SOYO P4I845GVISA PLUS - Bad Caps Confirmed

[Sigmo]

Just another data point for everyone.

We've got about ten SOYO P4I845GVISA PLUS motherboards in use for data acquisition systems because they've got three ISA slots to support legacy ISA data acq boards.

We've recently had three of them fail within about a month of each other. One had operated for about 9 months. One for about a year and a half, and the other had operated for only a few weeks.

Inspection of all three bad ones shows that many of the caps in the CPU core voltage conversion area are bulged and have leaked out their tops.

The bulged/leaking caps are all SACON SZ5 10 and SACON SZ602.

The remainder of the electrolytics on these boards are SACONs or EVERCONs. They look very similar except that the EVERCONs have a "cross" shaped vent/relief pattern on their tops while the SACONs have the "K" shaped vent/relief pattern.

I ordered new caps for every cap on these boards, and got enough to do five boards. Today, I got the caps and "recapped" the board that had failed after a few weeks, and it is running fine now. I plan on recapping the two other dead ones when I get the time, and there is one MOBO we have never used and I'll recap it before we put it into service.

I'm hoping this will make these boards reliable in the long term.

[mockingbird]

Re: SOYO P4I845GVISA PLUS - Bad Caps Confirmed

Ah poor Soyo. The good ol' days.

[c_hegge]

Re: SOYO P4I845GVISA PLUS - Bad Caps Confirmed

Sacon = Evercon = GSC = VERY unreliable. The worst cap brand in the world (maybe tied with Fuhjyyu).

[Sigmo]

Re: SOYO P4I845GVISA PLUS - Bad Caps Confirmed

Sacon = Evercon = GSC = VERY unreliable. The worst cap brand in the world (maybe tied with Fuhjyyu).

Yep. They're not very good in our experience! That's why I replaced them all.

I will say that it was a royal pain cleaning out the holes for some of the caps where they have large areas of foil on both sides of the board that are both connected directly to the lead-holes.

Apparently whoever did the board layout for Soyo has ever heard of a thermal relief.

Then again, they probably cannot imagine in their wildest dreams that anyone would actually repair a motherboard instead of just pitching it in the trash. But in this case, we're stuck because it's not too easy to find mobos with ISA slots these days!!

[phatjmo]

Re: SOYO P4I845GVISA PLUS - Bad Caps Confirmed

I also have this model motherboard with the exact same cap failure. Everyone wants $300 for an ISA MB like this so I want to try replacing the caps as a cheap alternative, Sigmo, where did you purchase those caps and what models did you order? I can't seem to find much on those caps though I have to admit I have no idea what I'm doing.

[c_hegge]

Re: SOYO P4I845GVISA PLUS - Bad Caps Confirmed

Rubycon MCZ and MBZ would be OK

https://www.badcaps.net/pages.php?vid=22

[TheLaw]

Re: SOYO P4I845GVISA PLUS - Bad Caps Confirmed

Friggin Evercon. Never got around to recapping my EVGA FX5500, but it was 100% Sacon FZ + a couple of Evercons. Nothing blown yet....but I'm never buying EVGA again because of that.

Evercon: Replace them. They suck.

You could try Nichicon HM. They might be cheaper than Rubys, but Rubys might be a tad better quality. HMs are pretty darn cheap, I believe.

[Uranium-235]

Re: SOYO P4I845GVISA PLUS - Bad Caps Confirmed

I have a P4I845PE with the same thing. Bunch of 3300 6.3

a bunch of 1500 16 with K stamps that aren't bloated

does work, but I don't trust it. Still 800 P4 capable

[PCBONEZ]

Re: SOYO P4I845GVISA PLUS - Bad Caps Confirmed

On those old Soyo boards you also may find silver OSTs which look to me to be fakes.

If you look at the bottom photo in post #1 you can see how the vent is stamped AFTER the sleeve was in place.
You can tell because the sleeve material is pressed into the groves in the vent.
That is very unusual. [rare even]
I think I've only seen it on Soyo boards with silver caps.

Thing is I've seen the same exact abnormality on Soyo w/ silver caps branded OST, Evercon, Sacon, Capsun, -and- GSC [on both socket 370 and 478 boards].

Suggests to me they all came down the same assembly line no matter what the name is on them.
[Yes, it's possible someone was stupid enough to counterfeit Sacon and Evercon...]

Also note illegal use of trademarked K vent in photo.
( Mine didn't have that I don't think.)
- But it's another sign of a counterfeiter at work.
.

All of that said,, Soyo boards work great once you get good caps on them.
.

[Uranium-235]

Re: SOYO P4I845GVISA PLUS - Bad Caps Confirmed

yeah these were sacon