Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

[Hondaman]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

Yes, ECS and PCChips are horrible brands. They are also at the lowest end of the price spectrum. They were the last makers producing 32-bit stuff, using KT600 and KT800 chipsets (AMD CPUs). So they are "behind the times" and producing for the lowest price point. Years ago I saw a Newegg review that said "at least when it caught fire, it did not burn down my house". That's ECS/PCChips quality!

And according to an old article online about PCChips, they once used FAKE cache chips on their boards (or they used counterfeit logos for BIOS manufacturers, I forgot which).

As for ECS / PCChips, stay away. Stay far away.

[c_hegge]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

The K7S5A was the very board that initially turned me off ECS. Seeing many failed ECS boards in customer's PCs only confirms my opinion of them.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

I also have an old ECS K7S5A pro board (v5). It has survived several years of 24/7 use, it has outlasted that Antec SP300 that I needed to repair...

PCChips I have to agree as crappy. but the one PCChips Socket7 board I had, had a noname chipset on it... not even Via, not even SiS...

[c_hegge]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

have a decent mix of OST, Su'Scon and other quality middle grade caps.

OST and Su'Scon? Decent?


Those brands should all be replaced on sight and avoided at all cost.

[larrymoencurly]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

I use a BioStar Socket 775 that was one of Fry's last mobo-CPU combo bargains, at $30. It has no PCI-E 1x slot, and it defaults the DDR2 memory to 1.95V, maybe to allow booting with junk RAM. OTOH the BIOS lets the RAM voltage to be set to a chip-frying 2.8V (absolute maximum for DDR2 is supposed to be 2.3V).

I also had a BioStar Socket A that was kind of unusual because it had only a 20-pin power connector but ran the CPU from the sole +12V wire on that connector. Also if something went wrong with the boot process, I'd have to remove the clock battery because merely moving the CMOS jumper didn't help.

[BigTroll]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

ive had lots of problems with ECS, Biostar is my favorite low end along with asrocks boards they usually have a decent mix of OST, Su'Scon and other quality middle grade caps.

[c_hegge]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

The Gigabyte ultra durable boards don't ever get bad caps, as they always use Japanese polymer caps (Chemi-Con, Nichicon or Sanyo OS-CON). ASUS often use low quality Apaq caps on their mid range boards.

[Kiriakos GR]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

That's a known issue. Tried removing the CMOS battery and leaving it out for a day or so? And of course every discussion turns around capacitors: this is Badcaps.net after all.

This MB haves dual Bios, no mater which one does the boot there is an problem.
I will agree this is Badcaps.net
If you have the list of which caps fails first on those boards I will greatly appreciate it.

[mockingbird]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

Biostar has some decent stuff from the $150~ range and up.

[c_hegge]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

I've only ever seen two Biostar boards that I can remember, so I really don't know much about them.

[Pentium4]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

I have an ECS board with almost purely Panasonic caps, and it's got over 25,000 running hours on it. The only non Panny's are the OST near the PCI slots. I think ECS is better than Biostar.

[c_hegge]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

^
Intel are usually made by Foxconn, but ASUS have made a few models.

[shovenose]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

I like ECS and Biostar.
Intel motherboards the worst, doesn't Asus make them?

[larrymoencurly]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

My failures with ECS mobos happened years after recapping or with original caps that looked good and measured good for capacitance and ESR (out of circuit).

OTOH my even older recapped ECS K7S5A Pro and a P4S5A2 mobos are reportedly still running well, and when I first got them they were full of leaky G-Luxons.

Also the Asrock mobos had loads of low quality Ltec caps that failed, but the mobos apparently had no other damage.

This new ECS is full of polymer and Sanyo caps but has a few OSTs

[c_hegge]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

Intel aren't my first preference, but they are usually very reliable when they don't use bad caps, and I'll pick one over ASUS any day. My brother had a D945GTP, and that thing came with rubycon MBZ, and it's been fine. The CPU is a Pentium D, so who cares about the lack of OCing features?

Hey world... when I am saying my opinion I have and the features in mind.

Who cares about the features if the board dies young?

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

GIGABYTE EP35C-DS3R sudenly failed to boot, it does reboot cycles but no beep and start.

That's a known issue. Tried removing the CMOS battery and leaving it out for a day or so? And of course every discussion turns around capacitors: this is Badcaps.net after all.

[Kiriakos GR]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

Looks that every converstation turn around capacitors.

Hey world... when I am saying my opinion I have and the features in mind.

Since 1995, I have use about 17 motherbords in my own system.
Mostly ABIT & ASUS, one MSI which was good at stock speeds, and one GIGABYTE.

Asus P4C800E Deluxe - Failed due shortcut caused by a USB memory stick.
Asus policy 5 years waranty.. they did honor it, I got a replacement.

GIGABYTE EP35C-DS3R sudenly failed to boot, it does reboot cycles but no beep and start.
GIGABYTE waranty is a joke, the company hides it self from the users and the problems.

Now days I got one fine LCR meter, I will check for capacitors issues, but this is not what a regular computer user has in mind when bying one MB.

My last MB an ASUS P5QC with three years waranty, this December I will complete my first 12 months with it.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

Agree on intel boards, had one in not too long ago. Full of bloated KZGs, required a bunch of Ruby MBZ to fix. Asus is crap too, had to fix a shorted VRM caused by auto voltage settings when overclocking - the board was so smart, it blew itself.

I remain biased towards Gigabyte. Biostar makes some decent stuff nowadays as well.

[mockingbird]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

All KZG class caps are discontinued... The question is which polymers will they use in place?


Intel using Capxon polymer and an unknown brand polymer (Possibly Matsuki/Lelon) in their latest generation flagship ($250+) motherboard:
Intel BOXDZ77RE75K


KZG in a $75+ B75 budget board:
Intel BOXDB75EN

[c_hegge]

Re: Why have almost all my failed motherboards been ECS brand?

Stay far, far away from Intel, who still insists on using UCC KZG electrolytics even on their higher-end $150+ boards.

KZG are discontinued, so that won't be happening for long.