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AOpen MX34 motherboard assist "Edit"

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First post, by Kittyboy

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I re-installed one of my favorite motherboards, an AOpen "MX34" into a new case and noticed that there is a component completely fried/cooked/vaporized! I attached an image. I am curious what may have caused this, the board continues to operate without any issues as far as I know.

Edit:
After doing some research I found that the "L" designator identifies the fried component as an inductor. In my case it "was" a ferrite block type inductor based on the shape of the fried remains. I have read that some simply just use a bridge for repair? In my case, as a wrote, so far it has not caused any noticeable failures during gaming usage. It's just weird, I have no clue what caused this to destruct? Note: I also read that I must find the root cause component that caused the overload of the inductor prior to replacing it? Makes sense, I will probably just keep using as is for my purpose. However, I would like to know what circuit is now failed "L39", anyone?

Pentium III 1.4GHz-S (SL6BY), Asus TUV4X, Plextor 760A, ATI 9800 Pro, MS-DOS 6.22/Win98se dual boot

Reply 1 of 2, by shevalier

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yep, it`s the ferrite bead.
But.
Pin 4 of AC97 front panel header is powering of "don`t know whats" (may be for dynamic microphone amplifier.).
In the early days, the main +5V from the PSU was connected there.
(that's why the ferrite bead burned out)
Later - this pin is "NC - not connected"
So it's better to do nothing, except maybe clean off the remaining soot.

Aopen MX3S, PIII-S Tualatin 1133, Radeon 9800Pro@XT BIOS, Audigy 4 SB0610
JetWay K8T8AS, Athlon DH-E6 3000+, Radeon HD2600Pro AGP, Audigy 2 Value SB0400
Gigabyte Ga-k8n51gmf, Turion64 ML-30@2.2GHz , Radeon X800GTO PL16, Diamond monster sound MX300

Reply 2 of 2, by Kittyboy

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shevalier wrote on 2025-08-26, 07:48:
yep, it`s the ferrite bead. But. Pin 4 of AC97 front panel header is powering of "don`t know whats" (may be for dynamic micropho […]
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yep, it`s the ferrite bead.
But.
Pin 4 of AC97 front panel header is powering of "don`t know whats" (may be for dynamic microphone amplifier.).
In the early days, the main +5V from the PSU was connected there.
(that's why the ferrite bead burned out)
Later - this pin is "NC - not connected"
So it's better to do nothing, except maybe clean off the remaining soot.

So, L39 is relation to the front panel header? I do recall that at one point after first installing the MX34 I was trouble shooting 'no external speaker volume.' I solved the no external sound issue by installing a jumper on pins 5,6 "front audio header" as viewed in attached image, I should have paid closer attention to the manual instructions before hand.

During my initial 'fumbling' setup I also connected a small pair of amplified BOSE speakers into the Mic-in and Line-in jacks, rather than the 'correct' speaker OUT jack, (don't ask why please) haha. Is it possible that this may have been the cause of the cooked inductor? And if so, is it likely I may have also damaged some other component/s in the same circuit, just curious?

Thank you!

Another AOpen MX34 question, I am currently running a Pentium lll Coppermine 1GHz (SL5B3) CPU with an ATI Radeon 9600 256 GPU with excellent performance. The entire "Need for Speed" series of games load and play flawlessly with ATI. However, I was unable to get any of my Nvidia GeForce FX5500 cards to work on the same system playing the same games no matter the amount of tweaking?

I really like AOpen, are there other AOpen mATX motherboards compatible with Pentium lll-S Tualatin 1.4GHz CPUs? Thank you again!!!!

(See added images)

Pentium III 1.4GHz-S (SL6BY), Asus TUV4X, Plextor 760A, ATI 9800 Pro, MS-DOS 6.22/Win98se dual boot

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