resurrection of dead boards....

[Dave Rave]

I've plugged in two of my old boards that have been sitting around for 6 months already. slow as they are in seti, I want 'em to be working, not degenerating.

both wouldn't turn on
so after a good weekends work, with good sleep, (apart from trying to kill myself with the bonnet of my car at 3 in the morning)...
I pulled the MB's out of the cases and had a good study of them.

one, all the caps look fine, apart from one that appears to be mounted at a slight angle. no bulge top or bottom, just crooked.
the first memory slot had a bad accumulation of gunge next to the cpu socket.
a vacuum cleaner and a gentle toothbrush, put it all back together, and it turned on, and the bios clock was still right.
so, fans on and no beeps or vga is not necessarily kaput.

two, one cap is definitely slightly raised on the top, and an almost gooey bottom, and one cap slithly skew. pulled it all apart, toothbrush, vacuum, back together and.....
vga on
bios post screen down to
Celeron Processor - 533MHz
but it wouldn't go to the memory scroll and then display the number of processors.
so, pulled out the cpu next to the bulged cap, and it posts ok with one cpu. so that one, it's gonna need a cap job.

these are both v1.0 with original ec10 caps.
====
so, apart from the news, here's a question....
my other (other) board, with the broken blue temp sensor, that only works single cpu....
can I pull a cpl of the caps from around the non-working cpu socket to replace into the board that needs one ?
1500uf caps aren't easy to spot on-line in Aust.
1000, 2500, etc, and 16v no worries.

[purrkur]

I would say that if they have the same rating (or better in capacity and/or voltage) then you should be set. Just make sure that when you remove the caps that you are going to use, that you don't overheat when you solder them loose. Film type of capacitors are more sensitive to heat than other electrical components. Use a solder sucktion device to to remove them if you want to do a clean, professional job.

Cheers,

[Dave Rave]

I also (implied badly) that I'd like to keep on using that board after the caps are gone ...
===
the single posting resurrection....
an hour or so later (dinner is a wonderful thing) it turned on okay with both cpus in.
one bad cap and all...

[purrkur]

Nope. Don't do that. Don't remove components and run the board. What might happen is that you might destroy other components that are relying on those caps. Since these caps are responsible for keeping voltages stable (among other things) I would say that the chance of the board not booting or destroying something else is very high...

/Dave

[InactiveX]

Also, keep vacuum cleaners away from components. You risk frying your stuff with static nastiness. Use a can of compressed air instead.

[nullshark]

Q: What's the difference between a Van Der Graaf static generator and a vacuum cleaner?

A: Nothing

[davd_bob]

Dave Rave,
Have you emailed Jackson yet. They may be able to ship you the caps for a board and you won't have to risk re-using old caps.
BTW what ever happened to that board that only one cpu works?

[Dave Rave]

the other (other) board with the broken blue heat sensor....
has worked for years as a single cpu board no worries.

the one with the bulge in one cap that turned on an hour later....
it's erratic, won't post, won't install.....
boohoo.
===========
web shopping in Australia, no 1500 caps avail
or 6.3v
plenty of other capacities and voltages.
will have to get some shipped.

[Dave Rave]

changed the memory slot (was middle) seems better.
thought hmmmm....
put diff mem chip in other slot, posts ( afew times) much happier.
it's alive, win2k, and setispy x 2 again.
my setiPro list is now 17 entries long.
====
does anyone have a good idea on when the mains fuse is going to give out ?
9 computers, a firewall, tv video on one wall socket. (should be an ouch there methinx)

[davd_bob]

wow! an over clocked wall socket!