bofh.fromhell wrote on 2021-05-29, 21:24:

And at about €3 + shipping (and in box too!) it looks like I got a bargain.

Great find, I'm also collecting ABIT motherboards in some way.

bofh.fromhell wrote on 2021-05-29, 21:24:

Also very pink IDE connectors, were ATA133 connectors always pink?

I guess they were orange, once - looks like they are faded by UV radiation.

bofh.fromhell wrote on 2021-05-29, 21:24:

The board makes no mention of what version it is ...

Usually ABIT boards have a small sticker on the last ISA/PCI slot and a marking on the underside (integrated into the board's coating). F.e. for the ABIT BP6 the sticker says "BP6-0K V1.0" or "BP6-0K V1.1" and the printing on the underside says "V0.4" or "V0.41".

If you still need the latest (beta) BIOS for the board, it can be found on my ABIT BIOS page like all other latest ABIT BIOSes - CX from 2002/11/18 is the latest final and EJ from (2003/10/14) the latest beta version.

kind regards
soggi

picture was added to the UH19 page:
http://www.win3x.org/uh19/motherboard/show/7009

Great post! Could you kindly share your technique for replacing caps? I have recapped a KT7A but it was a very difficult process , in particular the removal of the old capacitors.

Great board! I still got my original KR7A that I bought back in 2002 with Duron 1300! Abit made such fantastic boards! I am also collecting every Abit board, graphic card etc and I can get my hands on! I have absolutely no experience in soldering but this skill is absolutely required for collectors!
PS: for soggi - your website is a real treasure!

nd22 wrote on 2021-05-31, 09:06:

PS: for soggi - your website is a real treasure!

Thank you very much! But don't forget evasive, he's also doing great work for years or even decades. Some of my work bases on his work and vice versa. 😀

BTW oh no, I have to create a ABIT KR7A spec page, because the pictures are so good that I can read the IC's printings... xD

kind regards
soggi

Waaay too much time and money spent on a mediocre board. Easier to just buy a flawless one.

Easier to get a 11th gen i7 and have no performance issues, flaky behaviour, software/hardware conflicts....

Or just buy a board that doesn't have these caps. Or only replace the ones that are actually faulty. Blindly replacing everything is just bad practice and shouldn't be encouraged. Diagnostics first, replacements second. He should replace all power components as well because they fail just as many times as caps. Equally pointless. Learning basic diagnostics is the way to go. Replacing everything because "bad name" is not. BTW Teapo isn't even half bad. Cheap but decent, certainly not Fuhjyyu-category. Hipro (HP, IBM) uses them a lot and those are quality PSUs. Even Atari 2600 models have them.
But hey, it's OP's time&money.

Taepo, the same brand that took out the mains fuse from my house because I thought the ones on the primary side of that PSU would be fine, as they were reported to be reputable. Wrong. They take a bit longer to break but 10+ years is ample time. Recap fully.

IBMFan wrote on 2021-05-31, 12:26:

Or just buy a board that doesn't have these caps. Or only replace the ones that are actually faulty. Blindly replacing everything is just bad practice and shouldn't be encouraged. Diagnostics first, replacements second. He should replace all power components as well because they fail just as many times as caps. Equally pointless. Learning basic diagnostics is the way to go. Replacing everything because "bad name" is not. BTW Teapo isn't even half bad. Cheap but decent, certainly not Fuhjyyu-category. Hipro (HP, IBM) uses them a lot and those are quality PSUs. Even Atari 2600 models have them. But hey, it's OP's time&money.

If a capacitor goes bad, the whole motherboard can be toast because a short is created. It is not possible to know in advance which capacitor will go bad until it is too late, visual inspection by itself is not enough, and it is usually not possible to measure the capacitance with a multimeter without desoldering it (because it is connected to other components which influences the measurement). Henceforth bofh.fromhell's decision is entirely justified.

About buying another board: all boards from this era have potentially defective capacitors. Again even capacitors that look visually fine can be defective, I've encountered this situation more than once. A full recapping is the only way to be completely safe; it is dangerous to power the board before the replacement is made.

Teapo is shit IME

Aren't they 2nd tier elcos?
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-su … 101,4193-5.html
These are last week replacements.

Brand doesn't matter if the overall circuit design is crap. If it's good then even mediocre elcos can do their thing for a long time.
Teapos are usually good in low power-low heat environment.

Teapo is relatively good in anything that isn't a GPU or PC motherboard. I've seen them usually used in OG Xbox PSUs and those fared well, and in some be quiet! PSUs (which are of good quality) as well.
On the other hand, quite a handful of MSI's socket 462, 478, 754, 775, 939 and AM2 were almost filled to the brim with Teapo caps that loved to go bad.

IBMFan wrote on 2021-05-31, 09:54:

Waaay too much time and money spent on a mediocre board. Easier to just buy a flawless one.

IBMFan wrote on 2021-05-31, 12:26:

Or just buy a board that doesn't have these caps. Or only replace the ones that are actually faulty. Blindly replacing everything is just bad practice and shouldn't be encouraged. Diagnostics first, replacements second. He should replace all power components as well because they fail just as many times as caps. Equally pointless. Learning basic diagnostics is the way to go. Replacing everything because "bad name" is not. BTW Teapo isn't even half bad. Cheap but decent, certainly not Fuhjyyu-category. Hipro (HP, IBM) uses them a lot and those are quality PSUs. Even Atari 2600 models have them.
But hey, it's OP's time&money.

I have a different opinion on some of your statements.
In my opinion it is not possible to knowingly buy a flawless version of this mainboard.
In my opinion it is good practice to replace at least all wet electrolytic capacitors used for filtering in step-down converters on 20+ year old consumer hardware.

Especially wet electrolytic capacitors degrade over time. Not only the electrolyte and the anode (which can often be reformed) but also the rubber seal and in rare cases the container.
This is why especially a wet electrolytic capacitor can appear 100% functional in electric measurements but fail soon after.
Adequately determining the status of an individual capacitor requires disassembly of the capacitor, not just electric measurements. Disassembly of capacitors commonly used in consumer electronics is destructive so it is pointless.
While some capacitors are designed for those effects to only become relevant after many decades the sort of capacitor normally used in consumer computer hardware will usually not be intentionally constructed in such a way.
This is why I would argue that after it has long exceeded its life expectancy even a visually flawless motherboard with full functionality that has been handled properly can be damaged and fail without warning.

Wet electrolytic capacitors age worse than transistors, coils and diodes - assuming they're all operated within specification.
A degraded capacitor will often put additional stress on other components in a circuit like a step-down converter, thus increasing the probability of catastrophic failure.
This is why I would argue it is not recommendable to wait for hardware to show signs of failure before replacing parts that have surpassed their intended life time. (I know this is not a point you have been arguing!)
It is also why I would argue that replacing other parts of step-down converters on hardware that has failed from bad VRM capacitors is actually not pointless. However since at least for a novice and advanced beginners common through hole capacitors are often easier to identify and remove/replace than parts like surface mounted transistors, diodes and controlling ICs replacing only the capacitors and relying on the rest to still be functional is often more feasible. I will agree that this is preference.

I completely agree that 'Teapo' does not equal 'bad', especially with more recent products!
Also as stated before after 20+ years I would not view any capacitor on consumer hardware as not suspect.
However Teapo are known among other brands to often fail in applictaions that require higher quality capacitors on hardware of the late 90s to the late 00s.
Hence it makes sense to be extra suspicious of capacitors of certain brands in certan applications used on hardware from a certain time.
Since capacitors are comparatively cheap and since in many cases proper electrical inspection already requires unsoldering it only makes sense to just replace those capacitors even if some are (as of yet) still within their specified values.
In my opinion the low cost and (in comparison to individual diagnostic of every single capacitor) low effort of replacing through hole capacitors makes a complete recap more feasible than exhaustive diagnostics.
I will also agree that not checking other parts of a failed a failed VRM circuit after a recap is not acceptable in a professional repair job. However I think we both agree the value of this board does not warrant exhaustive diagnostics.

cde wrote on 2021-05-31, 15:22:

About buying another board: all boards from this era have potentially defective capacitors. Again even capacitors that look visually fine can be defective, I've encountered this situation more than once. A full recapping is the only way to be completely safe; it is dangerous to power the board before the replacement is made.

I have EpoX 8K5A2+ board that is visually ok, no bulged capacitors but isn't stable with more than 1 memory sticks or Barton CPUs. This motherboards was designed so that hot air from CPU heat sink avoids capacitors. On the other hand I have motherboards that have a few bulged capacitors (but no leakage) and seem to be ok. It seems to me the best buy are average boards from pensioners who barely used their computers and sell their old computers very cheap. I would recommend to everyone to buy an extra board for their CPU.

Okay, I accept the points. Also, do repair technicians replace everything to fix a defective part or do they find the defective part and replace it?
I know it's a hobby so to each their own. I still believe in diagnostics first.

IBMFan wrote on 2021-05-31, 19:07:

Okay, I accept the points. Also, do repair technicians replace everything to fix a defective part or do they find the defective part and replace it?
I know it's a hobby so to each their own. I still believe in diagnostics first.

I'm sure that finding the specific component that is causing whatever troubles you are having and replacing just that is fine if you are on a super tight budget.
For me tho the most annoying part is the desoldering (no desoldering gun yet), and since you cant really get a decent measurement on a capacitor in circuit you might aswell replace and be happy.

I do have an ESR meter and could verify that most, not all, caps I replaced were in fact really bad.
Also an easy optical inspection showed the telltale signs of "Bad-Caps" i.e. the now familiar bulges.
And the board pre-fix was so unstable that plugging in the CPU fan while running resulted in a reboot (first time I see that 🤣).

And I'm not a repair technician, very far from it.
Just a happy amateur that don't mind spending some time rescuing a very sad and old motherboard from the recycler.

cde wrote on 2021-05-31, 07:39:

Great post! Could you kindly share your technique for replacing caps? I have recapped a KT7A but it was a very difficult process , in particular the removal of the old capacitors.

A decent iron helps a LOT, and a good tip on it.
Add some flux, heat one leg at a time and "walk" the component out from the board.
Should require almost no force to pull out with the solder melted, don't force it.
As for cleaning the holes I just put the iron in the hole on one side on the board and the solder-sucker on the other side.
If that doesn't work try swapping sides.
If that still doesn't work add some new solder and try a braid instead.

At least that's how I do it.
I'm sure it violates some rules, but I've yet to ruin anything.

Good job OP, nice board.