SM5 Happenings
Cyclonite
Tampa, Florida Icrontian
Okay. First I'd like to apologize for letting her slip this long. I thought she was doing work, because most everytime I checked, something was being folded. Unfortunately, I think there were issues with the results being submitted, along with random lockups. I had been troubleshooting the lockups, but couldnt pinpoint it. I thought it was a temperature issue, but it turns out it wasn't. Granted, I should have done more than I actually did to troubleshoot. I work on computers all day long, so I didn't want to look at another when I got home. Of course, that's a poor excuse. I apologize again.
So, now that this school semester is over, I feel a lot less stressed and don't mind working on this thing. I'll be sure to take better care of her from now on.
Now, on to my problem:
She just stopped turning on a little over a week ago. I thought, "alright, dead PSU... No problem." So, I ordered an inexpensive one off eBay. It's still on the way, but I pulled a brand new working Antec 350W PSU from one of my other systems and tested that with SM5. She blew it up. My house smelled like the burning of electronics for about 2 hours. Good thing it was cool out and we had the windows open.
Anyway, it's fairly obvious it wasn't the power supply. It was brand new and had been running for a couple days in another system. I'm trying to hunt down another motherboard to test, but I'm afraid of frying anything else. Does anyone have any ideas of what I could try? I'd like to keep my electronic casualties to a minimum too if possible.
Thank a lot, everyone, and I'm really sorry this happened.
So, now that this school semester is over, I feel a lot less stressed and don't mind working on this thing. I'll be sure to take better care of her from now on.
Now, on to my problem:
She just stopped turning on a little over a week ago. I thought, "alright, dead PSU... No problem." So, I ordered an inexpensive one off eBay. It's still on the way, but I pulled a brand new working Antec 350W PSU from one of my other systems and tested that with SM5. She blew it up. My house smelled like the burning of electronics for about 2 hours. Good thing it was cool out and we had the windows open.
Anyway, it's fairly obvious it wasn't the power supply. It was brand new and had been running for a couple days in another system. I'm trying to hunt down another motherboard to test, but I'm afraid of frying anything else. Does anyone have any ideas of what I could try? I'd like to keep my electronic casualties to a minimum too if possible.
Thank a lot, everyone, and I'm really sorry this happened.
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Comments
Also, now that I think about it, the computer booted. It made it all the way to the Windows XP splash screen, then I hear a pop from within the computer, the screen goes blank, and the smell begins. It wouldn't POST after that, but it would power on. The PSU definitely blew though. You don't even have to get your nose close to it to smell.
The caps just have bad electrolyte...the diode is likely rated for a max forward/reverse voltage or forward current, which can be exceeded if the caps are no longer filtering high freq. signals.
I may have a replacement board at home, depending on the processor/ram in SM5.
Processor= AMD XP1600+
Motherboard= ECS K7S
Ram= 128MB PC100
Well then I don't :P
I guess we have the money in the SMx fund to get a replacement mobo, but Marc handles that.
IOW, yeah, I'll donate it. Seth, it might be fastest if I shipped it direct to Cyclonite unless you want SM5 shipped back to you and to have me ship the motherboard up the east coast to you.... Consider it an X-Mas present for the SM group.
I think we can trust you John and let you ship it directly to Trekky. He then can replace the motherboard. No real reason to have it shipped twice. It would costs more and fold less. Not the best combination.
Every mention of swollen/burst capacitors brings a similar comment from you. A lot of manufacturers had the exact same problems. It was the fault of the dielectric manufacturer, NOT the motherboard companies.
A-- to Marc and Seth: Yes, the likelihood of someone wanting a box built with a 2500+ or less in it is fairly low. This board does not OC extremely, but it is real stable (I had a 2500 running at 2800+ rates, ABOUT). Therefore, I think the best thing is to donate it to a good cause. Folding is a good cause, team or not. So, given it will be folding, sure I will donate it.
I'll even go one step further-- I have one stick of Crucial DDR266 RAM here that is a 512 MB stick. I'll ship that with it. It is in good shape. IF someone has a 256 MB stick of that speed or of DDR200 speed to ship, it can be shipped back to me some time or shipped to Seth via USPS. That stick can be a loaner or part of Team inventory, your choices (Team leadership group choice). I run and stock and sell mostly DDR333 or DDR400 RAM now, and this stick is an orphan. The only question I have is this-- have folks run RAM ASYNC and also faster than CPU base on an MSI KT4VL (the 1600+, IIRC, is a 200 FSB chip, right?)??? The RAM can be run slower if need be, and be stable, but ideally it should be run at at least full speed to native. It is CAS Latency 2.5 Lifetime Crucial and DOES test good as of when I stuck it in its antistat RAM holder that came with a Stick of Crucial DDR333. Possibly, if the team has one in stock, upgrading to a 2400+ or 2500+ CPU might be a good idea also, but I sold mine so cannot supply right now.
B: Geeky, as far as repairing, that is a good idea, but what I would do is this: R&R motherboard, so it gets back to folding. THEN ship the old board with bad components to maybe Seth or someone who is milspec soldering qualified, get that board repaired if possible and keep as a spare part. My strategy, given Team standing, is to try and get the SM boxes folding as much as possible, and have spares. The ECS board, if it is repairable and not in reality further damaged than is apparent now, could be one such spare part. The stick of RAM on the ECS board now also could be a spare.
Does that make sense???
True, even Abit had some batch-bad problems, one thing in Abit's favor though, is that they random sample test incoming parts and do not buy by price first as much as some other mfrs-- thus some batch problems get caught at door and not in field. I take your point, though, every mfr has some lemons go out, some of them not at all obviously so. Even Dell has had to recall laptops due to batteries that proved defective and dangerous in the field, due to battery mfr's fault. IBM has recalled things also. Everybody has things that have issues built-in sometimes. BUT, the one very worst motherboard mfr I have ever had parts from, is PC-Chips. They, overall, have absolutely the most uneven QC and worst integration designing for motherboards I have ever seen. They make strictly value-grade motherboards compared to majors.
I agree with your comments about Quality Control, but have one bone to pick with you: I think their QC is actually quite consistent - EVERY board I've seen from them had something wrong with it.
I am not exaggerating.
Out of three in one year, one lasted more than 6 months, one lasted two weeks, and one lasted about 5 months. Not exaggerating at all, either. Although terrible, they varied in how fast they failed...
Happy to make the donation, would Trekky email me at jdii1215 at johndanielsonii.com??? With the destination address??? Or forward same to an admin here and have the admin PM me??? Or give it to Prime and have Prime get a hold of me with it (he knows several ways)??? I know where Temple Terrace is, not what real name and what address to send it to. I will have it out of here tomorrow or Thursday, Tomorrow is a"work on the house day" for me and my brother.... So, if tomorrow it will have be late, or Thursday in morning. But I can completely pack it as soon as I have address to gen a label.
You should have my reply now. As said there, it will go out late tomorrow or Thursday AM as I am committed to help my brother tomorrow working around the house-- amongst other things the pool filter timer will get replaced tomorrow.
Not a problem at all. And if Marc says it should be alright, it should be fine. Seth can rule on what happens to the old board. I'll just leave that to you folks.
So Cyclonite, do you have a stick of DDR you can us or do you need to get one from Seth? Or is John sending a stick along with the motherboard?
I'm really sorry, guys. I had the computer on a surge protector, so I wouldn't say that a power surge took it, but it's looking nasty. The only things that made it that I can tell was the CD-ROM and HDD. I don't have any means of testing the SD-RAM module immediately at my disposal. I'll try in a machine at work if I can.
And now as the CD is really spinning, it sound like the CD-ROM is fubar too. Cripes!
//Edit: Alright. CD-ROM got nailed too. Haha! I replaced it, and she's chugging along now installing Windows. We'll see if the hard drive made it. If not, I've got a small replacement that I grabbed from work the other week. No worries, it was going to be thrown out.
Oh, also... It seems the hard drive went as well. Blah!