Ok I have this annoying problem with a pc I have. When I turn it on most of the times it goes to the welcome screen and resets, itll do this constantly. So I switched the hard drive and tried installing windows xp but it freezes, tried another drive but this one just gives me a blank screen after the bios. I did a memory test and everything came out fine, it has nothing plugged into the pci slots. I even replaced and moved around the memory sticks and nothing works. Is there a way to figure out if the motherboard or something else is messed up. Thanks
Originally posted by Xcalamyte: Ok I have this annoying problem with a pc I have. When I turn it on most of the times it goes to the welcome screen and resets, itll do this constantly. So I switched the hard drive and tried installing windows xp but it freezes, tried another drive but this one just gives me a blank screen after the bios. I did a memory test and everything came out fine, it has nothing plugged into the pci slots. I even replaced and moved around the memory sticks and nothing works. Is there a way to figure out if the motherboard or something else is messed up. Thanks
Ok I checked the motherboard and about 6 of the big capacitors are domed, can that be part of the issue.
This blows, I heard you can replace the capacitors with new ones and if thats the case it'll give me a lil project to work on. Oh well, what can we do. Thanks for your help.
sweet, I didnt really know about the "uf" part I was gonna take one out and see if I found and exact one. Is there a certain place to get them from, I was thinking radio shack but wouldnt know if the sell them.
get "low ESR" caps .. what's ESR??.. google it ;) I use things from scrap dead boards myself (yeah.. I'm so hot with an iron and braid I can recycle caps from old equipment).. hope you are VERY good with a soldering iron. .. theres still a 50% chance it will never work again.. The first one to change is the one by the AGP or graphics card slot .. that's always 6v (some I have seen on MSI boards have been 3.2v with their guts blown out everywhere!!!) and really needs to be 10v .. that may bring everything back to life even though externally it looks just fine.
If you have never soldered on a board before it might be an idea to chop the caps up and solder to the leads that are left sticking out of the top of the board.. neatness is something for pros.. working is better than a torn up trace and a big black hole in the board.
Remember.. these caps are POLARIZED .. so make sure you note the polarity before removing the old ones.. do one at a time.. if you lift a trace the board is toast.. physical size can be a problem as well.. some manufacturers have sourced very small caps which are nearly impossible to replace like for like..
30+ years with a soldering iron and I still get the shakes with a motherboard.
