Recapping an Albatron motherboard

Albuquerque sent me a pm asking me to take a look at his board and determine if it warrants a recap.

By visual inspection, I can say that none of the caps are leaking or bulging at this point.

The caps are as follows:

• CPU VRM side: Sanyo WG (K-Vent) and OS-CON (Purple)
• Chipset: GSC and Panasonic (T-Vent)
• DRAM: Panasonic (T-Vent) and GSC

All the crap GSC's are going to be replaced and the empty spots near the inductor are going to be populated. I'll be including O-scope signal screens and if I can finish building the probe, you may see some spectrum analyzer shots as well.

O.k, this one is a bit puzzling. There are no visible signs of bulging or leakage on these caps, yet the owner reported a huge drop in overclockability. Frankly, there could be n number of reasons, from aging FETs (first suspect) to those GSC crapacitors going bonkers.

In his own words:

The original reason for sending this out was two things:

First thing: The S478 Presc"Hot" processor in there is good for 4.2 GHz under my water cooling, but the overclock has been slowly dwindling over the last six to eight months. At first I assumed it was the processor degrading, with the 1.575v and all. It's most recent stable OC has been a skimpy 3.6GHz. However, I have another of these exact boards that has almost zero use, and the CPU overclocked right back to 4.2 GHz as soon as I swapped boards.

Second reason to send it in? Because it's a fantastic board. I don't know why people never paid attention to Albatron, especially their PX845PE Pro IIs or this PX865PE Pro II. This board ran a 2.4C at 292FSB with memory at 1:1 (yes, DDR584 memtest stable for days) three years ago. All at 1.6VCPU, 2.85VMEM and 1.8VAGP. Dual BIOSes, dual RAID implementations (one for SATA, one for PATA), firewire, USB, gigabit LAN on Intels' CSA bus (250mbps connection to northbridge for full gigabit transfer capacity, unlike most gigabit adapters which are connected to the 133mbps PCI interface). Also came with Envy24 7.1 audio -- the same basic chipset used in the M-Audio Revolution and the like.

It's an excellent, no, phenomenal motherboard in my opinion, and there simply isn't anything out today that has the same amount of quality features no matter the price tag. And since this puppy (when running at full speed) does everything I want at speeds that are quite reasonable to me, I don't have any reason to upgrade yet.

Fair enough mate, no arguments to the contrary from me. I would agree with him on both counts. The board is well built. Apart from the highly dodgy GSC, I could not spot any glaring inconsistencies. Of course, I'm not somebody who cares about outward appearance too much or the board layout (except if it interferes with my ghetto cooling mods!). I was particularly impressed by the use of high quality Sanyo WG's and OS-CONs on the VRM transient filtering side. Odds are, I would not have to touch those bad boys.

This is what I suspect regarding the GSC's. They may be o.k at this point, but only because there is less chance of a cascading failure due to being paired with some low ESR caps, which would take the bulk of the transients/inductor ripple current. This is a better way to cut costs than say the Epox board I fixed last month. However, eventual failure seems inevitable with garbage caps like GSC, G-Luxon or Chissi. I would never leave any of those crapacitors on my board!

Phase I: 14 Dec 2007

In this phase, I just plug the board in and see how it does on a basic memtest run. This is done in order to have a bottom line on what the heck to expect. So far it is not looking good.

Something is definitely wrong with the board. Memtest errors out with a register dump loop. I tried different floppies, different FDD's and different cables. I also cleared the CMOS, beefed up the voltages a little bit, tried different slots on the MoBO, tried a single stick of RAM, swapped them around and also tried a generic crap Value RAM stick I had laying about. No go.

I'm gonna try a CDROM drive, but unless I see memtest running, at this point, I'm calling the board suspect and will proceed with the next phase.

Phase II : 16 Dec 2007

Well, now I'm beginning to suspect that there may be something else afoot. I tried threee different versions of memtest and they all failed to run beyond test#2.





Setting this aside for a moment another thing I'd like to bring out is the act that this board runs HOT HOT HOT! Even at stock settings, the Intel Presshot lives up to its name. The underside of the board was very warm to the touch. More alarming was the fact that the DRAM sticks were hot to the touch as well. Pictures will follow after I experimentally determine if my conjecture (using available documentation) regarding the choice of capacitors is correct or not.





For anybody trying to take O-Scope readings, let me tell you at the outset that what I am doing is NOT ACCURATE. In fact I would almost say it is the wrong way to measure signals/transients.

Where shall I start? Hmmm....the probes are just two wires, no shielded cable, no capacitive terminations, no impedance matching...In brief, the idea was to show how bad EMI can be if the probe is not grounded. Note that I'm not trying to measure transients, because I need a DAQ for that, but I'm just trying to see if anything crazy is going on with the voltages. I used an old scope. I did take a few pictures and save waveforms, but this is nothing like hooking up the scope to a GPIB interface for some real time data acquisition. I won't do it because it is too much work for some pretty un-interesting DC signals. :)

The point I'm trying to make is, the maximum amplitude I see here is about 3.1V, so I can use an OS-CON at 4V (5V surge rating) with no problems. I connected a wire to the Drain/Source and another to the Ground). I should have used the casing of the FET, but the spot was a bit too tight for me to spend time on.

If the ground is left floating, RFI is picked up and you see the familiar 60 Hz signal from the fluorescent lamps/other devices interferer. When grounded, this noise signal disappears.





Phase: III

Now I'm going to replace all the GSC's in the DRAM area with OS-CONs. Next update with more O-Scope shots will be available tomorrow.

Recapping a dead Epox 8KRA2+

This article has been published on the overclockers.com front page. You can find it HERE


Flailboy from OCForums took advantage of my recapping services and sent me his Epox board to work on. Let us see why the board does not POST.

Talk about putting crap on a motherboard... Almost all GSC 1500uF and 1000uF cans are leaking.

Caps are:
Sanyo 3300uF 6.3V (will not be replaced)
Teapo 1500uF 6.3V
GSC 1000uF, 1500uF 6.3V



Replacements:

Chemicon LXZ and Sanyo OS-CON 560uF, 4V Conductive Polymer caps. You can see the leaky crap GSC and the replacements.


Phase: I

I merely replaced the blown caps to see if the board POST's. Success. It POST's!

Update:
Memtesting now for over 1 hr 45 min. I'll let it run all day tonight and tomorrow, I'm going to proceed with replacing the rest of the crapacitors with either OS-CON or Chemicon LXZ. For some reason, this board won't run PC3500 BH5. I'm running PC3200 BH5 with no problems. These are at stock settings. I will not risk running an OC with any GSC's around.

Update#2
Memtest stabe for over 22 hours now. :)




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Phase#2 in progress...

Replaced all the caps with OS-CON and Chemicon LXZ and KY.



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Phase III (48 hour memtest after recap) is complete and the board is chugging along happily! Check the article on overclockers.com for updates!

Capacitors, Capacitors and more Capacitors! Part -I

Anybody who wishes to recap a component is usually confronted by the same question, i.e.

"What capacitor should I choose as a replacement?"

The answer is not so simple and it varies from component to component. I'm going to document what I found, when it came to choosing capacitors for motherboards. The critical points of failure on a motherboard are the CPU VRM side, near the DRAM slots and the PCI/PCI-E/AGP slots.

There are several critical parameters that come into play when choosing capacitors. From what I have read, ESR and max Ripple current rating rank near the top. One may thing capacitance and voltage ratings are more critical, but it is not so.

Why? Find out next week... :)

Matsonic board testing

Well, I finally got around to starting an extensive load test on this board. The test suite will consist of the following:

1. Memtest for 24 hours
2. CPU Burn for 24 hours

So far, things are looking good with memtest and voltages are stable. I need to hook-up my data-logging DMM ($30 on sale at Frys) to see if things are o.k with the voltages. That will be done after the 24 hour memtest burn-in. This is a 5V based system, no question. Thankfully, the test PSU being used is a very capable Silverstone Zeus ST56ZF, built by Etasis electronics. I picked it up at a bargain basement price of around $50 or so. The original owner had problems with it tripping the breaker in his house, but that was not the PSU's fault.

Lord of the Rings BFME game.dat errors [FIX inside]

If you have a newly installed game and it crashes after the load-up logo follow this procedure to get it working. This is an old game, but the morons at EA don't give a damn about so many people having this error. This fix is not something I can take credit for as I found it while searching for a solution.

The problem occurs when the game does not create *.ini files and a map folder. It takes a minute to fix, but the lazy punks on EA just don't seem to care.

1. Install the game.
2. Install the latest patch
3. Tools-->Folder Options-->View hidden and system files, view extensions
4. Navigate to I:\Documents and Settings\{Your Name}\Application Data\My Battle for Middle-earth(tm) II Files {or My The Lord of the Rings, The Rise of the Witch-king Files}
5. Creat a folder called "map" {without the quotes}
6. Create a file called options.ini
7. Cut/paste this code in the newly created "options.ini" file {without the quotes}: AllHealthBars = yes
   AmbientVolume = 81.000000
   AnimationLOD = High
   AudioLOD = Low
   Brightness = 50
   DecalLOD = High
   EffectsLOD = Medium
   FlashTutorial = 0
   GameSpyIPAddress =
   HasSeenLogoMovies = yes
   IdealStaticGameLOD = Low
   ModelLOD = Medium
   MovieVolume = 70.000000
   MusicVolume = 78.000000
   Resolution = 1024 768
   SFXVolume = 80.000000
   ScrollFactor = 64
   SendDelay = no
   ShaderLOD = Low
   ShadowLOD = Low
   StaticGameLOD = Custom
   TerrainLOD = Medium
   TextureQualityLOD = High
   TimesInGame = 59
   UseEAX3 = no
   VoiceVolume = 69.000000
   WaterLOD = Medium
8. Save, exit notepad and start your game.

Finished recapping the Matsonic board

Look HERE for why I had to recap this board.

This how the finished product looks like. Why did I choose Chemicon LXZ? I chose the LXZ series because of that is what I had. I could have gone with something else, but for this low end board, the LXZ would have sufficed.

Yanz over at badcaps forums has a very useful Table that compares the specs for various capacitors. Say a 470uF 6.3V LXZ I chose has an impedance of 0.18 Ohm@ 100kHz 25C and a rated ripple current of 400mA @ 105 C. Just to put things in perspective an OSCON 6SEPC470M has an ESR of 8mOhm@300kHz (the freq rating is important and that will be discussed in another article), RMS Ripple current rating of 5700mA@100kHz and a leakage current of 592 uA @ ??? C (datasheet does not explicitly state the temperature in the tables).

Anyway, the point is, did I choose the best caps? Yes. Check the ripple current rating for the KY\KZE series. Very close to the LXZ I chose. Things get muddled up if you do not double check the temperature and compare correct quantities.

Anyway, the finished product looks like this:-

Disassembling an Ultra X-Connect X-ULT500P

Will be updated ...



I got an e-mail from a rather angry chap named Raven asking me if I can take a look at his PSU as it was dead. Upon quizzing him a bit regarding the unit, he mentioned that it was an Ultra X-Connect. Well, I've never fixed an older Ultra before, so I was curious on what I can find about this unit. Ultra had copped a bad reputation for making miserable power units. Newer Ultra products (OEM Andyson Electronics) are vastly better and the difference is like night and day.

Reputation is a finicky thing. It only takes one batch of defective units to create an avalanche of bad press. As time goes by it becomes hard to filter fact from fiction, as negative press is magnified by second hand and third hand accounts.

The question is, are these units really garbage? Let us open it up to see!

Primary caps are Sus'con 1000uF 200V cans. Suscon on motherboards are crap and I would not consider them a good brand. Notice the slight discoloration of one of the primary cans close to the bridge rectifier. The rectifier is not sinked and the discoloration is probably due to the heat produced by the rectifier. There is a basic input surge protection stage as evinced by the yellow spike absorbing capacitors and the Blue capacitors.

The layout is clean and the unit is group regulated. I'm troubled by the size and nature of the heatsinks. It looks all flashy, but does it do the job? I really doubt if this unit can put up 500W as the lable claims. Ofcourse, to be sure, I'd have to check the datasheets of the switching transistor and this will be done shortly.

The secondary side is a disaster. It is full of Fuhjyyu capacitors. These are among the worst caps you can put in a power supply unit. I don't care what anybody says, but I've replaced one Fuhjyyu too many to think otherwise.

This unit was purchased by Raven this year and has been in operation for a since 2005 It powered a modest AMD S939 setup, FX-xx CPU +6600GT. Nothing that would require a nuclear reactor to power it!

Poor chap was "refused an RMA" by Ultra (in his words) because he opened up the unit. While this is entirely reasonable from a policy perspective, I would have expected a company that is looking to re-establish itself as a major player in the market to be a bit more considerate.

Feast on these pictures while I update this post with more analysis and pictures.



Now let us look at what this unit can do in theory and why exactly did it fail?

• Power Specifications:
• 115V, 230V switchable power supply
• +3.3V, 28A
• +5V, 30A
• +12V, 34A
• -12V, 0.8A
• -5V, 0.3A
• +5Vsb, 2.0A

On the primary side we have three 2SC3220 fast switching transistors made by Fuji Electric. According to the datasheet given HERE, the maximum continuous collector current this transistor can handle is 15A at 25C. I couldn't find information about peak values. This is a two transistor forward configuration. THIS may prove an interesting read. It seems to be some kind of a "Half-bridge" converter, but I'm not sure.

There are 2 switching transistors on the PWM side are manufactured by ST Microelectronics and are rated at 15A continuous, 400V at 25C. Since this transistor is going to work in pulsed mode, the only relevant quantity is the peak current per pulse. I had a really hard time finding that information from the datasheets. Please contact me if you know how to decipher that. Note that usually a set of diodes is used on this side after the transformer, here we see the use of power transistors.

There is also a (K)SC5207 Switching transistor made by Fairchild Semiconductor rated at 10A in pulsed mode.

You can see that the 3.3 and 5V lines are tied together and use the same transformer, with the 12V line. The transformer next to it may be an isolation transformer. I'll have to check into that though. The third transformer is independent of the other circuitry and it provides the standby voltage.

Here are a few more pictures of this unit disassembled...





Three diode banks being used are MOSPEC S30D40C Schottky barrier rectifiers. There are 3 such diode banks. The datasheet rates them at 30A per pack. The label shows that the maximum independent draw is 28A on the 3.3V and 30A on the 5V rail, yet gives a maximum combined rating of 200W (as opposed to a maximum of 242.4W if they were independent), telling us that the 3.3V and 5V rails are tied together.

If you look at the datasheet, the 30A forward current limit is maintained upto a case temperature of 80C, thereafter it begins to decrease rather rapidly.

Even if we assume that this is not true, the on-paper maximum current that can be drawn would be provided by the two diode packs for the 3.3V and 5V rails. So we are safe on paper but really skirting the edge. The third pack works for the 12V rail which is worrying rated at a max of 34A! So, under ideal conditions, the 12V rail can only supply a max 360W as opposed to the claim of 408W. However, assuming that the 3.3V and 5V numbers are correct (200W), the 12V rail has been under-rated to deliver 23.3A, which is below the component limit of 30A.

To conclude, on paper, everything looks fine although the numbers are a little too close to the theoretical maximum of the diode packs which is 3.3 x30 +5 x30 +12 x 30 = 602.4 W. Most modern PSU's have diode packs at almost double the rated output capacity. No worries if things are kept cool.

A few more pictures:



In one of the pictures you see a resistor on the secondary side almost charred, so clearly heat was an issue here. Therefore the preliminary diagnosis of heat related failure is further reinforced.

Notice the secondary coil I ripped out. It has 4 windings instead of the usual two. I would speculate that this is indicative of a 3.3V+5V group regulated scheme. I am a bit puzzled by the difference in thickness between the 4 strands. I'll have to check on this to see why they are different.