My ABIT bites the dust.....

[caddmannq]

The Bad News:

I got to work at 8:45 this morning, after a restless night.

In the most horrible example of PC hardware meltdown I've ever seen, my ABIT KA7 gave up the ghost. It had been feeling poorly last week, often taking a couple tries to boot cold; and this morning it just refused to boot at all. Not a single beep.

Upon stripping off the case, I noticed some capacitors that were evidently "crusty" in the power regulator section. Upon pulling out the board and taking a good look, it seems that almost every cap on the board was cooked, and had spewed it's life blood (tar) all over the board.

R.I.P. KA7...I gave her a quick burrial in a cardboard box under my desk.

The GOOD NEWS:
This was my work PC, an aging A700 with PC133 chips, but only PC100 ram. I was kinda due for an update anyway.

My boss sprang for a new MSI KT3 Ultra with 256MB of DDR333 and an XP1800+ CPU. WOOHOO!

I showed him the board.
I called PC Club.
He cut me a check.
I hopped in the car, grabed the parts, and ran.

Installation was a snap. Booted on the first try.

By Noon-ish, I was back on-line. DOUBLE WOOHOO!!

The disasters of life should always be solved so quickly. ;)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

But, I'm not "tuned up" yet. I'm gonna do the burn-in, and I thought I'd just just leave the BIOS on PC100 spec (default) for a couple days before I crank it up to 333Mhz.

Any thoughts on this?

Also, I haven't updated anything (4-in-1, USB, drivers, etc.) yet.
It booted on the first try with the existing stuff, and I've got real (paying) work to do, so......

I don't think I'll tweak anything untill I get some of it done.

:D:D:D
Cadd.

[Mntsnow]

Rest in peace Abit (I have lost a couple of Abits in recient times and thus have quit using Abits for the time being)

XPC is currently running on a MSI KT3 Ultra-ARU with 512 mem with the same CPU as you are going to be using...Been very stable and works like a champ. though I am planning on upping the memory to a full gig shortly.

Enjoy!

[jadison]

Sorry to hear about the fallen comrade...thankfully it was at work and replaced under company pay, not your own. :)

The new system is impressive for a "work" computer. The computers here at my job are all DELL's since we have a contract with the company. This is what we've got: Click Here (http://www.dell.com/us/en/dhs/products/model_dimen_1_dimen_4500.htm). It's nice that you can choose custom parts to build your next work PC, I'd rather have it that way...but oh well.

As far as doing any tweaking, modifying, OC'ing, or anything else related I'd hold off on that. Just run the PC at its normal settings for now until you've found that it's reliable and is ready for a little performance tweaking. As far as drivers & updates I'd d/l and install all of them to make sure your PC is running optimal and efficiently.

Nice rig, sorry to hear about the ol Abit though.

[caddmannq]

Thanks, Jadison.

Since I spec & build all the rigs here, I coulda held out for the very latest XP2000 or 2100 or 2200, or whatever's out this week ;) Engineering work is very CPU/memory intensive, so I really coulda justified about anything I'd wanted.

But I needed it up ASAP, so I bought what I could get locally in-stock for a reasonable price. & bang-for-the-buck wise the XP1800 was a sensible choice.

I don't hold the purse strings here, but I do have a vested interest in our bottom line. :D

[NDC]

Yeah, sorry to hear that... :( But hey, you got somethng good out of this! :)

As for me, I'm a big fan of Abit mainboards. All three of my systems are built on Abit mainboards. VP6, BE6-II, and KT7A-RAID and all three are still running strong. And the customer service is great at Abit. When my KT7A's PS2 port died, I went to Abit and they gave me a KT7A-RAID in return. No waiting, fussing, or questions asked. They just exchanged the mainboard right there on the spot. :)

[Mntsnow]

Well it's just not quite fair for us NDC that your in the same city as they are! lol :)

[caddmannq]

So, any guessses what caused this problem?

Cheap capacitors?

Don't think it was a voltage spike, as I have an expensive (hope that = good) UPS.

Don't think it was humidity, as we have good climate control in the office. It's never ever damp. It's usually kinda "dry".

Don't think it was heat. My hardware monitor never went off, and CPU temps were limited to 125 F. They never hit that AFAIK. Plus it's a full tower case mostly full of air & 7 fans.

Maybe rabid dust bunnies? I found some having a convention in the bottom of the case!

[Mntsnow]

Personally I think it is/ was capacitors as that is what went on my VP6 while I was on vacation in CA

[ext2op]

Might be late in replying to this because hopefully you are running at 333 now. There is no reason to not run your memory at 333 when it designed to run at that. If you dont and wait to long and the MSI board does not like you memory you could be screwed. I know that the MSI does not like 512 mushkin 2100. When they say run at default they mean run the hardware at the speed it is designed to run at if doesnt at the begining you usually wont 4 weeks from now.

[caddmannq]

Thanks, ex2op!

Yeah, I cranked it up to 333 (um...and beyond :rolleyes: ) as soon as I was certain that everything was stable.

The RAM was Kingston ValueRAM (not my first choice, but I was up against the wall) & the MB, RAM, CPU & fan all came from PC Club, so any incompatibilities would have been their problem.

I haven't unlocked the CPU, but the RAM has been up to 350 (briefly) just so I could try out Fuzzy Logic 4. ;)

[OuTpaTienT]

At least it seems your KA7 lived a full life. My bit the dust rather prematurely...leaving me with a still powerful (at the time) 1Ghz slot-A Athlon that ended just sitting on a shelf for a couple months before I finally sold it.

[NeonSystems]

Originally posted by caddmannq
Thanks, ex2op!

Yeah, I cranked it up to 333 (um...and beyond :rolleyes: ) as soon as I was certain that everything was stable.

The RAM was Kingston ValueRAM (not my first choice, but I was up against the wall) & the MB, RAM, CPU & fan all came from PC Club, so any incompatibilities would have been their problem.

I haven't unlocked the CPU, but the RAM has been up to 350 (briefly) just so I could try out Fuzzy Logic 4. ;)

I was wondering what you mean by cranking up your ram? I have pc2100 ram in my comp what settings should I use I think its at 133 in bios setting. I have a Via P4X266 if that helps. Thanks

[caddmannq]

Speeds above 333 Mhz, I set using "Fuzzy Logic", though it can be done in my BIOS.

I'm not familliar with your motherboard, but to hit 333 on my BIOS you have to set the memory to "memory bus speed plus 33".

that's 133+33=166
since it's DDR 166 x 2 = 332

It's actually closer to 333 Mhz, but that's just the estimated speed, as the actual speed is based on a multiple of some irrational number like 4.652 or 4.77 Mhz which, as I recall, was the clock speed back in the old 8086/8088 CPU days.

My own memory's not clear on that. Anyone here remember exactly?

[caddmannq]

Oh, yeah...

P4x266 sounds like it's only good for 266 Mhz (133 x 2) DDR, though you might get it to overclock somewhat more.

I got my 266 board (Epox 8KHA+) to run the ram at 300 (150x2), but it's an AthlonXP machine. I've never used a P4.

[mselsjor]

Hi,
I know this is late.. but it happened to me also last week, with my abit vp6 mobo. It started to freeze after 1,5 years and it got worse after that. Last week it too was dying, so I tried to give it all the aid I could.. probably spent 50 hours, just trying every possible trick to get it well... I didn`t really know it was the board then... but gave up 2 days ago and started searching the web for a replacement. That is when I stumbled on heaps of info on defect abit mobos, cause by these bad capicitors.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/rburt42/
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=5878
http://www.vp6-board.com/caps1.htm

After looking at my capicitors, I knew it was the same, bulging and leaking...

I was happy and angry to find the reason to its affliction, and wrote at once to Abit(Taiwan). Got a reply within a few hours with a promise to send me a new one immediately!!!
What do you think?

I think its a great scandal and should be publized much more...I think this is just starting, as my generation mobo is starting to pop all over the place.

Best regards,
Marianne Selsjord,
Oslo, Norway

[NDC]

Welcome aboard, mselsjor! :)

Hmmmm... I have a VP6 too. I hope my cappies hold up. Looks like they stopped making this board. They'll probably have refurbished ones laying around for some time...

[mselsjor]

Hi.. you are lucky if it stays well. Mine started to misbehave after 1.5 years.
The bad caps are black and yellow and has "Jackon" written on them, I think.
anyway I am really looking forward to receiving a new, fresh board and get my raid back in business..it used to be my joy and pride.:-)

marianne

[NDC]

Yeah. VP6 are awesome boards. One very rock solid systems. Only bad thing I could say about the rig is that they're not as overclockable as many people think. At least that was the case with 1Ghz P3 chips. And then again, that's not the cause of the board...

[mselsjor]

well I never tried to overclock my vp6,(only my graphic card), but I managed to open a huge 3dfile(150 mb) in 3dmax on the Vp6, which just crashed on a P4 2ghz pc., which was quite impressive.
maybe I will try when I get the new board. I will learn how if I am interested enough...

[NDC]

I used to open like 400+ MB graphic files on the VP6 without a hitch. I used to use the VP6 (http://www.xtremepccentral.com/gallery//showphoto.php?photo=147&password=&sort=1&cat=500&page=4) as my primary graphic workstation.Then all the faster systems started coming out and my primary workstation became this one (http://www.xtremepccentral.com/gallery//showphoto.php?photo=533&password=&sort=1&cat=500&page=1). Sometime this week, I'm gonna be tearing the Dual MP2000+ system and building a new MP workstation based on the Intel Xeon 2.4Ghz. I'm telling ya! It' hard to keep up! lol

[mselsjor]

Hi again. Sorry didn`t see ur reply til now.
I am getting a journalist friend to look into the rotten capicitor problem. It may be huge also here in Norway.
This summer has been awful. First my K7TTurbo2 (Amd1100mhz old workhorse)) went down due to lightning... Thanx to God, it was only the powersupply and the adsl modem.
Then, the trouble with my VP6 got out of hand... THEN just as I had put in the new powersupply and everything seemed fine, I realized that my laptop wouldn`t start!!!!!!(2,8 ghz P4, 1 gig ram etc)where all my work was sitting(backup only for sissies.)
No power on. I had to send it in(guarantee), but 2 weeks have gone by and theyve told me the mobos dead.... Hopefully not the harddrive.

So, I thought for many years I was beyond that kind of trouble, but it turned out it came in a lump!!

Marianne

Ps. So you are a graphic designer?