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**NiGMa** · 01-04-2007, 11:30 PM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

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**dchrsf** · 01-05-2007, 12:41 AM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

Same board as you, the NF7-S V2.0 and have been running at main computer for years now after I got it used. I have zero bad caps.....because they are all Rubycon or United Chemicon like yours. I doubt that is the problem, the NF7-S boards are solid cap wise, look elsewhere maybe.

Going to sleep!

**NiGMa** · 01-05-2007, 01:21 AM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

Where else can I look?

**Tom41** · 01-05-2007, 01:37 AM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

Check the power supply - it too may have bad caps. Bad caps in a PSU can cause the same symptoms as if you had bad caps on a motherboard; it happened to my main PC, twice!

You say the PSU is brand new, but some really bad caps can fail before you get the PSU, even if it has never been used! There may also be something wrong with a component attached to the board, such as a PCI expansion card or a hard disk - they can also have bad caps.

Also make sure that the CPU fan, case fan and PSU fan are running as they should. If any of them have failed, they could be causing the board to overheat and do strange errors.

Does the board power up properly with no external hardware attached (apart from PSU and video card)? Have you tried booting from an OS boot CD - such as Knoppix Linux - in case there is a problem with your installation?

**NiGMa** · 01-05-2007, 02:23 AM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

Tom41: Yes, I have booted from a LiveCD of Ubuntu, and it froze after about 5mins, it was a hard lock, screen freeze.

I have removed all unnecessary hardware, the only thing I am running, is my brand new hard drive. CD-ROM's, sound, network, etc. are removed or disabled. I have also switched my video card for another which has worked fine in another PC, it made no change.

I have tried 3 different PSU's, the latest being the new one, all exhibit the same problem.

I formatted the new hard drive and tried a clean install of WinXP, it took about 5 tries before it worked, it kept BSODing the first few times, which I have never seen on a PC before, I'm only used to seeing BSOD's in a windows installation, not off a cd-boot during the setup.

The only thing I haven't checked is the CPU, but I haven't heard of a CPU just dying because of age. I do have another one I can test with thou.

It is an interesting problem huh?

Another note: This system was rock stable for a whole year, i leave it on all the time, 24x7. So the problem cannot be incompatible parts.

Any more ideas guys?

Is it HIGHLY unprobable that the caps are bad, even if I leave the computer on 24x7 over two years in Australias hot weather? If I get a straight answer to this it will make me test the other components harder.

Thanks again guys!

NiGMa

**Brian C** · 01-05-2007, 04:14 AM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

1. Possibility of having bad DDR RAMs. Please run memtest86 and see...
2. Is the DRAM supply stable ? I ever encountered a NF7 mobo with spoilt MOSFET in the DRAM regulator circuit.

**Per Hansson** · 01-05-2007, 07:23 AM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

The possibility of your capacitors being bad are very small, replacing them is really not a good idea, that mainboard uses as you have seen excellent capacitor brands

Strange problems can have strange solutions, is it an IDE harddrive? Did you give it a new cable in that case?

Memory has already been mentioned but it a very very likley cause, however a bad PSU is still very likley (even after you going through 3 of them) open up the Antec and have a look at all the caps...

**NiGMa** · 01-05-2007, 08:23 AM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

Thanks for all the tips guys, its good news to hear that it may not be the caps, I was really not wanting to do a cap replacement, I'm not the best solderer.

It occurred to me that I have not thoroughly tested the ram in another machine that has no problems. Another thing is that a while ago, this memory started failing me and then I checked the Corsair website and it said they are rated at 2.75v and I was running them at 2.5v so thats why they were failing. But then i set it to 2.75v and didn't have a problem, but it could be that they have failed me, so... time to THOROUGHLY test them. I have 2 sticks of LIFETIME warranty Corsair memory, each 512MB, they are rated at 2-2-2-5 each, but apparently they only work slower in dual channel mode, something like 2-2-2-11? I will run them for 24hrs straight with memtest, that should be a definite test right?

If I cannot achieve 2-2-2-5 in single channel mode @ 2.75v or even @ 2.9v(their website says this is ok, but limit), than it should be enough to send to get a replacement. I wonder how they will replace it in 10yrs when they die again, lol.

Opening the cover of the new PSU will void the warranty, so I wont be doing that.

Thanks guys, I will report back and see what testing the ram will show. Much appreciated! =)

NiGMa

**Shroomie** · 01-05-2007, 02:28 PM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

Well, nForce2 boards don't like running at tRAS 5; they do best at 9 or at higher FSB, 11 ("The Anomaly: nVIDIA's nForce2 and tRAS", here. I doubt that's causing your problem, but it's worth thinking about.

**Big Pope** · 01-06-2007, 05:21 AM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

I don't suggest to recap this mothbaord if withotu any problem, becasue it have good caps already. EXCEPT, you want to overclock and improve the perforemance.

I have an experience that i have fully recapped my Samxon Caps with this mothbaord, SuperPi 1M from 48s to 44s at same speed (2.2GHz) and config. It is true. I will do more testing like this for others boards in future, we see.

**NiGMa** · 01-06-2007, 05:35 AM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

Wow, thats interesting Big Pope. Its interesting to learn about how big a role capacitors play in a system.

It was also interesting to see how different power supplies get the same system running higher overclocks!

I always max out my hardware! hehe

**Cubes** · 01-07-2007, 06:43 AM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

As others have mentioned..

1. Check the psu under 100% load with a multimeter. (google there's plenty of good diy guides)
2. Memtest - Check that ram out. Loop test 5 over night and then test 8 the following.

If all checks out. Well, I'm stumped. :P

I recently had the odd stability and cold boot issue (it would revert back to fail safe cpu speed with a 100mhz bus), it was my trusty antec psu.

Recapped the psu *thanks to Joe for the caps* and now its all 100% solid.

**NiGMa** · 01-08-2007, 05:17 PM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

Thanks for all the tips guys

But now the board wont even post! I took it out to take the photos, cleaned it with a dust brush and put it back, now when I hit the power the CPU fan kicks over a little but then stops. The PC speaker is doing a two-tone siren and whats strange about it is that when I pull the plug on the PSU, it is still going for another 5secs or so! roughly the time I'm guessing it would take for the PSU capacitors to discharge. I never seen that happen before.

Anyone experience that before?

Anyway, I have spent to much time with this so I am getting a new PC. But I wont be able to use any parts from this system so maybe I can still getting it working somehow.

NiGMa

**Cubes** · 01-08-2007, 05:21 PM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

Throw a multimeter on your PSU to rule that out.

two tone siren.. My NF7 has done that before when changing voltages in the bios and when it had a stick of DOA corsair ram.

**NiGMa** · 01-08-2007, 10:30 PM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

Well the voltages showed 12v=0v and 5v=0.1v but thats with two PSU's, I think the motherboard is shorting somehow.

NiGMa

**gonzo0815** · 01-09-2007, 03:54 AM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

Remove the board from the case and put it on your desk. Firre it up from there. If it still refuses to work, you certainely have an boardissue, if not you have some case - board shorts.

**NiGMa** · 01-09-2007, 04:21 AM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

tried that gonzo0815, its strange, can't think of how I could of shorted it. now I don't get anything, haha, its just has a light on but then the power switch does nothing.

maybe over time it will just correct itself (haha, doubt it)

any more ideas folks?

thanks again

NiGMa

**ferynov** · 01-11-2007, 05:43 PM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

maybe mosfet..? try flash bios....if still trouble ....choose other board...

**gdement** · 02-17-2007, 03:11 AM

Re: Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

Just in case you're still working on this:

That fan twitch syndrome does indicate that the PSU is overloaded and shutting off to protect itself. That could be a PSU problem, but if it happens with 2 different PSU's that used to be able to handle this board, then it's probably a board short.

I'd check the legs on your mosfets with a multimeter and try to find a short. It could even be a bad cap - nothing is impossible.

I took it out to take the photos, cleaned it with a dust brush and put it back, now when I hit the power the CPU fan kicks over a little but then stops.

Maybe there's a piece of debris that got moved and is now causing trouble? It might be worth removing the battery and thoroughly washing the board. Scrub all the tiny pins you can find with a toothbrush.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1463

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Bad Caps on Abit NF7-S v2.0 (Australia)

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