kotel wrote on 2025-01-17, 13:40:

Hi, […]
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Hi,

Recently I got an epox EP-8K3A+ board from scrap. After inspection I found out its missing some ceramic caps under DIMM slots, some eletrolithyc caps are damaged and two are missing in the DDR1 VRM arena.
Going online I found no pictures featuring the two caps. I also couldn't find any posts which were similar to my problem.
All I could find out is both of the caps are the same size and _might_ be 2200uF 10v (same as the VRM for CPU).

Does anybody here have an Epox EP-8K3A/+ board and could share some pics of the arena marked in attachment?

Hello, unfortunately even though I'm looking for the same motherboard model, I can't find anything useful, but looking, I found some similar motherboards, in one a couple of TEAPO capacitors is visible, but in my opinion the important thing is that the value of the missing ones should be the same as the capacitors around the RAM, you have to see what are on your motherboard, if they are TEAPO and have a green color, there are very good chances that they are like those.

At least that's something close to solving my problem... I guess it's worth a shot to solder two 2200uF 10v caps in place of the missing ones. What would be the worst case scenario if I replaced some eletrolythics with bigger uF?

kotel wrote on 2025-01-19, 09:52:

At least that's something close to solving my problem... I guess it's worth a shot to solder two 2200uF 10v caps in place of the missing ones. What would be the worst case scenario if I replaced some eletrolythics with bigger uF?

Well I don't know 🤔 what would happen, but I know it works, the most important thing is the voltage, if that area is connected to a +12V line, you should use 16V capacitors, but in your motherboard, I saw around the RAM banks other capacitors, for me the most likely value is what you read there, I would avoid going to the VRM area, I definitely wouldn't put them at random, even if having luck 🍀 you can choose well.

On the first PC@LIVE's picture the two caps are 1500 uF/16 V, probably Teapo brand (green with golden markings).

Yes, but I am not sure if those will be on my board (8K3A+/8K3A) as the only cap same size is 2200uF 10v...

10 V cap is more than enough for 5 V line. But if you're not sure what is the voltage there, 16 V is the minimal value for caps on 12 V line.

Tangentially, if you do get it working and are interested in overclocking, the stock northbridge heat sink is woefully inadequate. Mine was convex, and barely held in place with some very thin thermal tape. Before I replaced it, I could only raise the FSB by a small amount, but once replaced with a larger one held in place with push pins (thankfully the board has the holes) and good thermal paste, I was able to raise the FSB to 215 MHz, though I found the hard drive performance fell off sharply with anything over 209 FSB.

Dang it. I don't have any 16v 2200uF's. Only 16v 1500uF's. I have no idea what should I try first...
The chances that the positive side of the caps being directly connected to 12v are pretty much nonexistent too...

analog_programmer wrote on 2025-01-19, 14:33:

On the first PC@LIVE's picture the two caps are 1500 uF/16 V, probably Teapo brand (green with golden markings).

Those two in the photo are TEAPOs, but they are from a different motherboard, so they may not be the same.
In my opinion the two missing are the same as the one I indicated with the yellow arrow, maybe 🤔 if it has 1500uF and 16V values, it could also be the same for the two missing.
In principle you can also use 2200uF 16V, I don't think they can give problems, both because the voltage is good for 5V and 12V, and because the capacity if it were a little more, it wouldn't be problematic, in the meantime you could try the card, if later you find the exact value of the capacitors, you can possibly replace them in case they were smaller (capacity), for the voltage no problem 😉, except for the reverse case that you put 6.3V instead of 16V ones.

I'll try the 1500uF 16v ones firstly. If I get problems then either go fidn 16v 2200uF's or replace with 2200uF 10v. Or if that's not gonna work then idk what will...

kotel wrote on 2025-01-19, 16:00:

I'll try the 1500uF 16v ones firstly. If I get problems then either go fidn 16v 2200uF's or replace with 2200uF 10v. Or if that's not gonna work then idk what will...

I think it works without any problem, and I think they were removed because they were swollen, surely using the 16V ones you won't have problems, if that line is 12V, ditto if it's 6.3V.
Out of curiosity but the one in the photo with the arrow in yellow, what is it? UF? V.

kotel wrote on 2025-01-19, 15:27:

Dang it. I don't have any 16v 2200uF's. Only 16v 1500uF's. I have no idea what should I try first...

Looking at the nearly identical component's layout on this picture and the picture of your mobo model, I think you should try with 1500 uF/16 V.

After replacing all of the components this board is, frankly, dead. No POST code execution, no POST codes on the built in POST card. CPU is 100% guaranteed to be supported (750mHz athlon).

Okay the original values for the caps I was missing are 1500uF 6.3v. Got them thanks to TRW curator.