MS-6390 - Can this board be saved?

[Narcoleptic]

I had requested a repair service for a MSI MS-6390 in a HP a287x. But pulling the board from the case there is a problem that was hidden by the heatsink.

At least three of the caps have ruptured at the bottom, and leaked onto the board. Is this board savable or should I just get a new one?

[willawake]

Re: MS-6390 - Can this board be saved?

can you show the other side of the caps please

if the board is still posting it will be fine after a recap. the leaking electrolyte can be cleaned off the board easily with alcohol no probs.

[tiresias]

Re: MS-6390 - Can this board be saved?

Welcome Narcoleptic,

Could you check what brand and model those six blown caps are and get back to us? They appear, at first glance, to be (possibly) UCC - which would be odd, since this is usually one of the most trustworthy brands, comparable to Rubycon or Sanyo.

If they really are UCC, do you see any VRM-related problem that could have caused them to fail in this manner?

[Narcoleptic]

Re: MS-6390 - Can this board be saved?

can you show the other side of the caps please

No problem. They're a little difficult to show the whole thing, the power connector is in the way.

if the board is still posting it will be fine after a recap. the leaking electrolyte can be cleaned off the board easily with alcohol no probs.

It still boots, and I can run certain Linux live CDs, but trying to install Windows XP or Ubuntu for example gives multiple file copy errors.

Could you check what brand and model those six blown caps are and get back to us? They appear, at first glance, to be (possibly) UCC - which would be odd, since this is usually one of the most trustworthy brands, comparable to Rubycon or Sanyo.

If they really are UCC, do you see any VRM-related problem that could have caused them to fail in this manner?

Do the above two photographs of the other side of the caps help identify the brand? If not, I seem to remember a thread of how to identify the brand, I'll see if I can dig that up or if you can point me in the direction of a resource for logo identification. I think only five of the six in that row are bad, the sixth seems to be flat on top, and no leakage at the bottom. The other five are noticeably bulged at the top.

I did take the cover off the power supply (a Hi Pro 250W, the original PS) and found two large caps starting to bulge at the top. It is difficult to tell in this picture, but they're slightly domed at the top.



Other than that, I do not know how to determine if there was a VRM problem. I don't remember exactly, but I do not think the BIOS provided any information other than temperatures. It is a HP OEM board, and the BIOS is nailed down. I've already installed a new power supply, and when I get the board back I could perform any tests you'd recommend. I still have the original PS and could test that, too. Temperature and visual-wise, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

Thank you to the both of you for your help! I'll be sending it in for repair today.

[willawake]

Re: MS-6390 - Can this board be saved?

show the other side of the psu

[Narcoleptic]

Re: MS-6390 - Can this board be saved?

show the other side of the psu

The cap under the giant dust-bunny in the last picture is flat on top, I didn't think to clean the dust out before I took the pictures. Hurrr

Most of the caps seem to be "Teapo."

[willawake]

Re: MS-6390 - Can this board be saved?

well the caps on the mobo are definitely chemicon KZG.

i cant really see how bulged the two very large caps are on the primary side of the psu. it is rare to see them fail, sometimes they look bulged but they are not.

the caps on the secondary side (the other side) look fine but who knows what they would read with an esr meter.

[Shroomie]

Re: MS-6390 - Can this board be saved?

UCC caps don't just go bad, as far as I know. I'd run some tests on that PSU all right!

[kc8adu]

Re: MS-6390 - Can this board be saved?

seems to be a sudden rash of blown kzg.
found some on a gigabyte board but dismissed that as a bad psu.the psu was one of those a-power crapboxes and was totally burned up.who knows how long they had been eating ripple from the psu before they went.both the vrm input and output caps were blown.

[linuxguru]

Re: MS-6390 - Can this board be saved?

UCC KZG are aqueous and could be vulnerable to a combination of heat and high ripple current (compounded by a failing PSU). I'd probably replace those with Nichicon PW or even HD/HE in a pinch.

[yanz]

Re: MS-6390 - Can this board be saved?

it's the best time to find out how much esr on those teapo caps (in the psu). can someone of us help the op by testing the psu and those teapo(s)?

Narcoleptic, would you mind to send the psu for test?