First post, by geekifier
Hello,
A family member had an early 2000's P4 machine that was sitting unused for years.
After a bit of research, I realized it would make a great retro build, with good Windows 98 support. Had some decent hardware in there too, like a Ti4200.
To my dismay, after working perfectly fine just days ago, the PC went up in smoke when powered up at my house. The capacitors in the Power Supply leaked, and did who knows what to the motherboard.
I have learned a valuable lesson - do not trust vintage hardware to old power supplies!
The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-8PE667 with an Intel 845PE chipset. The symptoms are as follows:
- With the original PSU, the fans would spin, no LEDs on front panel, no POST.
- With replacement PSU, same as above, but ONLY when the PSU and board are grounded to the case. Won't power up on bench at all.
- With new PSU connected, without pressing the power button, the South Bridge temp reaches over 100C fairly quickly. No fans are running, no LEDs (when not grounded to the case).
How likely is it that the only faulty part is the ICH4 chip? I found replacement on eBay for about $5, though it would require someone with skills and equipment for BGA chip replacement to perform the repair.
I have some sort of morbid curiosity in trying to see if the board could be repaired, any suggestions on what else to check other than replacing the South Bridge, as it clearly seems like it's shorted given the heat up?
(Also, this is my first post here - I hope the content fits the theme, and if not, I apologize and will take it elsewhere 😀).