VOGONS


First post, by RetroPC_King

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Hello there. I have a GIGABYTE GA-7DXE Socket 462 MB with AMD Athlon XP 1700+ CPU, 256MB RAM, 400W Allied PSU. Yesterday PC worked. But now today PC does not power up. Changed PSU, blinking DIMM_LED like TICK-TOCK. Also sometimes it auto powers up, but nothing on screen.
Basically, changed PSUs, nothing changed
ALSO CHANGED THERMAL PASTE ON CPU, CPU DIE is not cracked or chipped
Help please. I will thank anyone who help me.

Reply 2 of 45, by snufkin

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Any pictures of the board? Might be worth checking if any of the capacitors have any brown marks on them or look like they're bulging or leaning. The board was made during a time when there were problems with the capacitors.

Reply 4 of 45, by RetroPC_King

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
snufkin wrote on 2021-12-23, 15:04:

Any pictures of the board? Might be worth checking if any of the capacitors have any brown marks on them or look like they're bulging or leaning. The board was made during a time when there were problems with the capacitors.

i will post board pictures. OK

Last edited by RetroPC_King on 2021-12-23, 16:39. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 6 of 45, by RetroPC_King

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
snufkin wrote on 2021-12-23, 15:04:

Any pictures of the board? Might be worth checking if any of the capacitors have any brown marks on them or look like they're bulging or leaning. The board was made during a time when there were problems with the capacitors.

Also I think recapping it. DOes it worth?

Reply 7 of 45, by snufkin

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
RetroPC_King wrote on 2021-12-23, 16:05:

Also I think recapping it. DOes it worth?

If you have an ESR meter then it might be worth taking one or two of the largest ones out from near the CPU and RAM and testing them. People have different opinions about whether or not to just change capacitors even if they seem ok. I normally only change them if I can find something wrong, or if they're a brand that are known to have had problems at the time. What make are the capacitors?

Reply 8 of 45, by RetroPC_King

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

I don't know what caps are bad, but what caps should I replace? I don't know what brand are them. I seen one is Chong.
Also I put a picture of same board (not mine) from Internet for reference.
20210817175112.jpg

Reply 10 of 45, by snufkin

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Well a few places on the internet think Chong aren't a good make of capacitors, so changing them might help. Still might be a good idea to get hold of an ESR meter to test a couple, maybe one from by the CPU and the one that's very close to the DIMM slots. If either of those tests out of spec then at that point I'd probably change any large capacitors (anything over 1000uF). There looks to be about 14 in that photo: 3 with the CPU voltage regulators (just below the yellow gameport), 4 around the CPU socket, 3 at the right of the DIMM slots and 4 between the AGP and DIMM slots.

When you say a strange noise from the speaker, what does it sound like?

Reply 11 of 45, by RetroPC_King

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
snufkin wrote on 2021-12-23, 17:45:

Well a few places on the internet think Chong aren't a good make of capacitors, so changing them might help. Still might be a good idea to get hold of an ESR meter to test a couple, maybe one from by the CPU and the one that's very close to the DIMM slots. If either of those tests out of spec then at that point I'd probably change any large capacitors (anything over 1000uF). There looks to be about 14 in that photo: 3 with the CPU voltage regulators (just below the yellow gameport), 4 around the CPU socket, 3 at the right of the DIMM slots and 4 between the AGP and DIMM slots.

When you say a strange noise from the speaker, what does it sound like?

That mosfets are OK.

That noise sound like a looped skrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Sadly i don't have ESR meter. I replace all from DIMM and CPU if I can. Okay?

Reply 12 of 45, by RetroPC_King

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

someone on Bought those retro hardware today said this:
Other than that - broken caps on the board (literally, they weren't bulging, they were simply broken off the board) and to top that they were counterfeit OST RLX. Seriously, I don't get why would somebody make fake OST RLX caps.

So that black/white capacitors are OST RLX? What brand should I use for replacing them?

Reply 15 of 45, by Hoping

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I've had one 7DXE+ that had the dual bios around 2002 I think, and it wasn't very god, it died after one year, now I have one 7DXE,one 7DXE+ and one 7ZX, this one is a KT133, so a bit older than the other, but all then had bad capacitors. And it is true that the 761 north bridge is interesting, but the 686b south bridge is not. One really interesting feature are the holes for heavy CPU heat sinks with screws, that wasn't so common I think, but those heat sinks neither weren't common.

Reply 16 of 45, by RetroPC_King

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

This is a picture of my own GIGABYTE GA-7DXE i want to recap. It worth because of the AMD 761 and VIA 686B (only good thing of it was Legacy SB emulation). Also capacitors are CHONG and Choyl (no-names). It needs good caps for repairing.

Attachments

Reply 18 of 45, by RetroPC_King

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

also, I post there for someone who wants to recap another board like mine:
Large capacitors (crucial ones):
CPU Voltage Regulators area (below the game port): 3x 10V 1200uF
CPU socket area: 4x 6.3V 3300uF
DIMM slot area and between AGP slot and DIMM slots: 7x 25V 330uF

Small capacitors around the board:
2x 16V 22uF
11x 10V 100uF

This is appliable to GIGABYTE GA-7DXE only

Reply 19 of 45, by RetroPC_King

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

I found new capacitors from ELITE, PANASONIC and SANCON. These brands are good?
Also, i didn't found 10V 1200UF capacitors, and at store they given me 10V 1500UF Capacitors. Does it hurt replacing the original 1200uF with 1500uF?