double superiority in tanks and aircraft, triple in artillery, and in air defense and anti-tank weapons they had absolute supremacy. And what? Once again they were beaten. Once again they scrammed [sic]. Once again they screamed for us to come save them. Sadat woke me up in the middle of the night twice over the phone, 'Save me!' He demanded to send Soviet troops, and immediately! No! We are not going to fight for them."

                        -Leonid Brezhnev (On the Yom Kippur War)

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                          #13
                          Re: Asus A8N-E with possible bad caps?

                          Can't say I've ever personally experienced the "sudden death" issue with Asus boards.

                          I will say that the A8V-VM was a clunker though -- the PCIe slot never worked quite right on mine. Running Linux on it resulted in random video lockups (X Windows would just wedge itself once or twice a day for no reason); the same video cards worked perfectly fine on other systems. My A8V-VM is still sitting in my spares pile; I figure it still ought to be useful as a test box or server, where the onboard video would be good enough.

                          I also had an annoying issue with the last Asus board I purchased, an M4A785TD-M EVO. The board initially appeared to be DOA; but it turned out the issue was with one of the fan headers. The pins were bent such that the +12V was being shorted out; this was preventing the system from powering up. It was clearly a packaging issue -- the board was wrapped only in a static bag underneath a cardboard divider in the box, with no padding. The header with the bent pins was at the very corner of the board, and it appeared that the pins had gotten that way due to the board rattling around and banging the pins up against the inside of the box.

                          The above two issues aside (hey Asus, you need to pack your boards better!), I've generally been pretty happy with Asus motherboards these past 3 years or so. They also seem to be the only vendor of AMD motherboards that consistently supports ECC memory across their product line; other vendors apparently want you to upgrade to a workstation/server board if you want proper ECC support.
                          Last edited by Just Brew It!; 02-06-2011, 03:05 PM.

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                            #14
                            Re: Asus A8N-E with possible bad caps?

                            Originally posted by mockingbird View Post
                            Yes, the 1000uF and the 1500uF around the VRM will fail without bulging.
                            Well... crap. Hopefully it'll at least be stable enough for him to use over the next week (I will be out of town on business).

                            Comment

                              #15
                              Re: Asus A8N-E with possible bad caps?

                              Update: The board was significantly better after replacing the 820uF KZGs, but still not 100% stable. So a week ago I shotgunned it, replacing nearly all of the remaining caps (including everything around the VRM). Looks like it is really fixed now.

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