Hey all, just wanted to share my experience reviving my old MSI MS-5169 Super Socket 7 Motherboard.

Initially, this had a ton of bad capacitors on it. All were replaced with modern equivalents, but after replacement, there was still no post. Checking the common mosfet failures on these boards showed that both of mine were still healthy and functioning properly.

After checking a few things, I turned my attention to some orange staining on the CPU socket itself. Initially I thought it was just rust stains or something like that, but as I tried to clean it, I noticed it was almost a little sticky. This got me wondering if it had somehow gotten inside the socket and was preventing good contact with the CPU pins. I popped the cover off of the socket and sure enough, much more was under the sliding cover of the ZIF socket. With A LOT of contact cleaner, brass brushing and deoxit, i re-inserted the CPU, expecting no change, and the heavens opened and I got a full post and fully working motherboard!

Just wanted to share a success and something else to check on really any motherboard you're working on. I wish i knew what this rust colored stuff was, but I'm very happy to have gotten this sweet old ATX1.0 SS7 board revived 😀