weldum wrote:

Hi to everyone, merry christmas! […]
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Hi to everyone, merry christmas!

I i'm the need of help to fix or at least diagnose some motherboards that were working fine but now some doesn't even POST
Hopefully is some simple problem that can be fixed without spending much time or money.

These are the boards and the problems:

1: AOpen MX3W Pro V
worked perfect aside from a problem in the ps2 mouse port (didn't work), now doesn't even post. Nothing seems to be broken physically.

2: SOYO SY-P4VDA
Post but doesn't boot from any device. Have some capacitors that need change. This board is from components to fix the others. Have a lot of s478 boards.

3: Leadtek Winfast 741M01C-GX-6L / Foxconn K7S741GXMG-6L
Worked fine but now has problems. It appears that the problem is with the bios, because a strange code appears that say something about corrupt bios. Also has the sound chip dead.

4: PCChips M748LMRT V1.5
This one was working fine (aside for the crappy chipset/iGPU) but now doesn't post. It's socket 370 and slot 1 compatible, and the one used is selected via jumpers on the board. When working had problems with integrated NIC

5: ASUS MES-VM (OEM HP version)
same as above, but is just socket 370. This one, being OEM, lacks a lot of components and connectors, and only works with Celeron 533.

6: PCChips M558 V3.0
I really want to get it working. Currently it post but doesn't boot from any drive, it has some capacitors leaking. But for this one to get fixed I really need to know which one of the above boards cannot get repaired, so I can take the components that I need from there.

In order of priority to get them working (from most to least): 6, 4, 5, 1, 3, 2

I have some electrical and electronic knowledge and have multimeter and POST card (don't have the manual).

Thanks to everyone.

1- i don't have any idea.

2-there is a high chance that replacing the caps will solve the boot issue, this happened to me before.

3- if it has a corrupted bios then http://www.foxconnchannel.com/ProductDetail.a … &U=en-us0000129 + TL866CS USB Universal Programmer should fix.

4- Well its one PCChips so problems are expected, maybe some cold solder joint? my P5P800-VM once stopped working and reflowing the solder worked, a not-so-good way to do it is bake the board on a oven that isn't used to cook food anymore(beware of the temperature, high temps may melt something that you don't wanna melt.

5-If you have a donor board and a soldering iron and some skill soldering, try this, idk if i'm writing shit but maybe some jumper solder joint is bad and this is preventing the board to boot with other cpu(?)

6- Same as board 2, try recapping it first to see if it will post and boot.

thanks for the answer .legaCy, I'll start recapping the 6th and fixing the 5th, the others can wait.

the 1st will be the donor because doesn't get power now and the caps and everything look fine.

As a side note, bad +5vsb from an ATX power supply can damage a motherboard. Make sure whatever PSUs you hook up to any given mobo are good - Otherwise a single PSU can start killing each mobo you boot/build/buy.

I did not think about that, it would be very unfortunate that that has ruined my boards.
I will start testing PSUs too

.legaCy wrote:

weldum wrote:

Hi to everyone, merry christmas! [...] […]
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Hi to everyone, merry christmas!
[...]

3: Leadtek Winfast 741M01C-GX-6L / Foxconn K7S741GXMG-6L
Worked fine but now has problems. It appears that the problem is with the bios, because a strange code appears that say something about corrupt bios. Also has the sound chip dead.

[...]

3- if it has a corrupted bios then http://www.foxconnchannel.com/ProductDetail.a … &U=en-us0000129 + TL866CS USB Universal Programmer should fix.

Only problem: that board seems to have a soldered PLCC32 BIOS chip, not a socketed one. That's a lot of fiddly work to fix a board. I'd suggest trying a BIOS recovery procedure first.

dionb wrote:

.legaCy wrote:

weldum wrote:

Hi to everyone, merry christmas! [...] […]
Show full quote

Hi to everyone, merry christmas!
[...]

3: Leadtek Winfast 741M01C-GX-6L / Foxconn K7S741GXMG-6L
Worked fine but now has problems. It appears that the problem is with the bios, because a strange code appears that say something about corrupt bios. Also has the sound chip dead.

[...]

3- if it has a corrupted bios then http://www.foxconnchannel.com/ProductDetail.a … &U=en-us0000129 + TL866CS USB Universal Programmer should fix.

Only problem: that board seems to have a soldered PLCC32 BIOS chip, not a socketed one. That's a lot of fiddly work to fix a board. I'd suggest trying a BIOS recovery procedure first.

Oh well... thats a boomer,it will just require some soldering skills, personally i hate SMD components, because for me they are difficult to solder, but it is possible to desolder it and most of TL866CS programmers are sold with the adapter for PLCC32 so it could still work, but would require a bit more of work.

.legaCy wrote:

dionb wrote:

.legaCy wrote:

Oh well... thats a boomer,it will just require some soldering skills, personally i hate SMD components, because for me they are difficult to solder, but it is possible to desolder it and most of TL866CS programmers are sold with the adapter for PLCC32 so it could still work, but would require a bit more of work.

Well that board is not a priority for me right now.

Now, i've done some further testing on the other boards:

1: dead board, makes a long beep, that means cpu problem, but the processor works and i've tested with various processors.

2: only has the leaking capacitors problem, later i will fix this one.

3: i'm going to try to reflash the bios inside DOS, because sometimes the board does boot, but lately doesn't even power on. Not a priority

4: dead board, doesn't post, doesn't beep, doesn't have anything weird.

5: dead board, doesn't post, doesn't beep, doesn't have anything weird.

6: IT WORKS!! i've changed the leaking capacitors and now works flawless. Later i'm thinking on make a post on the forum about this computer and my other ones.

7: Changed leaking capacitors but now have to test it and see if it works better.

Thanks to everyone who answer.

Long beep on the first one is a RAM problem, not CPU.

PcBytes wrote:

Long beep on the first one is a RAM problem, not CPU.

Well doesn't matter because that board is being used as a donor.
.
On a side note, the pcchips m558, that i got to work, is exposing a problem.
I can install dos or windows 9x/me just fine, but when triyng to install windows 2000 or XP, it gives me blue screen. In Windows 2000 it says unaccessible boot device, and in XP ir gives me the 0x7B bluescreen that is bassically the same thing.

My first throught is to blame the strange Utron vx pro II chipset, but why in 9x works just fine is strange to say the least.

Currently it has 64mb of ram, but I want to make double boot with windows me and 2000 because the installed USB controller is very conflictive in 9x but in NT works as it should. Now i'm thinking in sticking to network sharing and getting rid of the usb card.