PIII motherboards

Are PIII motherboards still available?

My son, a college student, bought a mini-tower system from CompUSA several
years ago. It's a PIII 500 on a mini-ATX motherboard. Recently, it wouldn't
POST. My son took it to the pc doctor who diagnosed a blown capacitor on
the motherboard. My son explained that as a student, he couldn't afford a
new PC, so the they tried to see if they could find a replacement
capacitor. No such luck.

Without stripping the case and removing the motherboard, all I could find
out is that it's got a VIA chipset and an Award bios. Given its age, the
USB ports are 1.x and the AGP slot is probably ancient.

My son can't afford to replace the motherboard, CPU, memory, etc. to
upgrade to something P-IV based and it's possible the power supply would be
insufficient if he could. Unfortunately, the label on the power supply is
obscured by the chassis, so it too would require removal for further
identification.

Does anyone know what motherboard would be a good replacement and where he
could find one? I'm familiar with AMD motherboards, but am clueless when it
comes to Intel.

Thanks,

Bob
Remove 'Not' to send me email.

If all that is wrong is a blown capacitor it can be fixed. The replacement does not have to be an exact match. It is most likely an electrolytic filter capacitor, in which case any capacitor the has the same or higher voltage and capacitance rating should work.

Bob wrote:
>
> Are PIII motherboards still available?
>
> My son, a college student, bought a mini-tower system from CompUSA several
> years ago. It's a PIII 500 on a mini-ATX motherboard. Recently, it wouldn't
> POST. My son took it to the pc doctor who diagnosed a blown capacitor on
> the motherboard. My son explained that as a student, he couldn't afford a
> new PC, so the they tried to see if they could find a replacement
> capacitor. No such luck.
>
> Without stripping the case and removing the motherboard, all I could find
> out is that it's got a VIA chipset and an Award bios. Given its age, the
> USB ports are 1.x and the AGP slot is probably ancient.
>
> My son can't afford to replace the motherboard, CPU, memory, etc. to
> upgrade to something P-IV based and it's possible the power supply would be
> insufficient if he could. Unfortunately, the label on the power supply is
> obscured by the chassis, so it too would require removal for further
> identification.
>
> Does anyone know what motherboard would be a good replacement and where he
> could find one? I'm familiar with AMD motherboards, but am clueless when it
> comes to Intel.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bob
> Remove 'Not' to send me email.

--
Mike Walsh
West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.A.

This is a Soyo board that I bought about a year ago when my Pentium 2 motherboard died. I was able to use my old AGP and ISA cards (modem and sound card). I bought a 1.26 Ghz Pentium 3 and ECC memory for it.
http://www.soyousa.com/products/proddesc.php?id=12

Mike Walsh wrote:
>
> If all that is wrong is a blown capacitor it can be fixed. The replacement does not have to be an exact match. It is most likely an electrolytic filter capacitor, in which case any capacitor the has the same or higher voltage and capacitance rating should work.
>
> Bob wrote:
> >
> > Are PIII motherboards still available?
> >
> > My son, a college student, bought a mini-tower system from CompUSA several
> > years ago. It's a PIII 500 on a mini-ATX motherboard. Recently, it wouldn't
> > POST. My son took it to the pc doctor who diagnosed a blown capacitor on
> > the motherboard. My son explained that as a student, he couldn't afford a
> > new PC, so the they tried to see if they could find a replacement
> > capacitor. No such luck.
> >
> > Without stripping the case and removing the motherboard, all I could find
> > out is that it's got a VIA chipset and an Award bios. Given its age, the
> > USB ports are 1.x and the AGP slot is probably ancient.
> >
> > My son can't afford to replace the motherboard, CPU, memory, etc. to
> > upgrade to something P-IV based and it's possible the power supply would be
> > insufficient if he could. Unfortunately, the label on the power supply is
> > obscured by the chassis, so it too would require removal for further
> > identification.
> >
> > Does anyone know what motherboard would be a good replacement and where he
> > could find one? I'm familiar with AMD motherboards, but am clueless when it
> > comes to Intel.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Bob
> > Remove 'Not' to send me email.
>
> --
> Mike Walsh
> West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.A.

--
Mike Walsh
West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.A.

On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 05:57:12 GMT, Mike Walsh <mikew137@sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

>
>If all that is wrong is a blown capacitor it can be fixed. The replacement
>does not have to be an exact match. It is most likely an electrolytic filter
>capacitor, in which case any capacitor the has the same or higher voltage
> and capacitance rating should work.
>

No, you can't just use a cap with compatible voltage and capacitance
rating. The vast majority of caps that fail on boards are of the low-ESR
variety, and a generic cap (like found at Radio Shack for example) will
not be appropriate, may not work well enough or quickly wear out.

On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 03:45:34 GMT, Bob <nottooslow@forevermail.com>
wrote:

> It's a PIII 500 on a mini-ATX motherboard. Recently, it wouldn't
>POST. My son took it to the pc doctor who diagnosed a blown capacitor on
>the motherboard. My son explained that as a student, he couldn't afford a
>new PC, so the they tried to see if they could find a replacement
>capacitor. No such luck.

find a dead MoBo & took off some good caps, this way I do ...

-- Regards, SPAJKY ®
& visit my site @ http://www.spajky.vze.com
"Tualatin OC-ed / BX-Slot1 / inaudible setup!"
E-mail AntiSpam: remove ##

In article <405FD1B9.DB069B6B@sbcglobal.net>, mikew137@sbcglobal.net
says...
>
> If all that is wrong is a blown capacitor it can be fixed. The replacement does not have to be an exact match. It is most likely an electrolytic filter capacitor, in which case any capacitor the has the same or higher voltage and capacitance rating should work.
>
Mike,

I'm afraid that's beyond my talent and tools.

Bob
Remove 'not' to send me email

In article <405FD560.9C9EFBD5@sbcglobal.net>, mikew137@sbcglobal.net
says...
>
> This is a Soyo board that I bought about a year ago when my Pentium 2 motherboard died. I was able to use my old AGP and ISA cards (modem and sound card). I bought a 1.26 Ghz Pentium 3 and ECC memory for it.
> http://www.soyousa.com/products/proddesc.php?id=12
>

Mike,

Thanks, but I need a micro-ATX form factor.

Bob

Remove 'not' to send me email

Bob wrote:
> In article <405FD1B9.DB069B6B@sbcglobal.net>, mikew137@sbcglobal.net
> says...
>>
>> If all that is wrong is a blown capacitor it can be fixed. The
>> replacement does not have to be an exact match. It is most likely
>> an electrolytic filter capacitor, in which case any capacitor the
>> has the same or higher voltage and capacitance rating should work.
>>
> Mike,
>
> I'm afraid that's beyond my talent and tools.

LOL, mine too. I tried it once on my good old Abit BX 133 RAID board. I was
sad to see that board go, seven of the large capacitors were bulging and it
would only run for 30 seconds before powering off. I had a Tualatin Celly
1.3 and upgradeware adapter in it, the CPU is just sitting on the shelf now.
:-(
--
~misfit~

http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q...=Search+Froogle
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q...=Search+Froogle

On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 03:45:34 GMT, Bob <nottooslow@forevermail.com>
wrote:

>Are PIII motherboards still available?
>
>My son, a college student, bought a mini-tower system from CompUSA several
>years ago. It's a PIII 500 on a mini-ATX motherboard. Recently, it wouldn't
>POST. My son took it to the pc doctor who diagnosed a blown capacitor on
>the motherboard. My son explained that as a student, he couldn't afford a
>new PC, so the they tried to see if they could find a replacement
>capacitor. No such luck.
>
>Without stripping the case and removing the motherboard, all I could find
>out is that it's got a VIA chipset and an Award bios. Given its age, the
>USB ports are 1.x and the AGP slot is probably ancient.
>
>My son can't afford to replace the motherboard, CPU, memory, etc. to
>upgrade to something P-IV based and it's possible the power supply would be
>insufficient if he could. Unfortunately, the label on the power supply is
>obscured by the chassis, so it too would require removal for further
>identification.
>
>Does anyone know what motherboard would be a good replacement and where he
>could find one? I'm familiar with AMD motherboards, but am clueless when it
>comes to Intel.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Bob
>Remove 'Not' to send me email.

In article <4264609fb1bs1v236tik1htlf7459rgkdo@4ax.com>, 1@2.3 says...
> http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q...=Search+Froogle
> http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q...=Search+Froogle
>

Andy,

Thanks for the froogle pointer. I had completely forgotten about that.

Bob