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Has anyone actually had soldered on PB cache, naturally fail?

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First post, by SodaSuccubus

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Title. I had a VIA socket 7 board developed bad cache once but otherwise iv never personally ran into it.

Kinda something iv been wondering about though recently, as I plan another socket 7 build. Trying to replace the PB cache looks like it would be a pain in the ass. Atleast with Async cache usually it's socketed chips.

Reply 1 of 4, by Eep386

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Most of the soldered-on cache chips I've run into seemed pretty solid, even on marginal boards.
Soldered-on DRAM is a different issue. I junked a Compaq 486 because the soldered on RAM failed (this was well before I had the means to remove SMD chips).

Life isn't long enough to re-enable every hidden option in every BIOS on every board... 🙁

Reply 2 of 4, by Doornkaat

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I've had a board with failing cache as well. It would lock up after POST.
When disabling cache in BIOS it worked normally.

Reply 3 of 4, by SodaSuccubus

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Sounds like boards with COAST modules might be more future proof in the long-run then.

Anyone with skills know how painfull replacing PB cache would be?

Reply 4 of 4, by Doornkaat

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With decent tools and some practice it's not that big of a deal. Especially since most boards with onboard cache are still assembled using leaded solder.

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