Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

[stevo1210]

Hello Everyone,

I received a gift today from my younger brother (probably because my birthday is just around the corner )

He came home from his friends place this afternoon and took home a Gigabyte GA-8IDX Rev. 1.0 motherboard.

It's a Pentium 4 socket 478 motherboard that runs on SDRAM.... something that I've wanted for a long time.... I know DDR is better and I have all DDR systems, but I have a boatload of PC133 SDRAM which would cut costs if I plan to use this motherboard.
This motherboard also has 6 PCI slots and an AGP 4X slot which would be very good for me in building a homework/study PC.

You have probably guessed by now that it has a bunch of bad caps.... and yes there are bad caps on that board.

There are 3 GSC 3300uf 6.3V 10mm caps near the CPU.
The 3 GSC caps are all leaking electrolyte and will need replacing. I've just gone through my draw and I found one Sanyo WG 3300uf 6.3V 10mm cap.
The rest of my spare caps are Hitano 3300uf 10V 12.5mm, and they won't fit.
I've got some 2200uf 6.3V 10mm Panasonic FJ caps coming this week.... would they be OK for replacing the bulging GSC caps?? My brother's friend said that this motherboard was very stable when he took it out of service.... he only took it out of service because he feared that the bad caps could cause some damage to some other parts in his PC some time soon.

On the board, I can also see that there are itty bitty GSC caps with 330uf 25V ratings. They are domed, but are domed inwards.... does that mean that they are bad??

I can see that the CPU output caps are 1000/1500uf 6.3v 8mm Panasonic FJ series caps so they are fine and won't need replacing.

I am wondering if I should also replce the GSC (or Choyo??) 1500uf 16V caps for CPU power input?? They look fine (no bulging etc.) but being GSC or Choyo caps, could they be dry inside the cap itself??

I also tested the board with my socket 478 Celeron CPU and the board POSTs so I can confirm that it does work.

The board smells a bit of nicotine though because it was in a house with a smoker. This PC was in my brother's friend bedroom so there was less smoke/nicotine smell in there , the PC was by the Window so that acutally helped a lot in reducing the Nicotine to stick inside the PC because the Window was mostly open ans also the case had no case fans apart from a CPU fan so there wasn't much Nicotine being sucked into the case.
I am not going to wash this motherboard with water or anything apart from vacumm it off all the dust (which I have done).... it isn't as bad as some boards that I've seen.

Thanks.

[Big Pope]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

Would you want to try this? I have replaced many GSC and CHOYO with 330uF 35V D10x16mm on Gigabyte boards being of this year, all are wroking great.

[stevo1210]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

For the position of the 330uf 25V caps, I have some 470uf 16V Hitano EXR series caps. I am wondering If they will be suitable??
I'm not sure If an increase from 330uf to 470uf will be a big problem??
After all, the motherboard only has a maximum of 12V on it.... why Gigabyte used 25V caps, I have no idea.
I was just reading the manual for the board and I smelt my fingers and it smelt very bad of nicotine. The Gigabyte box also smells of a heavy cigarette/ nicotine smell. I can't wash paper so it's going to have to stay that way.
The motherboard doesn't have as much nicotine smell compared to the box and the manual/ papers etc.
At the moment, the piece of foam inside the motherboard box is hanging by the window and the cigarette smell is being air cleaned.

[starfury1]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

you can wash the MB in simple green (from bunnings) there is a thread on it here somewhere, just make sure you give it lots of time to thoroughly dry out.

for max life Id rip any crap caps out of the VRM atlest
If in doubt replace them
Going to 470 uf shouldn't be a problem just be careful when it comes to reduced voltage.
since its a MB highest voltage is going to be 12V so 16V should be ok
You shouldn't need to use low ESR for other positions just use good quality caps

you will probably find they are general purpose caps anyway
using low esr I dont think is going to hurt but more a waste of a good cap if anything
I dont know what the quality of the latest Hitano are, they were considered crap in the past I believe (but I have heard of there use in the vrm and staying the distance for a fair while) so Id if you got them to hand use them in the GP postions
(personally I wouldn't use them in vrm, but thats me knowing what I know now thanks to these froums)

I dont know the MB layout but dont mix values in the vrm circuit, use the same value
you can use more lower values to get back to the original or a little more total capacitance.

for example see my post here

ok just re read your post
VRM caps look ok you say...Panasonic FJ series
get rid of GSC and Choyo while you got the chance.

post a pic of the MB if you can, save me having to hunt for one but only if you feel like it.


Goodluck Stevo..... you have been a busy boy haven't you

cheers

[stevo1210]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

for max life Id rip any crap caps out of the VRM atlest
If in doubt replace them
Going to 470 uf shouldn't be a problem just be careful when it comes to reduced voltage.
since its a MB highest voltage is going to be 12V so 16V should be ok
You shouldn't need to use low ESR for other positions just use good quality caps

I was thinking about that too. I think I'll take out the 1500uf 16V Choyo caps and replace them too. I can get Nichicon HD series, but I am not sure if they are suitable for the VRM or not??

I dont know what the quality of the latest Hitano are, they were considered crap in the past I believe (but I have heard of there use in the vrm and staying the distance for a fair while) so Id if you got them to hand use them in the GP postions
(personally I wouldn't use them in vrm, but thats me knowing what I know now thanks to these froums)

I currently use Hitano caps in my IBM Netvista 6266 series SFF PC. I put some Hitano 1500uf 10V cpas in the VRM section and the PC has been running for over a year now with no issues.... I checked the caps last month and they are still OK.... so I guess the newer EXR series caps may not be bad quality.

post a pic of the MB if you can, save me having to hunt for one but only if you feel like it.

Sorry about that, I forgot the pictures. I took some pictures today. In the last pic, there's a whole row of Panasonic FJ caps around the CPU. I don't know why Gigabyte mixed Panasonic caps with lower quality GSC and Choyo caps though.

Thanks.

[davmax]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

Stevo1210. I am curious why you are not using Samxon from Big Pope in Hong Kong. They are great quality, great price and he will post to you. Pay via Paypal. Hitano EXR have been around for quite a time, their ESR values are not as great as Samxon GC or GD series.

See Big Pope catalogue in this thread.

[starfury1]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

yeah I meant to mention that re the Samxon
maybe Stevo dont have a paypal account setup
price wise quality wise they seems to stack up well...

I should talk though...but then again I don't order many caps

on the GSC
maybe left over stock or they thought they might survive in those positions (not)

Hitano EXR I do have some, got them awhile back and yeah they are I think a little higher spec wise from memory
forgotten what I actually measured on them.

[stevo1210]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

Stevo1210. I am curious why you are not using Samxon from Big Pope in Hong Kong. They are great quality, great price and he will post to you. Pay via Paypal.

I can't use Samxon caps because I do not have a paypal account or a credit card.
I wish I could use Samxon caps though because I know that they are very high quality caps and have lower ESR than Hitano caps.

I use Hitano caps because I can get them locally here in Sydney.

If I do buy anything involving paypal (e.g. eBay) , I have to get it through my father because he has a credit card and a paypal account.... only problem is that I have to beg him to buy something for me, so most of the time I just give up.

Last time I managed to get Sanyo WG and Panasonic FJ Ultra low ESR caps off ebay when I asked my father to buy them off ebay for me.

[starfury1]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

thought it might be something like that stevo and yeah can sort of understand your fathers attitude with regard to net purchases.

[linuxguru]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

It looks like those FJs at the VRM output have been sitting there for a while - which would seem to affirmatively settle the issue of whether they're durable enough. That's good news, because FJs are widely available locally in the 'universal' 1800uF/16v/10x20mm package.

Check the voltage on the 330uF/25v caps - on every Gigabyte board I've seen, they haven't exceeded +5v and those caps can be safely replaced with 6.3 or 10 volt caps. I use Panasonic FC or Nichicon PW 1000/10, which are about the same size, but the 1800uf/16v FJ is probably a good replacement too.

[starfury1]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

yeah the FJ are local from what I understand to the Asian market
what I cant recall
(I think someone did answer this in the forums somewhere)
is if they are FM or FC type equivalent
(as in, aqueous electrolyte or non aqueous electrolyte.)

here is a link to the pdf willawake found "panasonic fj"



Yantz posted on them "panasonic fj capacitor" and there are other posts scattered thorough the forums. (with FL FF FJ).

not that a GSC is a great measuring stick LOL...but yeah they look fine thats for sure

I am a little curious as to why they mixed values if they are all part of the VRM output?

I count 7 X FJ and 3 X GSC so that makes 11 caps

there is 2 smaller ones there but I very much doubt they are part of it...
(something in my mind says they are part of Fan circuit?)

VRM controller chip appears to be HIP6301CB I suppose a look at that and the mosfet driver chips and it might make sense.

Anyway when you recap stevo just run it for awhile on default safe mode setting for BIOS (like a few weeks) cause I think when you put them in overdrive they are good ones to BSOD...and you dont want to be chasing your tail looking for a hardware fault when there is none...(in fact Id recommend you leave it there) but just be aware of that.

Once your sure the system is stable is when you can start playing with BIOS tweaks.

Cheers

[stevo1210]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

I recapped this motherboard yesterday afternoon. I only recapped the bad GSC caps. The replacement caps are Sanyo 3300uf, 6.3v, WG series.
I haven't booted it up yet but I will try to remove the CPU from my media center PC and put it into this motherboard to see if my recap job was successful.

Thanks.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

Panasonic FJ are rated between Ruby MBZ and MCZ.
Very good caps.

I've been seeing FJ's in the VRM's on brand new socket 775 boards here in the states.
Abit, MSI, Asus, even Intel is using them.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

Maybe used to be but they aren't just on the Asian market.
I've run across whole sale distributors in the states that carry FJ.

[kc8adu]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

Maybe used to be but they aren't just on the Asian market.
I've run across whole sale distributors in the states that carry FJ.

who are they?
i would like to see some from a legitimate source to verify my suspicion about a few i have that may be fakes.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

Easiest way to see some is to go look at some newer boards someplace that puts them out to look at.
-
I saw FJ's on Abit, Asus, and Intel boards a few weeks ago at a place called Fry's Electronics. (If you don't have them it's sort of like a Best Buy. The one here you can actually pick up the boards to look at them.)

Why do you think they are phony?

.

[kc8adu]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

Why do you think they are phony?

.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4600

[stevo1210]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

This is a link to a thread that I made on the Panasonic FJ and Sanyo WG series caps I bought a few months back. The Panasonic FJ that I bought have the really nice Panasonic style bung so I think they should be real.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...3&page=2&pp=20

[stevo1210]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

I was just browsing around the forum before and I read a thread (In which I can't find) about not reusing caps. For the recap on this board, I said previously I used Sanyo WG 3300uf 6.3v caps. They weren't new and were taken off another board which I recapped just before this one. I tested this board and ran Memtest and it passed everything over a period of 5-6 hours. Should I remove these caps and get new caps that haven't been reheated and reused because heating up caps twice isn't good for them?

Thanks.

[i4004]

Re: Gigabyte GA-8IDX and GSC caps....

huh..they'll be heated as many times as the machine turns on anyway.
heating during soldering is not a problem if soldering was done properly.

so no it's not a problem if those sanyos don't have high number of working hours.