Motherboard Ping!

[evil_king]

I was browsing the internet a couple hours ago when I heard an extremely loud ping noise from my computer case. I almost s*** myself and just turned off the comp from the back. After taking in some air, I opened the case to find one of those metal covers from those cylindrical things on the motherboard (not sure how to describe them, basically little cylinders). The cover had shot off the cylinder right next to the socket for the main power cable from the power supply. The cylinder is now bare and is covered with some sort of soft brown material. A temperature is written on the cover, a worrying 105 degrees centigrade! What should I do now? Is the motherboard toast? How the hell did that cylinder reach 105 degrees (Centigrade)? Should I be looking for a new motherboard? Oh, I'm typing this from my gaming system which is a couple hundred times faster than work system, the one that popped (not crazy enough to turn it back on). Specs below:

Amd athlon 1.4ghz
MSI MS-6382
512mb generic 266mhz ram
Asus V9900 (geforceFx 5800 non ultra)
Rest not important (I think )

[Howard]

That's a capacitor. And it's burst. Lol.

My only recommendation is to get a new motherboard.

[directhex]

or get out the soldeing iron.

and there were issues with motherboards from a few years ago using dodgy capacitors prone to bursting

[Shogun]

New mobo im afraid. The temperature written on it is the maximum safe operating temperature of the component. I want to see what happens if you try and turn it back on

[evil_king]

This may seem like a strange question, but why did it burst? Apart from the fact that it reached 105 degrees, of course. I've never had any trouble with temperatures with thos comp before. Zalman reserator on the cpu , couple 120mm system fans, watercooled graphics card (not overclocked). Seems rather odd. At least it gives me an excuse to finally stop neglecting it and update the cpu/mobo/ram (seems ancient compared to my vapochill xe ).

EDIT: Seems to be working fine. Swapped out the graphics card for a geforce 2 and disconnected the optical drives incase it decides to catch fire or something. Running cpuburn for 4 minutes so far without trouble.

[Shogun]

This may seem like a strange question, but why did it burst? Apart from the fact that it reached 105 degrees, of course. I've never had any trouble with temperatures with thos comp before. Zalman reserator on the cpu , couple 120mm system fans, watercooled graphics card (not overclocked). Seems rather odd. At least it gives me an excuse to finally stop neglecting it and update the cpu/mobo/ram (seems ancient compared to my vapochill xe ).

EDIT: Seems to be working fine. Swapped out the graphics card for a geforce 2 and disconnected the optical drives incase it decides to catch fire or something. Running cpuburn for 4 minutes so far without trouble.

Mostly just down to old age. If the caps were dodgy to start with it was just a matter of time till they went.

[evil_king]

Ok cpuburn has been running for 15minutes no trouble. I'll dismantle it later and find something evil to do to the motherboard (set it on fire or throw it out the window). Anybody recommend cheap cpu/mobos? Up to a hundred would be fine, willing to go up to 120. As powerful as possible up to 120 pounds. Oh, UK only please . Thanks to all those who replied.

[Shogun]

You going to be using the same cpu or will you be getting a new one?

[evil_king]

Definite new one. I'll have to finish off my shuttle first though. Actually £150 pounds should give me more options. Been looking at the mobile versions of the bartons. Supposed to overclock real good, esp. with my reserator. Can anyone suggest a good mobo and mobile barton for 150 pounds max (inc delivery)? Should I post in another section of the forum?

[Shogun]

Defo get a 2500+mobile chip
http://www.cpucitystore.co.uk/catalo...roducts_id=392
With that you would be left with around 80-90 quid on a good mobo. Such as a Dfi Nforce 2 board
http://www.cpucitystore.co.uk/catalo...roducts_id=352

[evil_king]

£124.26 excluding delivery. Thanks Shogun (Total war!!!). Order sometime next week.

[Flash]

Im intrigued did you turn the motherboard back on or did you not bother?

[evil_king]

Turned it back on after I changed the graphics card and disconnected the optical drive. Started up as normal, did cpuburn for 2 hours. as if nothing ever happened. In fact I'm typing this on it right now. Don't care if all the components explode or something in this comp and I've moved all essential data off the hard drive. Will order new cpu/mobo this week.

[da_ging]

id repair the mobo or if you cba then give it away to some 1 that can ,no point in wasting hardware unless it is truely dead which ur mobo aint

[evil_king]

Who said I was going to waste it? I'll just add it to my spare component collection or build another comp with it or give it to somebody. So what do these capacitors do then if they can burst and still work fine (so far)?