Albatron PX865PE PRO - Light, Fans, but no Action

[Agent24]

Picked up a nice server case with PSU for cheap 2nd hand ($10!) which included an Albatron motherboard (Socket m478) and 3Ghz Prescott

Seller said either board or CPU or both was faulty, (no POST - apparently it was fine one day and then dead the next - but who knows how much of that is true?) but I took them anyway in the hopes that at least the CPU might be still alive

Apart from light dust around the CPU everything looks fine. Capacitors are all Chemicon KGZ and don't look dodgy

Board will start, standby light comes on, fans go, but no beeps (not even with no RAM or Video) and nothing on screen.

Do you think it's the capacitors? or anything else this board series may be known for?

[pfrcom]

Re: Albatron PX865PE PRO - Light, Fans, but no Action

Could also be its BIOS chip corrupted by a bad flash - would account for no beeps (not even with no RAM or Video)

[Agent24]

Re: Albatron PX865PE PRO - Light, Fans, but no Action

I had considered that, but can't really do much as it's not socketed. Unless it's possible to reprogram in-circuit, or someone wants to be very nice (and rich!) and give me an SMD rework station

Although assuming the truth is that it just stopped working by itself, I find that unlikely. (although I guess the chip could have randomly failed)

[kc8adu]

Re: Albatron PX865PE PRO - Light, Fans, but no Action

time to play swaptronics.
try the proc in something else.

[Phenos]

Re: Albatron PX865PE PRO - Light, Fans, but no Action

Are you sure that all the caps are "Chemicon KZG?" I recapped around 8 of the same type boards here.
The 1000uF 6.3V caps scattered around the boards where bloated GSC caps.

[Agent24]

Re: Albatron PX865PE PRO - Light, Fans, but no Action

time to play swaptronics.
try the proc in something else.

The only other intel hardware I have is socket 370 or lower. Only AMD for my new builds. I've got a friend who has a P4 something but I doubt his board supports prescott. Probably have to see if there's any local places I can take the CPU to and test it.

Are you sure that all the caps are "Chemicon KZG?" I recapped around 8 of the same type boards here.
The 1000uF 6.3V caps scattered around the boards where bloated GSC caps.

There could be a reason for that, I discovered that this board is actually v2.0 - according to Albatron, nothing changed except the onboard LAN and Audio chips are slightly upgraded. But maybe they changed the caps too. Everything down to 1000uf is KZG. Everything lower is G-Luxon. None of them look dodgy

[Agent24]

Re: Albatron PX865PE PRO - Light, Fans, but no Action

OK, so I checked out the CPU (by buying another board, a cheap Asus P4S800-MX) which works fine. So it would appear that Mr. Albatron is broken. Maybe his BIOS chip is stuffed full of 0s, or otherwise useless data.

I'm currently thinking of a theory that I could make some sort of interface out of a PLCC socket and 32 pieces of (short of course) wire, that could be put over the chip and use to check/reprogram it without having to desolder it (which I can't really do). Not sure if that idea would work, though.

oh and the bit about it running fine is a little... hyped. Upon entering BIOS to check CPU temp, I noticed the 12v rail was flashing red. Then I noticed it wasn't 12v. It was 10.9v - not exactly spectacular. Checked it with my DMM which said 11.11. seems just a little out-of-spec to me.

I'm thinking this may be attributed to the Prescott core wanting more power than the brilliant feat of engineering that is a Chiefmax 420w PSU with 18A on 12v is wanting to give. I hope.

I guess I'll rip out my Enermax and see what difference that makes

[Agent24]

Re: Albatron PX865PE PRO - Light, Fans, but no Action

Whoops, actually it was Chieftec PSU which is indeed it seems not up to the task. My Enermax is currently doing a nice 11.96v

I wonder if the low voltage from the Cheiftec was the cause of Mr. Albatron's demise? does this seem possible?

[Harvey]

Re: Albatron PX865PE PRO - Light, Fans, but no Action

Have you measured the VRM voltage on the FETs to see if there's any sign of life?

Failing that, try warming the CPUs VRM capacitors up with a hairdryer for a few minutes before powering up - sometimes it can just give them a little bit of life to get things started.