Biostar TF8200

[Thor2911]

I have a TF8200 motherboard that recently started to freeze. The bios would post and show starting windows. The graphic was shake the sound would not sound correctly. I looked at the MB and noticed two bulging caps on the top side of the SATA ports. I had built three PC all with the same board. Of the three, two of them failed. So far my third system, which is mine, has not failed yet. The only issue I could see on both was the bulging caps. (I have attached pic's of the two caps) The second one just started to fail which is the ones I guess I'll try to replace the caps. I've noticed that OST are listed as a bad cap mfg. I need 2 caps 6.3V 1000uf low ESR. Where would you suggest I purchase these from? I do have a solder iron but its the big one that looks like a gun. I'm guessing that would not be satisfactory to work on a MB with. Any video you could provide would be helpful on removing and install the new caps.

Thanks

[SIDMX]

Re: Biostar TF8200

...Where would you suggest I purchase these from?

As you haven't filled your profile details there's no way to know where you live, so no way to tell you where to get them.

I do have a solder iron but its the big one that looks like a gun. I'm guessing that would not be satisfactory to work on a MB with:

It's possible with a gun, but it will be much more complicated, better to get a 45-60W pencil type soldering iron.

Any video you could provide would be helpful on removing and install the new caps.

There's enough info about that in this forum but if what you want is a video tutorial, better to do a search in google or even in youtube and practice your soldering/desoldering in a dead motherboard first. Also, looking at your pictures SATA1 port is messed (missing the plastic that holds the pins in their place) make sure they aren't touching each other because that could kill your SATA adapter.

Regards.

[pfrcom]

Re: Biostar TF8200

As you haven't filled your profile details

Which you can do by:
User CP -> Edit Your Details

User CP from left hand side of black options bar above

[Thor2911]

Re: Biostar TF8200

Thank you both for replying. The board in the photo is the 1st board I had fail, so I figured I could try it out on this one before I did the other one that just started to go bad. They are both the same board. Maybe, I'll be lucky enough to have two working boards when I'm done. I updated my profile and I live in Curtice, OH. I was hoping to find an electronics store that could do the work. I've soldered before but never on circuit boards but I'm willing to give it a try. Also, any suggestion to purchase a good but not expensive to do the work would be great. If this doesn't work the other choice is a new MB, CPU and Ram but I think replacing the two caps will do the trick.

Sincerely,
Thor

If this goes well I have a monitor that I looked at before that needed the caps replaced in it also. Maybe, I'll fix it too.

[Thor2911]

Re: Biostar TF8200

I purchased a 30 Watt Iron from Radio Shack. I then removed the old caps and cleaned out the solder from the holes. I need to order the caps now. I need 6.3v 1000uf caps. I seen Nichicon had the ones I need but I'm unsure of the series. It looks like the series is just the size of the caps. The space is not crowded so I don't think it makes much difference. One again any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advanced.

[selldoor]

Re: Biostar TF8200

Series usual have different values for Ripple and ESR. You probably need HM HN or HZ for a motherboard

[SIDMX]

Re: Biostar TF8200

+1 for Nichicon HM, also if there are more OST caps in your board I suggest you (if possible) to get enough quantities and to replace all of them (the others may be failing soon too).

[Thor2911]

Re: Biostar TF8200

I replaced my caps today on my test board. Took a few min to get the solder out of one of the holes. I bought the solder wick. I think I should have got the vacuum bulb. Here are some pics of my work. I think I did ok for my first time. Of course I would welcome some comments.

[SIDMX]

Re: Biostar TF8200

Soldering points seems good enough but I see peeled traces around the soldering areas, can't tell for sure if damaged (broken) or just peeled because the small pictures, better to not apply power to that board until you're sure there's nothing wrong, most of the times powering a board with broken traces will not cause any damage but there's no reason to start testing sometihng that it's not finished yet, post some good closeups of the areas so that we can see if there is damage or not.

[Thor2911]

Re: Biostar TF8200

Ok - here is some better pics. I had reduced the first pic down in size.

[SIDMX]

Re: Biostar TF8200

That's better, it seems that traces are just peeled, if you don't mind please take a couple more closeups directly above the areas (i mean not at an angle) at a 10cm distance juts to be 100% sure about those traces, I see you're using a finepix hs20exr camera make sure you set in Macro mode.


Edit: Just to be safe check polarity of installed caps, the white stripe in the caps should match the white mark silkscreened in the board ("pointing" to the biostar heatsink).

[Thor2911]

Re: Biostar TF8200

Here are some overhead photos as requested. On picture 11 I see a lot of brown stuff on the board. I'm guessing that the rosin from the solder? I borrowed a solder sucker from work today to do the MB i really need to fix. I lined up the neg side of the cap with the white indicator just like the org caps were lined up. I believe that is correct.

[Thor2911]

Re: Biostar TF8200

Don't know if you need this or not but here is the top of the board. The crooked one is the first one I did.

[selldoor]

Re: Biostar TF8200

On picture 11 I see a lot of brown stuff on the board. I'm guessing that the rosin from the solder?

I would guess so - you can clean it up with Isopropyl alcohol on a qtip

I lined up the neg side of the cap with the white indicator just like the org caps were lined up. I believe that is correct.

Yes you should replace the same way as the old ones were in.
rather than rely on the white indicator.
Reason -
1 ASUS boards have the white indicator on the + side.
2 Sometimes the marking is wrong!!

[SIDMX]

Re: Biostar TF8200

Good job Thor!
I don't see any real damage in the surrounding traces so i think it is ready for testing, about the rosin some brand/types don't go off easily (the cheaper ones) but a quick heating of the area does the trick, if that's your case, you can use a heat gun or even a hairdryer to heat the rosin a little then go with the qtip as sell door states before. good luck!

[Thor2911]

Re: Biostar TF8200

Thank you to everyone who replied to my post it helped me a great deal! I felt confidant enough from my first job that I replaced the caps on the board my son uses. It was much better then my first attempt that you've seen in the photos. I got the caps out and cleaned out the holes using a small paper clip and solder wick. Installed the new caps in the board a lot easier then I did in my first attempt. Put it back in the case, powered it one and there you have it, no flickering of the screen and seems to be working great! I wish I would had taken some photos of it.

I took selldoor's advice and was able to use Isopropyl alcohol on a Qtip to remove the rosin and it worked great! Thank you SIDMX for your quick responses to my posts! Your feedback was great!

Now I have a MAG 900P monitor that I read somewhere had bad caps. The screen comes on but and if you shine a flashlight at the screen you can see the image. I think I read it was bad caps also. On to it!