VOGONS


First post, by appiah4

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

I am trying to repair two Pine Technology PT-428 Socket 3 motherboards. They have quite a few exploded tantalums and damaged ceramics. I have ascertained the tantalums by cross referencing and found that they are all universally 10uF 16V, and I will be replacing the damaged ones with 10uF 25V Low ESR ones. If either motherboard gets revived I will preemptively replace the remaining tantalums as well. I know that the right way to do this is polymer capacitors but sorry no, I am too cheap to do that.

The issue I have is that there is one ceramic capacitor that is damaged/missing in both boards and I do not know what the value should be. It sits right next to a tantalum which exploded in both cases, apparently taking out the ceramic along with itself. There are quite a few different values of ceramics present on the board, ranging from 10pf to 10nf which is quite the range.. so before I just stuck in a 22nf and tried to get lucky, I wanted to ask if anyone else has this board. If you do, can you please tell me what the value of the marked ceramic capacitor C8 is?

EDIT: I just noticed that the stock image for this motherboard that I grabbed from theretroweb also has an exploded tantalum at CT12 that took out the ceramic net to it as well 🤣 this board is a fucking fire hazard..

Reply 1 of 7, by GigAHerZ

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Maybe C6, C7 and C10 are for similar function and therefore with similar capacity? If you have no better quesses, maybe it's worth to measure those 3 capacitors out for a hint.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - And i intend to get every last bit out of it even after loading every damn driver!
A little about software engineering: https://byteaether.github.io/

Reply 2 of 7, by appiah4

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
GigAHerZ wrote on 2026-03-03, 12:46:

Maybe C6, C7 and C10 are for similar function and therefore with similar capacity? If you have no better quesses, maybe it's worth to measure those 3 capacitors out for a hint.

Unfortunately the vinegar and IPA I doused the card in to neutralize and clean the extensive battery damage erased all markings that may have still remained on these ceramics. Even if I remove them, I do not have the tools to measure their capacitance 🙁

Reply 3 of 7, by GigAHerZ

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I can recommend the cheapest "Multi-function Tester - TC1" as component tester or "Zoyi ZT-102L" multimeter with capacitance and inductance measurement capabilities for quick checks like this. Each cost well under 20€ from china. 😀

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - And i intend to get every last bit out of it even after loading every damn driver!
A little about software engineering: https://byteaether.github.io/

Reply 4 of 7, by appiah4

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
GigAHerZ wrote on 2026-03-03, 13:22:

I can recommend the cheapest "Multi-function Tester - TC1" as component tester or "Zoyi ZT-102L" multimeter with capacitance and inductance measurement capabilities for quick checks like this. Each cost well under 20€ from china. 😀

I'll add it to my shopping list, but that won't happen too soon so for now I'm still waiting to see if anyone has this board 😁

Reply 5 of 7, by Nexxen

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
appiah4 wrote on 2026-03-03, 13:23:
GigAHerZ wrote on 2026-03-03, 13:22:

I can recommend the cheapest "Multi-function Tester - TC1" as component tester or "Zoyi ZT-102L" multimeter with capacitance and inductance measurement capabilities for quick checks like this. Each cost well under 20€ from china. 😀

I'll add it to my shopping list, but that won't happen too soon so for now I'm still waiting to see if anyone has this board 😁

The design is close to the 286/386 boards that were recycled across.
Probably other boards have the same components.
I'll check mine to see if there's a match.

Personally I love this minimal design boards, they look halfway into the future glimpsing back at the 8086 era.
Nostalgia 😀

PC#1 Pentium 233 MMX - 98SE
PC#2 PIII-1Ghz - 98SE/W2K

- "One hates the specialty unobtainium parts, the other laughs in greed listing them under a ridiculous price" - kotel studios
- Bare metal ist krieg.

Reply 6 of 7, by appiah4

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Nobody seems to have chimed in in a few days, I'll just try my chances with a 22pf ceramic capacitor and see how it goes 😁

I also desoldered the corroded KBC socket and managed to destroy the ground terminal, so I'll have to bodge that to the PSU ground directly..

The battery terminals are also completely eaten away and gone so I had to remake the terminals and bodge them to where they need to go etc. It's not going to be super pretty, but I'm thinking it might actually get somewhere. Fingers crossed..

I'll post photos of the end result tonight 😀

P.S. I'm expecting a few more caps to go Kaboom! to be honest. Nothing appears shorted, but knowing my luck with tantalums a few more of them are liable to give up the ghost 😁

Reply 7 of 7, by appiah4

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Ok, so replacing the damaged caps resulted in 2 more tantalums on the -12V rail and 1 tantalum on the 12V rail to go kaboom, so I went ahead and replaced all tantalums on the +/-12V rails.

The result is a bit sad. The board fires up but the POST analyzer gets stuck at 67 after staying at 65 for a bit. This is a 1993 AMI BIOS. I have found conflicting information about what 67 is but it appears to be Initializing KBC.

The KBC socket was incredibly corroded, I replaced the socket and I may have damaged something while doing that, or may have missed a damage that needed reparing. I'm not sure how to go about troubleshooting it now, though 🙁

The KBC is a MEGATRENDS MEGA-KB-H-WP which is, apparently, a clone of [ur=https://tvsat.com.pl/PDF/W/W83C42P_win.pdf]Winbond W83C42[/url].