With the AZZA P4M2-MVB and P4 2400/400 motherboard, I did some benches, and the results do not seem bad at all, if compared to a DFI with Celeron D 2.66 GHz, but later we will see to make a direct comparison with the same CPU, so as to understand if it changes a lot with the simple transition from Celeron to P4, I think there is a certain difference, because in the past I had changed a P4 2000 with a Celeron 2600, and it seemed slower to me, despite the greater frequency.

I start with Phil's benches, for a couple it was not possible to see the results, one definitely due to the CPU speed, and the other instead could be the monitor (?), apart from this, here's what I got:

2) 615.3 3) 612.3 4) 127.6

5) 382.3 6) 57.3

A) 553.26 b) 139.09 c) 259.4 e) 122.8

K) 565.5 m) 505 n) 1603.17

In addition to these, I ran other DOS programs, including QTPRO obtaining:

CPU Bench Mark 518777 Dhrystones

262721K Whetstones

Compative about 48,000 MHz XBenchSpeed

And also those of NSSI 060

CPU Perf. Index: 836444 Dhrystones/s (839562, 16 bit code)

FPU Perf. Index: 212302 KWhetstones/s (212729, Real mode).

Phil's scores of the DFI NB78-BL, are these:

2) 441.5 3) 523.7 4) 90.3 5)284.8

6) 46.3 a) 461.05 b) 103.16 c) 216.7

E) 60.3 m) 463 n) 1108.15

All inferior to the AZZA, sometimes the gap is clear, as in n), but I consider the integrated video card, a disadvantage compared to the ATI 9250 AGP of the DFI, so some could be even ️ better.

It remains to replace the TC23 SACON 3300uF 6.3V, for complete recovery, then you should decide the amount of memory, and whether to use an AGP VGA instead of the integrated one.

After replacing the swollen electrolytic capacitor, I would have to upgrade the memory, and the disk to use, to load Windows XP (probably), from there then I can run other bench programs, such as CPU-Z Sandra BMX etc...

Well now that I'm done with the AZZA, I'm going to an ASUS motherboard with something in common, namely the support of DDR RAM and P4/400 CPUs, the rest differs, but anyway they are the same kind of PC.

What is ASUS?

A P4B266 REV.2.01, with Socket 478 and DDR RAM slot, probably the first with this type of memory, previously used with Intel chipsets, RDRAMs and later SDRAMs, the latter were not the best with the P4, and I think it was a fallback solution while waiting to be able to use the DDR.

Here we have three DDR sockets, in total so we can get to 3 GB of RAM, more realistically 2 GB would still be enough.

Given the ATX format (a classic), we have plenty of PCI slots, well six plus an AGP and a CNR, if we wanted to fill them all, I remind you that in the ATX cases the maximum number of cards is seven, so it is evident that a PCI and the CNR are shared.

The CPU supplied with the motherboard is a P4 SL5ZU 2.2GHz/512/400/1.5V, the chipset is Intel 845, to the motherboard I added a 64 MB DDR AGP 8X GF4 MX440 video card, in the future I can always change it, if I need something better.

In this motherboard, there is integrated audio, with C-Media CMI8738/PCI chip, I think it can go, except for special or professional needs, in which case it is possible to disable it and use a special PCI sound card.

There is no integrated LAN, and this given the number of available PCI slots, should not be a problem, in fact it could be an advantage, because they are usually 10/100M, while a special PCI LAN card, could be 1000M, then if we want, we can add a USB Wi-Fi, in one of the ports available in the shield.

Returning to the motherboard, despite several attempts I failed to make the IDE CF adapter work with CF memory card, sometimes it happens that it does not work in some motherboards, so I think I will try to connect a HD and a CD player, to load Windows.

Not happy with the results obtained recently, I definitively put away the ASROCK ConRoeXFire, because before the adjustment of the PIN, it is definitively (?) KO put, I tried everything I could, and no post code is displayed (— —)!

Now I have the doubt whether the PIN repair was successful or not, in short I don't know what happened, but the card went from displaying some codes, to not displaying any, plus while before it beeped without RAM, now no beep!

This thing, in the past has happened with other motherboards, initially working and after a few starts, completely KO, despite the tensions being normal.

So having a free seat, I'm going to an LGA 775 motherboard, with the typical appearance of an ASUS, but which is actually an HP Benicia, or ASUS IPIBL-LB REV. 1.01, with Intel G33 Bearlake chipset, uATX format, Intel Pentium Dual Core E2160 1.8GHz SLA8Z CPU, AMI v5.35 BIOS of 12/16/08, and integrated audio, video and LAN.

The one I own, is a bit bare version, in the PCB you notice many empty places, and ditto in the shield, overall it has a couple of positive things, and one minus, the minus is the lack of a 40PIN IDE port, to connect the drives, there are only SATA ports (N.4), the positive things are the support for Intel CPUs with FSB 1333, and the presence of four DDR2 RAM banks (667 or 800).

If it is necessary to install a better video card than the integrated one (Intel GMA 3100), there is a PCI-E 16X slot, or alternatively for other cards there are two PCI-E 1X and one PCI.

The original PC is an HP dx2400, which I obviously don't own, having only the motherboard, however I tried it and it works, at least it seems so, then later I would have to connect a disk and a CD player, to install Windows, and some bench and diagnostic programs.

At startup it shows an error message, but suggests pressing F2 to continue, maybe it has remained stored, because there is a low CR2032 battery, so any changes to the BIOS are not stored.

I'm hijacking your thread as it looks like it's the mainboard repair thread 😁

A couple of months ago I got a dead MSI KT7 Pro2 board (https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/msi-ms-6330-ver-1.0c) that had badly leaking caps.

After replacing the caps with new ones (Panasonic)I'm finally at the moment where I feel confident to power it up. I started by verifying that:
- There is no short between the power rails (ATX connector)
- Check if the VRM Mosfets are not shorted (good)

So I plugged a Duron 700 in the board, added my POST card and shorted the "Power" switch and...nothing. Absolutely no sign of life.

With my multimeter I can see 3.3V on the power switch, so at least it's coming to the right place. On the other side, on the ATX connector I can measure PS_ON at 4.7V which is also fine.

When I short the power switch, PS_ON stays at 4.7V instead of going to 0 as it should. So some component that acts between the power switch and the ATX PS_ON does not cooperate.

So next step, force a power on by shorting PS_ON to GND: the board starts and the POST card displays codes. The board itself has diagnostic LEDs and it shows 0010: Initializing Keyboard Controller (in the user manual)

So, any idea on what could cause the issue? I fear it's the southbridge as I see no other chip which could handle the power management.

Minutemanqvs wrote on Yesterday, 20:25:

I'm hijacking your thread as it looks like it's the mainboard repair thread :D […]
Show full quote

I'm hijacking your thread as it looks like it's the mainboard repair thread 😁

A couple of months ago I got a dead MSI KT7 Pro2 board (https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/msi-ms-6330-ver-1.0c) that had badly leaking caps.

After replacing the caps with new ones (Panasonic)I'm finally at the moment where I feel confident to power it up. I started by verifying that:
- There is no short between the power rails (ATX connector)
- Check if the VRM Mosfets are not shorted (good)

So I plugged a Duron 700 in the board, added my POST card and shorted the "Power" switch and...nothing. Absolutely no sign of life.

With my multimeter I can see 3.3V on the power switch, so at least it's coming to the right place. On the other side, on the ATX connector I can measure PS_ON at 4.7V which is also fine.

When I short the power switch, PS_ON stays at 4.7V instead of going to 0 as it should. So some component that acts between the power switch and the ATX PS_ON does not cooperate.

So next step, force a power on by shorting PS_ON to GND: the board starts and the POST card displays codes. The board itself has diagnostic LEDs and it shows 0010: Initializing Keyboard Controller (in the user manual)

So, any idea on what could cause the issue? I fear it's the southbridge as I see no other chip which could handle the power management.

Ciao 👋
No problem friend, if I can help you I'll gladly do it, I don't think I have a motherboard like yours, but I have a very similar one that is a Turbo, unfortunately I haven't fixed it yet, even though it's been several years.
Maybe 🤔 it's as you suggest, an SB problem, but if it was, I think it can be diagnosed, I don't know if after a few minutes that it's on, it stays cold or gets hot (?), if it stays cold it could be the missing power supply, which you should understand where it comes from, maybe a pdf of the SB with the pinout, could suggest which track to follow.
One thing I would check, when you turned it on (forcing it), are the voltages on the Mosfet PINs, if it's not too complicated, write everything down and publish the Mosfet and PIN voltages here.
By following these steps, we can exclude what works from the troubleshooting, and seeing that it shows codes, it seems that the BIOS works, and the CPU should also be good, eventually if you have the possibility to use a working motherboard, you can check the components.
I don't know if you've already tried, what I suggested, possibly don't take into account, what you've already done.
So good work, and update me on the tests you run.