Suspect mobo on it's way out

[big_b]

I am beginning to suspect my mobo may be on its way out. rear ps2 keyboard input not working & a usb port is suspect. PC has started to drop off showing no signal from video cards.Have got my daughters cards & memory to test in my rig over the weekend to see if it still drops off.

Have run tests on video in sli & as single cards. Hdd's & memory both seem ok.Reformatted PC & drivers I know I had no problems with.

It's now dropping off running NFSU2 which usually runs flatout & smooth.

Any suggestions on what else to look at

Also replacement mobo as my current one is nolonger available.

[FONT=&quot]Processor: [/FONT][FONT=&quot]AMD Athlon 6400 X2 Dual Core
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Motherboard: [/FONT][FONT=&quot]AN9 32X series 3.00 gigahertz
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Memory: 4GB 800Mzh duel channel [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Graphics: Inno3d 9600gt 512mb (2X in SLI [/FONT]
new 1000w psu

Dave

 

[Euphod]

Well, the PSU may be new, but that would be my suspect...

 

[nicklinn]

I am beginning to suspect my mobo may be on its way out. rear ps2 keyboard input not working & a usb port is suspect. PC has started to drop off showing no signal from video cards.Have got my daughters cards & memory to test in my rig over the weekend to see if it still drops off.

Dave,

If you think the system is failing, I wouldn't advise you to put known good parts in it. You will risk damaging them. The best indication if a motherboard has bit the dust is to examine the capacitors, the most most common failures on a motherboard from normal use is the caps growing old and either shorting out or their ESR goes way out of spec. Short of having an ESR meter the best way of checking this out is examining them, looking for bulging or burst capacitors. The top of a capacitor should be flat (or slightly convex) and clean, if it has some yellow crud on it and/or is bulging at the top it's time to retire the board.

Best of luck,
Nick

 

[AussieNightcrawler]

I would agree with Ed, check your PSU, even though it maybe new, could still be suspect...

 

[big_b]

Have checked out the PSU from these guides I found
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/power/sup/partsMotherboard-c.html
http://www.lockergnome.com/it/2005/03/02/learn-how-to-diagnose-power-supply-problems/

I tested just about every connection I could get to without pulling the PC to bits including the power to the graphics cards .All voltages were as they should be.

Any other suggestions?

Dave

 

[Euphod]

Well Nick gave some good advice about the capacitors. I read an article (Tom's Hardware...I think) about replacing MOBO capacitors for like, nineteen cents each!

I would probably upgrade the mobo, were it me.

 

[nicklinn]

I read an article (Tom's Hardware...I think) about replacing MOBO capacitors for like, nineteen cents each!

Recapping is a pain and virtually never worth the effort. And this is coming from a guy with several thousand dollars in soldering equipment, even with IR or hot air tools it's still a pain in the butt and very easy to de-laminate the PCB. Unless you have unlimited time and very good soldering tools your best bet is another motherboard.

 

[big_b]

Finding a board to replace my existing board ( if I need one ) has been a nightmare . AMD + socket am2 + SLI is just about non existant.

After going to the local Computer Fair & ringing local PC shops was told to think about a new system with Intel & crossfire setup or AMD with a single card.

I have found 3 AMD sli boards on the net yet to confirm stock when they open tomorrow
All boards have 590 chipset full 16x sli on both cards
1. Abit fatility an932x
2. Gigabyte ga-m59sli-s4
3. Asus m2n32 we pro

Any preferance which is the preferred board. All prices are within about $30

Dave

 

[Euphod]

The older Asus boards are top o' the line in my book!

 

[Ronayne]

All this technical talk is making me dizy.

 

[nicklinn]

Finding a board to replace my existing board ( if I need one ) has been a nightmare . AMD + socket am2 + SLI is just about non existant.

Here in the states several companies have newer AM2/AM2+ boards out with the specs you are looking for. Maybe you can search them by model number based on this list here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2010200022 1070930149&bop=And&Order=BESTMATCH

 

[whitepass]

I would recommend getting an Intel CPU for use with SLI.

 

[ckthomson]

The top of a capacitor should be flat (or slightly convex) and clean, if it has some yellow crud on it and/or is bulging at the top it's time to retire the board.

Strange, I had a 1ghz machine whose caps "bloomed" sometime in the first week I owned it. I used it for 2 years, and despite the capacitors being all cruddy, I never had any stability problems that weren't attributed to other parts (like my uber-flakey Geforce 4 420 MX, that locked up randomly when I played GTA3).

Your mileage may vary.
[CKT]

 

[nicklinn]

Strange, I had a 1ghz machine whose caps "bloomed" sometime in the first week I owned it. I used it for 2 years, and despite the capacitors being all cruddy, I never had any stability problems that weren't attributed to other parts (like my uber-flakey Geforce 4 420 MX, that locked up randomly when I played GTA3).

Your mileage may vary.
[CKT]

When a capacitor vents it inevitably means the ESR has increased to the point that the part is virtually useless in doing the job it was put there to do. Caps are used on motherboards decouple or to bypass noise on supply rails to ground. They tend to over engineer these things and on top of that design them to work in pretty noisy environments, so what that means for someone in their home there is a lot of redundancy to the capacitors on the board. That is'nt to mean you shouldn't replace the board when they start to fail, too much noise being fed on the supply rials can cause data corruption quite easily.