the_mad_poster's Journal: [Halp!] My Comp Is Deader Than Kevin Costner's Career

Or, Current Shunts, Zirnike! Help!!!

Yes/no - does the capacitor wedged between the AGP slot and the PCI slot look blown to you too (cmp to the cappy next to the southbridge chip, they're the same cap)?

Update: I found two more of the same kind of cap on the board with bulges. One is sitting crooked, the other one also has a small brown patch at the top. I'm almost certain this is the problem now, and if it's not, it doesn't matter because it would be a matter of time until it was a problem. The bad board is the Albatron Anniversary Edition: PX845PEV - 800.

Sure does to me. Can anyone reccomend a good, reliable mobo to replace this thing with? I have P4 2.6C and some high quality XMS RAM running at DDR400, so I'm looking for an 800 FSB on the board. I guess I'll also use this as an excuse to upgrade to a PCI Express card since the Radeon 9000 is no longer performing to any type of reasonable level considering the ridiculous heat problem it's causing in my case.

In case you think that cappy isn't blown, the symptoms are:

+ No POST
+ Video feedback, but no signal (monitor light just blinks)
+ HDD LED is permanently lit unless I remove and IDE connector
+ No Power On LED
+ HDD sounds like it spins up
+ CD-RW just sits and blinks, DVD does nothing (can be opened)

I haven't tried pulling everything, but it won't POST when only vid card, RAM, and CPU are connected. I'll yank everything tonight and see if I at least get a no CPU error code.

I think I've been infected with BadCaps :( I guess I can't complain too much though. I got this mobo about two years ago for $65 and it's performed pretty well for a value model.

Try the power supply first

[tomhudson]

My current box did the same thing 2 weeks ago - no post, monitor was getting a signal, but no picture, spinning drives.

I figured the mobo or cpu had finally decided to let go, but I said "what the hell, swap PS just in case". Its working fine again.

It's probably toast

[Tau Zero]

It looks like the magic smoke that makes electronic components work has leaked out.

If you're good with a soldering iron, you could swap in some new caps. It might not save you a heck of a lot of money, but it might be a lot more fun than buyin a new mobo.

That sucks.

[Talinom]

First question. Does it smell like burnt electronics? If the demon of blue smoke has been exorcized from your system then you are, indeed, SOL.

High. Quality. Power supply. Just like tomhudson said it can work wonders on a system. I bought an Antec TruePower somethingorother not too long ago. It has worked great for me. There are reviews of them all over the place detailing actual power output, voltage quality, fan noise, heat generation and speed of adaption during load changes. There are many better sup

blurry pictures not much help

[elmegil]

It LOOKS like there's electrolyte leaked out of the top of that cap, but I got no resolution to be sure.

As for a motherboard....I have been buying ASUS and ABit boards for a while and they're good. Actually the last two boards I bought were an ECS and an MSI and those have also been good; the MSI is an NVidia nForce board. I don't think any of the ones I've bought meet the specs you want, but they're all reputable manufacturers. Check out tom's hardware for reviews of current boards if you want to squeez

fuck direcway... er burnt chocolate

[kesuki]

gotta love blown caps, i had the magic dust fizzle on a 16 month old board once sigh. i had crappy electrical issues, because i was drawing more voltage than the fuses could handle and didn't know about the penny trick...
anyways, if a radeon 9k series is causing overheating issues in yoru case it's time to get a door saw, and drill, and put in a nice 80 mm fan mount, because anything 'better' is going to output even more heat, even if it has an 'exhaust port' on the slot below the card. (below the card is

Re:fuck direcway... er burnt chocolate

[Dogers]

I've gotta ask, whats the penny trick?

Re:fuck direcway... er burnt chocolate

[kesuki]

in certain fuse boxes, you pull out a burned fuse, stick a penny in and completely negate the fuse protection off the electrical circuit entirely...

Re:fuck direcway... er burnt chocolate

[KMAPSRULE]

and depending on the load and age/type of wiring you also exponentially increase the risk of burning your house down .
I just replaced the old fuse box with a breaker panel in my house, while I wasnt popping fuses I definitely sleep better at night

Re:fuck direcway... er burnt chocolate

[kesuki]

not to mention you enable yourself to actually drop a radio in a bathtub and actually wind up electrocuting yourself, since there is no fuse to burn out and stop the flow of electricity from coursing through your body. well, at least until the master fuse cartridge burns out, but the load the master fuse can handle may be greater than a single wire should be able to draw before it melts, even directly into water, in a metal tub connected to metal pipe connected to a ground... (which is also needed for bath

Re:

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