VOGONS


First post, by ConiKost

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hi!
I am running an older AMD K6 PC for myself. Unfortunately it seems, that the Mainboard just died, but was the last day ago perfectly fine working.

After testing (Changed CPU, RAM, PSU, removed all PCI/ISA cards), I found, it's the mainboard, which is dead. It's a DFI K6XV3+/66 Rev. B2 (2MB Cache)
My PCI POST card shows an error code between 0x0 and 0xF, it's pretty random after each reboot. But according to the code error, its' pretty early.
The mainboard doesn't even beep an error code, when RAM is missing.

But I can see, +12V, -12V and +5V LEDs are enabled on my PCI POST card. But 3.3V LED is NOT enabled.
When I do plug the POST PCI card into my Tyan S1598 (also Socket 7), the 3.3V LED is enabled.

Both Mainboards do have 5V only PCI slots. So I am not sure, If the DFI should have also 3.3V? But it's currently the only guess I have..

The ATX connector Pins on the backside of the mainboards are fine, I also messmeasured there 3.3V on the correct pins.
But due multilayer? I can't trace the lines, where they go.

I also took my Multimeter and measured the voltage at the capacitors. All were at 5V and 3.3V, execept one was strange.
Looking at the ATX connector, there are on the left side 3 capacitors. The left and right capacitor shows 5V, but the one in the middle of them is only at 3.5V.

It there any other options, I could do? I would be very happy, if I could repair that one, as it's not easy to find a replacement any more..
But I am not a mainboard repair expert and of course there are no circuit diagrams..

Reply 1 of 5, by tpowell.ca

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Any luck with that board?
I have the same one, and it has been my favorite SS7 so far. I love having 3 ISA slots. I just wish the switches for bus speed were actually jumpers like it was on the ASUS P5A.

Btw, have you checked all the traces leaving the ATX socket for damage?

  • Merlin: MS-4144, AMD5x86-160 32MB, 16GB CF, ZIP100, Orpheus, GUS, S3 VirgeGX 2MB
    Tesla: GA-6BXC, VIA C3 Ezra-T, 256MB, 120GB SATA, YMF744, GUSpnp, Quadro2
    Newton: K6XV3+/66, AMD K6-III+500, 256MB, 32GB SSD, AWE32, Voodoo3

Reply 2 of 5, by ConiKost

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
tpowell.ca wrote:

Any luck with that board?
I have the same one, and it has been my favorite SS7 so far. I love having 3 ISA slots. I just wish the switches for bus speed were actually jumpers like it was on the ASUS P5A.

Btw, have you checked all the traces leaving the ATX socket for damage?

Is your board still working?
I have currently no luck. I will try next week to replace all caps. The ATX lines seems to look fine for me.

Reply 3 of 5, by tpowell.ca

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Mine is working, although I have odd issues which I'm not sure if are due to bad caps, bad power supply or just being a VIA-based motherboard instead of intel.

Basically, sometimes the computer will reboot during the booting process for no reason, but this ONLY happens before the disk is read, so I'm not too concerned.
Another issue is that Windows 98 is about as stable as...well, Windows 98 on an AMD.
Maybe its due to the fact that I'm using a GeForce3 AGP, a CompactFlash as a harddisk, maybe due to having an AWE32 and GUS Pnp in the same machine. I just get what seems like random freezes (usually when doing some kind of 3D), or blue screens when opening explorer at random times.

Lets just say I would *not* use this to write any papers.
I recall back in the day that my PIII-450 with a i440BX chipset was absolutely ROCK solid in Windows 98.

  • Merlin: MS-4144, AMD5x86-160 32MB, 16GB CF, ZIP100, Orpheus, GUS, S3 VirgeGX 2MB
    Tesla: GA-6BXC, VIA C3 Ezra-T, 256MB, 120GB SATA, YMF744, GUSpnp, Quadro2
    Newton: K6XV3+/66, AMD K6-III+500, 256MB, 32GB SSD, AWE32, Voodoo3

Reply 5 of 5, by Radical Vision

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

How you think DFI before LanParty series was crap brand, with low quality of the components, so no matter the brand of the caps they are junk. Same goes for EpoX and old ABIT boards, no matter they did have great support and good OC they was junk when it comes to quality...

Mah systems retro, old, newer (Radical stuff)
W3680 4.5/ GA-x58 UD7/ R9 280x
K7 2.6/ NF7-S/ HD3850
IBM x2 P3 933/ GA-6VXD7/ Voodoo V 5.5K
Cmq P2 450/ GA-BX2000/ V2 SLI
IBM PC365
Cmq DeskPRO 486/33
IBM PS/2 Model 56
SPS IntelleXT 8088