I had a really easy repair once. On visual inspection, the board looked fine, but it wouldn't POST and the CPU barely got warm. I started touching the VRMs to see if they were heading up and the system sprung to life! In this case, the VRM had detached from the motherboard, which was its ground connection. This was surprising, because that's typically a very strong connection once soldered.
Curious to know which component on the VRM detached. Was it a mosfet, capacitor or something else?
Sounds like it was a Mosfet, typically its soldered directly to the ground plane, on most its a just the source pin going to a pad but other larger fets have the connection as a pad on the rear of the Mosfet and its soldered to a large square ground pad under the fet to provide a stronger connection. I'm guessing this attachment under the fet has cracked and touching it allowed to to connect again.
A bunch of socket 7 boards. All sold as defective.
My project is to try to repair them. Who knows, maybe I'll learn a thing or two along the way??
Wishing you good luck. If they've come from an impatient board swapper, you might get most of them working, if they've come from a component level repair guy, then you've got an uphill struggle, as they will be the difficult ones and may have had components picked off already.
I've had 2 batches of the former and one of the latter. The former type I got 80-90% working with practically no work, it was all in the jumper settings or replacing corrupted BIOS, the latter type, I only got two out of 10 going with a recap, but just the other year some decade after, when I got a POST card I brought 4 more of them to life.
Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.
A bunch of socket 7 boards. All sold as defective.
My project is to try to repair them. Who knows, maybe I'll learn a thing or two along the way??
Wishing you good luck. If they've come from an impatient board swapper, you might get most of them working, if they've come from a component level repair guy, then you've got an uphill struggle, as they will be the difficult ones and may have had components picked off already.
I've had 2 batches of the former and one of the latter. The former type I got 80-90% working with practically no work, it was all in the jumper settings or replacing corrupted BIOS, the latter type, I only got two out of 10 going with a recap, but just the other year some decade after, when I got a POST card I brought 4 more of them to life.
Fingers crossed! In pictures one had keyboard and real time chips missing.
They were perfectly desoldered, guessing a prior repair attempt or swap.
Who knows, it'll be for dark and stormy nights 😀
Trashbyteswrote on 2024-03-05, 03:12:Sounds like it was a Mosfet, typically its soldered directly to the ground plane, on most its a just the source pin going to a p […] Show full quote
I had a really easy repair once. On visual inspection, the board looked fine, but it wouldn't POST and the CPU barely got warm. I started touching the VRMs to see if they were heading up and the system sprung to life! In this case, the VRM had detached from the motherboard, which was its ground connection. This was surprising, because that's typically a very strong connection once soldered.
Curious to know which component on the VRM detached. Was it a mosfet, capacitor or something else?
Sounds like it was a Mosfet, typically its soldered directly to the ground plane, on most its a just the source pin going to a pad but other larger fets have the connection as a pad on the rear of the Mosfet and its soldered to a large square ground pad under the fet to provide a stronger connection. I'm guessing this attachment under the fet has cracked and touching it allowed to to connect again.
Thanks for the information. I can never tell the difference between a VRM and a Mosfet, unless it's standing on its legs with a large heatsink on it, that is.
I had a really easy repair once. On visual inspection, the board looked fine, but it wouldn't POST and the CPU barely got warm. I started touching the VRMs to see if they were heading up and the system sprung to life! In this case, the VRM had detached from the motherboard, which was its ground connection. This was surprising, because that's typically a very strong connection once soldered.
Curious to know which component on the VRM detached. Was it a mosfet, capacitor or something else?
It was this component here.
Maybe the mechanical strain from removing the ATX power connector caused it break loose as the board warped, just enough.
Trashbyteswrote on 2024-03-05, 03:12:Sounds like it was a Mosfet, typically its soldered directly to the ground plane, on most its a just the source pin going to a p […] Show full quote
Curious to know which component on the VRM detached. Was it a mosfet, capacitor or something else?
Sounds like it was a Mosfet, typically its soldered directly to the ground plane, on most its a just the source pin going to a pad but other larger fets have the connection as a pad on the rear of the Mosfet and its soldered to a large square ground pad under the fet to provide a stronger connection. I'm guessing this attachment under the fet has cracked and touching it allowed to to connect again.
Thanks for the information. I can never tell the difference between a VRM and a Mosfet, unless it's standing on its legs with a large heatsink on it, that is.
VRM isnt totally incorrect, Mosfets are just a part of it. (Not all three legged parts on heatsinks are fets !)
That little one looks like a Fet, you could just reflow it to reattach it, though you could also replace it and fix it to a small heat sink so it doesn't break away again. Ive seen this done with GPUs that have a similar setup and changing it so the fet is on a small heatsink helps tremendously with both longevity of the fet and better stability as the fet now has better cooling.
I can't stand it up since it only has two legs. The third "leg" is the back part that was soldered to the board, which is what broke away. I suppose it would be possible to run a wire from the heatsink. That would be interesting to see.
I have this motherboard in storage at the moment, but maybe there is an unused hole for the third pin that can be used instead with a similar part. This while idea would be interesting for modifying 440BX motherboards with MOSFETs that are overdriven.
Put your finger on the VRMs. On my dead P2B, they got unbearably hot to the touch when used with a fast Coppermine or Tualatin, and may have led to its early demise. In contrast, the VRMs on this new board remained slightly above ambient, even with a 1.4Ghz Tualatin.
If they become too hot to touch, then your CPU pairing might be risky to their long term health.
The MOSFETs are pretty cool when paired with a 500Mhz Celeron but extremely hot with a 1.4Ghz Pentium 3. I installed little copper heatsinks on them to help. I wonder if they will be pushed even harder with the lower voltage.
The chip I ordered was through AliExpress and is estimated to arrive sometime next month. I'll update this thread when I swap out the chip for testing.
Kahenrazwrote on 2024-03-05, 06:47:I can't stand it up since it only has two legs. The third "leg" is the back part that was soldered to the board, which is what b […] Show full quote
I can't stand it up since it only has two legs. The third "leg" is the back part that was soldered to the board, which is what broke away. I suppose it would be possible to run a wire from the heatsink. That would be interesting to see.
I have this motherboard in storage at the moment, but maybe there is an unused hole for the third pin that can be used instead with a similar part. This while idea would be interesting for modifying 440BX motherboards with MOSFETs that are overdriven.
Put your finger on the VRMs. On my dead P2B, they got unbearably hot to the touch when used with a fast Coppermine or Tualatin, and may have led to its early demise. In contrast, the VRMs on this new board remained slightly above ambient, even with a 1.4Ghz Tualatin.
If they become too hot to touch, then your CPU pairing might be risky to their long term health.
The MOSFETs are pretty cool when paired with a 500Mhz Celeron but extremely hot with a 1.4Ghz Pentium 3. I installed little copper heatsinks on them to help. I wonder if they will be pushed even harder with the lower voltage.
The chip I ordered was through AliExpress and is estimated to arrive sometime next month. I'll update this thread when I swap out the chip for testing.
You simply replace it with a 3 legged model, so long as the replacement has the same specs. Ive seen it done a few times now and it does work, helps the fet to live longer too as it now has a way to dump heat that isnt into the ground plane of the motherboard.
The issue with just reflowing it or re-soldering is that eventually it'll break again via the same failure mode.
I ordered this during the winter. My guess was either mechanical stress or thermal stress due to expansion over the years and possibly one final contraction due to the extreme cold. I seem to recall the seller saying that he had tested it before shipping, and was surprised that it was DOA.
It's good to have a list of possible failure modes that are easy to test and diagnose. One of my motherboards I pulled out this past week seemed completely dead... until I realized that I'd inserted the IDE cable backwards into the motherboard. After turning it around, everything worked a treat. Sometimes the failure mode is me.
I had a really easy repair once. On visual inspection, the board looked fine, but it wouldn't POST and the CPU barely got warm. I started touching the VRMs to see if they were heading up and the system sprung to life! In this case, the VRM had detached from the motherboard, which was its ground connection. This was surprising, because that's typically a very strong connection once soldered.
Iv seen plenty transistors/regulators melt solder under them due to short down the line
PC Chips M848A SiS chipset socket A motherboard + Athlon 2400+. Judging by the size of the die, it's a barthon CPU, but as far as I know the only 2400+ with a barton core is a Mobile variant, and I highly doubt this is one of those. Most likely it's a defective barton core limited to 256k of L2 cache. Untested. The motherboard is missing a couple of SMD caps on the back of the northbridge.
The red AGP card is a bog standardard low cost 9600XT with 5ns video memory. These make prety good GPUs for quick-and-dirty cheap win9x builds, unfortunatly this one is artefacting.
The ESS card has a wavetable, witch peaked my curiosity. I haven't identified it yet.
There's also a Mediavision card, haven't tested it or had a good look at it. Seems to be a Pro Audio Spectrum / Pro Audio Studio 16.
Voodoo 1 is untested, seems to be a Biostar or Skywell. No missing parts, no bent pins.
The roland card appears to be an SCC-1. I don't know much about it, apart from it's supposed to be sort of an internal version of the SC-55.
The 6 series AGP card is an EVGA or MSI 6800GT. It posts fine, no artefacting, driver installs, but when launching 3dmark01 my test PC froze and I got a checker pattern on screen. Possibly bad VRM....
The 6600 AGP is missing a couple of SMD caps on the back. Some really tiny ones too, hope my hand is steady enough to replace them.
The purble card is a Palit Radeon 9100 - essentially a rebranded 8500.
Leadtek a340 is an FX5200 FX5500. This card has 4ns ram. Also missing components. The fact that Leadtek names both the 5200 and 5500 "A340" is a bit confusing, but you can tell the cards apart by how fast the ram is. 5200's usually has 5ns ram, while the 5500 uses 4ns memory (at least the leadtek A340 cards do).
The orange card is a Pixelview/Asus FX5600XT. Missing SMD caps on the back...... again. Like all the rest of my 5600's. Apart from the Leadtek below.
All aluminum LIan-Li case. Got this one in trade from a friend. I wasn't particularly intereted in this model, but I've seen it on youtube alot in the last couple of years so why not grab it. It's missing the PSU adapter plate, but overall it's in good condition. Fabricating a new PSU adapter is not hard.
Leadtek FX5600 - I've been looking for a WORKNG 5600 for years now, and apart from this card, all I have to show for it is a pile of defective 5600's (missing parts). This one works. Scored close to 11000 pts in 3dmark01 with a 3.2GHz LGA775 pentium 4. So cool to finally see one of these in action for myself.
The tiny riva vanta looking card is a SiS 305. It pots, but as soon as XP starts up my test LCD displays "out of range". Really dirty VGA output. I'll retest it with a CRT or a multisync monitor.
Acorp VIA MVP3 AT form factor. Looks to be in great condition, haven't tested it yet.
On top there's a voodoo 3 3000. Seems to work ok.
The dual CPU board is a Gigabyte GA 7DPXDW-P. It's in good condition, but it will shut off seconds after turning on. I did get it to ask for ram (POST beeps) a couple of times. The marked caps are not bloated, they were leaning to one side exposing part of the plates to air. I'll pull them off and retest the board. The Northbridge heatsink is missing. I also have no Athlon MPs in my collection, so I hope it will post with a single Athlon XP. The 2600+ CPUs in it now are a bit much, but it's the only matching pair I have.
AT the top all the way there's a pair of K6-III 400's with slightly bent pins. K6-III's are allways nice to have.
Last edited by Socket3 on 2024-03-05, 16:19. Edited 5 times in total.
All aluminum LIan-Li case. Got this one in trade for a friend. I wasn't particularly intereted in this model, but I've seen it on youtube alot in the last couple of years so why not grab it. It's missing the PSU adapter plate, but overall it's in good condition. Fabricating a new PSU adapter is not hard.
Love to see these! I've got 6 of them now... that's a PC-60 USB B2 with removable motherboard tray, and you've done well to find one with the front USB cover still attached as well as with all the bay covers. Does it have the expansion slot covers too? They should all be chrome finished. If you need detailed measurements and/or photos for the PSU bracket let me know 😀
All aluminum LIan-Li case. Got this one in trade for a friend. I wasn't particularly intereted in this model, but I've seen it on youtube alot in the last couple of years so why not grab it. It's missing the PSU adapter plate, but overall it's in good condition. Fabricating a new PSU adapter is not hard.
Love to see these! I've got 6 of them now... that's a PC-60 USB B2 with removable motherboard tray, and you've done well to find one with the front USB cover still attached as well as with all the bay covers. Does it have the expansion slot covers too? They should all be chrome finished.
Good to know what it is. The case looks unused, there isn't a scratch on it, or a tool / screw mark anyware... First time seeing one of these was on LGR, expensive PC cases weren't popular here.
It's missing the PSU adapter plate, but overall it's in good condition. Fabricating a new PSU adapter is not hard.
I had a case like that, as much as needing an adapter plate, but otherwise alright. Had a mangled ATX chassis I picked off a dumpster, and managed to cut around the PSU mounting area on that and make one that way.
I also have no Athlon MPs in my collection, so I hope it will post with a single Athlon XP. The 2600+ CPUs in it now are a bit much, but it's the only matching pair I have.
There is an MP bridge mod for Palamino XPs but not sure if it works on Tbred or Barton... or it might work but needs scraping and pit filling.
Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.
It's missing the PSU adapter plate, but overall it's in good condition. Fabricating a new PSU adapter is not hard.
I had a case like that, as much as needing an adapter plate, but otherwise alright. Had a mangled ATX chassis I picked off a dumpster, and managed to cut around the PSU mounting area on that and make one that way.
It's missing the PSU adapter plate, but overall it's in good condition. Fabricating a new PSU adapter is not hard.
I had a case like that, as much as needing an adapter plate, but otherwise alright. Had a mangled ATX chassis I picked off a dumpster, and managed to cut around the PSU mounting area on that and make one that way.
I also have no Athlon MPs in my collection, so I hope it will post with a single Athlon XP. The 2600+ CPUs in it now are a bit much, but it's the only matching pair I have.
There is an MP bridge mod for Palamino XPs but not sure if it works on Tbred or Barton... or it might work but needs scraping and pit filling.
I can recommend grabbing a pair of Athlon XP-M CPUs, Athlon XP-M are the exact same CPUs as Athlon MP, they dont need bridge mods and are more widely available in Tbred and Barton models, I have a pair of Athlon XP-M cpus in my dual 462 motherboard, the only thing is you may need to use a utility to adjust the Multiplier or do a wire pin mod to set the correct Multi. I guess this depends on the Motherboard, on mine I bought the XP-M versions of the highest MP CPUs my board supports with correct FSB and Multi so never had to do mods.
Had to jump on this little deal today, I know many will consider it far too new for here but its as old as Sandybridge so not new enough for the modern hardware thread.
Saw a nice little deal for a ASUS Sabertooth R2.0 with a FX8350 and Cooler for 110 AUD which is well below what any of these parts go for alone. Pretty sure I will only be keeping the board and cooler as I have a FX 8370 sitting in a 970FX board that needs a new home. (Might OC this 8350 and see if it can clock higher than the 8370 does)
Had to jump on this little deal today, I know many will consider it far too new for here but its as old as Sandybridge so not new enough for the modern hardware thread.
Saw a nice little deal for a ASUS Sabertooth R2.0 with a FX8350 and Cooler for 110 AUD which is well below what any of these parts go for alone. Pretty sure I will only be keeping the board and cooler as I have a FX 8370 sitting in a 970FX board that needs a new home. (Might OC this 8350 and see if it can clock higher than the 8370 does)
The FX 8370 is highly underrated. I bought a Bulldozer FX 8120 at launch, later upgrading slightly to the 8370. It's a solid workhorse when those extra threads, even with the shared FPU modules. Performance is more than enough for its contemporary Windows 7, and still holds its own through Windows 10. The platform only begins to show its age once you start running applications that overburden the processor's single-threaded performance.
I would have kept it for even longer, but I found that it was the CPU was starting to hold me back with games around 2015, but I soldiered on until Ryzen, finally upgrading to an 1800X in 2017.
It's my opinion that the FX series was highly underrated as a budget friendly platform for what it could provide for both games and productivity.
Kahenrazwrote on 2024-03-06, 10:10:The FX 8370 is highly underrated. I bought a Bulldozer FX 8120 at launch, later upgrading slightly to the 8370. It's a solid wor […] Show full quote
Had to jump on this little deal today, I know many will consider it far too new for here but its as old as Sandybridge so not new enough for the modern hardware thread.
Saw a nice little deal for a ASUS Sabertooth R2.0 with a FX8350 and Cooler for 110 AUD which is well below what any of these parts go for alone. Pretty sure I will only be keeping the board and cooler as I have a FX 8370 sitting in a 970FX board that needs a new home. (Might OC this 8350 and see if it can clock higher than the 8370 does)
The FX 8370 is highly underrated. I bought a Bulldozer FX 8120 at launch, later upgrading slightly to the 8370. It's a solid workhorse and those extra threads, even when the shared FPU modules, are for enough for most tasks in XP. The platform only begins to show its age once you start running applications that overburden the processor's single-threaded performance. This shouldn't be a problem for anything you might want to run under XP, Windows 7, and a fair number of years into Windows 10.
I would have kept it for even longer, but I found that it was the CPU was starting to hold me back with games around 2015, but I soldiered on until Ryzen, finally upgrading to an 1800X in 2017.
It's my opinion that the FX series was highly underrated as a budget friendly platform for what it could provide for both games and productivity.
Spot on, for budget systems at the time they were just fine especially if you wanted to spend a little more on a better GPU than the CPU+Motherboard or wanted to avoid going Intel. Around the time the FX8370 was released I had a 4790K Intel machine so I never got to use the Vishera CPUs.
2014 doesn't seem that long ago does it, the 8370 is actually younger than the 4790K which seems a little weird honestly, the 4790K was a monster of a CPU and even today can still game just fine with a 1080ti so I doubt the 8370 is any less capable.
