ratfink wrote:40-pin IC means a chip on the motherboard with 40 pins - the little wire legs that are usually soldered to traces on the board. In this case, the idea is that maybe this chip is not soldered onto the board, but pushed into a socket from which it could be prised and hence replaced, with a similar chip from another board.
Ah, please forgive my ignorance, I understand now. The only chip on the mobo which appears to be replaceable is the BIOS chip. All other chips appear to be soldered on to the mobo.
@Anonymous Coward,
I see a tiny rather fragile looking "thin green thing" with the wording "125V/3A fuse" nearby. I can only inspect it from certain angles. I cannot inspect its underside, as it's so close to the mobo. Visually, it appears OK. It's really interesting, because my other Asus PVI-486SP3 board (which is a 1.22 revision, the initial board in question being a 1.2) doesn't have this "green fuse", but a chunkier looking black "cyclinder thing" with the same "fuse information" written on the mobo. Perhaps they upgraded this keyboard fuse, after customers reported having problems with their keyboards?
All of this is making me increasingly aware that I lack soldering skills (and equipment). Hmmm.
I don't suppose there's a way of bypassing the socketed keyboard connector? It seems to be a potential Achilles' heel.
(Edit: Vogon's user elfuego said that the chances of a PCI usb controller, which unfortunately I don't have ATM, working are pretty low.)