Is my Motherboard dead?! (Pic)

[Ant]

I'm just about to place an order for a new NF-7S, but before i do that, just thought I'd ask for a second opinion...

My system is as follows:
Epox 8RDA3+
XP-m 2400+ (water cooled)
1GB crucial RAM
leadtek 6800
2x Samsung Spinpoint 160GB HDDs
USB2 Card
and a few other bits

Anyways...
After 2 years of stability, my computer has decided to be as unstable as anything! All very suddenly!

It started yesterday, It would lock up randomly and would even lock in the bios sometimes. It had been overclocked to 2.2Ghz (11x 200) for most of its life, and I have never had a problem. Temps were fine, but I still put it down to stock speeds and voltages. Bloody thing still kept locking up!

After a lot of cursing and swearing, I changed the CPU, graphics card, ram using bits I have spare, but still, it kept locking up...

I then noticed four of the capacitors looked like this:



Doesn't look good to me! All four of them are slightly bulged at the top, and two of them had tiny bits of crusty brown stuff on top...

I'm almost certain that must be the problem, but have any of you had this happen before? I'm sure I read somewhere on here ages ago, someone had the same thing happen with their Epox.

Cheers for looking

Ant

PS As much as I would love to buy a whole new comp, I can't!

[0iD]

It was a common problem with Epox boards yes, (8RDA & 8RGA are what I had probs with), and yes, them capacitors are b0rkd.

[directhex]

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=195

[0iD]

ROFL
Another Pyle classic!

[Jonny]

Good effort, pyle. And nice capacitors, Antsss.

[oralpain]

Epox has been on my **** list for a while. They are probably the only motherboards I consider to be inherently flawed. It will be a good while before I give them another chance.

Anyway, those capacitors are going. If the board isn't dead now, it probably will be soon.

[m0cea]

Why not consider swapping the cap's if your any good with an iron!

[Ant]

Haha, nice one pyle!

Thanks for your replies, and your link, Directhex!

Swopping the caps seems like more effort than its worth tbh, mind as well get a new board!

Supposed to be getting my new 2005FPW TFT soon too! Perfect timing! Not got a machine to run it on now!

So, an NF7-S v2 a worthy replacement?

RIP Ant's Epox

Ant

[Jonny]

You don't get much better than an Abit NF7-S v2! Go for it, I reckon.

[mike_w]

You don't get much better than an Abit NF7-S v2! Go for it, I reckon.

At least on Socket A!

Mine has always been rock solid, and overclocks my Mobile Barton without a problem.

[Mike Fishcake]

I said "whys it smell like scaletrix then?".

Quote.
Of.
The.
Week.

[Ant]

You don't get much better than an Abit NF7-S v2! Go for it, I reckon.

Ordered!

I wonder if it'll overclock better than my Epox... Hmmm

Ant

[0iD]

They're sound overclocking boards. Had one with a XP-M 2500 in. Lovely setup.

[Jonny]

It'll overclock smoother than a greased weasel through a drainpipe. They are brilliant.

[Ant]

It'll overclock smoother than a greased weasel through a drainpipe. They are brilliant.

Lol! Sounds good to me! My XP-M 2400+ should feel right at home then!

Its the re-install of XP I'm not looking forward to. It was running so sweet!

Ant

[Lee H]

I'm supprised nobody has mentioned the soundstorm with dolby support

I had 2 Abit NF7-S boards - cracking piece of kit and highly stable.