ECS L7VMM2 Motherboard Replacement

[lenja]

I am looking for a replacement mobo for eMachines T2200. The original
one is ECS L7VMM2. It doesn't boot, no any POST beeps. I couldn't find
this model, it was discontinued.
What could be a good replacement? I want to keep original CPU Athlon XP
2200+, DIMM, hard drive, etc.

Thank you in advance,
Leonid

 

[kony]

I am looking for a replacement mobo for eMachines T2200. The original
one is ECS L7VMM2. It doesn't boot, no any POST beeps. I couldn't find
this model, it was discontinued.
What could be a good replacement? I want to keep original CPU Athlon XP
2200+, DIMM, hard drive, etc.

Are you sure it's the board and not the power supply? PSU
failure was petty common on eMachines for awhile.

You should be able to find an L7VMM2 somewhere on the net...
it may not have been the most popular board in the world but
still common enough.

more significant is whether you have an eMachines
restoration disc you "need" to use, because it probably
requires a motherboard with the emachines customized bios
(contains emachines specific strings the installer will
check). If you need it, the typical and most reasonable
advice is that you have to buy it from eMachines or a 3rd
party that sells it as an official emachines board due to it
having emachines bios on it.

If you dont' need to use any proprietary emachines
restoration discs, instead having the operating system
discs/installation-files/whatever, you might simply choose
any other board compatible with the parts and case.

At first glance (this pic:
http://www.3logic.ru/SE/I/i/3/9429.jpg )
it appears to be a via KM266 or KM400, uses DDR memory and
might have integrated video? Do you need integrated video?

Another mATX KM400 board would work, or KM266 since your CPU
should have 133MHz/DDR266 FSB, nForce1 or nForce2 ("IGP"
nForce board if you need integrated video). Of the above
choices, the nForce2 was the best option for socket A (what
your CPU needs).

However, based on the board pic it appears your system PSU
delivered 5V for CPU power (lack of 4-pin connector for 12V
CPU power), and with the budgetized eMachines typical
construction, you probably need a board that also uses 5V
for CPU as your PSU probably can't support enough amps on
it's 12V rail. In other words, the replacement motherboard
should NOT have a 4-pin, 12V connector on it, that would be
a clear sign the CPU uses 12V power and that your power
supply would also need replaced (most likely).

If the above picture is not close to what your board looks
like, particularly that it lacks a 4-pin 12V connector, then
ignore the previous paragraph.

Since it appears the original board was KM266(A), the most
trouble-free replacement would be with another KM266(A)
based board, even though nForce2 has significantly higher
video performance with 2 memory modules installed and better
PCI performance in any situation.

Towards this end of getting a KM266, practically all of the
boards available (perhaps really "all" of them) were mATX,
and several manufacturers made them, so simply searching
Google or your favorite product search service for "KM266
motherboard" would be a good attempt towards finding one.

Again, this would be if you do NOT need proprietary
eMachines restoration discs to work, though it is quite
possible that if you used another KM266 based board, you
would not have to completely reinstall nor do a repair
install of windows because it uses same chipset.... it might
still need to re-plug-n-play many things though, so you'd
need drives and such ready.

Then there's the rear I/O panel on the back of the system...
often a rectangular pop-out panel which is best, but some
older OEM sytems had a permanent arrangement where the holes
were stamped out of the main, non-removable rear case wall.
If yours is the former you just need the replacement i/o
panel that comes with most retail boards. If the latter,
you need a board that has identical port-placement in the
rear.

I've already written too much not knowing exactly what the
system or your needs are... more details addressing any of
the above points might be necessary if you still have
questions.

 

[lenja]

Kony, I really appreciate your respond. I will try to give more
detailed description of the problem. The computer was put into 'sleep'
mode by my wife. It did not respond when she tried to wake it. When she
called me to help, some LEDs on the keyboard were lit but the monitor
screen was black. The computer did not respond any keybord keys. The
power button had 'green' light around. I don't remember if PSU fan was
spinning. I turned the computer off holding power button for several
seconds. Then I turned it on again. I could hear spinning fans, HD, CD
and DVD LED blinked once and nothing more - neither POST beeps nor
anything on the monitor. I turned off and on several times without any
success. What looked very suspicious was that this green light around
the power switch was on as soon as the power cord was inserted into
PSU. It seems that before it was 'on' only while the computer was
really 'on'. Then I opened the box and measured voltages on a free
connector. They were 4.88 and 12.2. That made me think that PSU was OK.
I disconnected FD, HD, CD, DVD, removed DIMM - still the same. The last
step was to remove CPU. Still no any sounds. I also reseted CMOS with
the jumper (just in case) - nothing worked for me. For me it looks like
the motherboard problem but I am not an expert in PC hardware and I
would appreciate any knowlegeable opinion.

My PSU is 250 W max. It has 4-pin connector, though it was not in use
by L7VMM2. Does it mean that I can use modern motherbords with this
PSU?

I was little bit surprised to learn that I need to load something from
restoration CD to BIOS. I hoped BIOS on a mobo should be smart enough
to detect most setting automatically and the rest could be configured
through setup. Do I have to reinstall Win XP even though I keep the
original HD? If I buy a new motherboard with all supplied software, do
I still have to restore Windows from EMachines CD?

 

[kony]

Kony, I really appreciate your respond. I will try to give more
detailed description of the problem. The computer was put into 'sleep'
mode by my wife. It did not respond when she tried to wake it. When she
called me to help, some LEDs on the keyboard were lit but the monitor
screen was black. The computer did not respond any keybord keys. The
power button had 'green' light around. I don't remember if PSU fan was
spinning. I turned the computer off holding power button for several
seconds. Then I turned it on again. I could hear spinning fans, HD, CD
and DVD LED blinked once and nothing more - neither POST beeps nor
anything on the monitor. I turned off and on several times without any
success. What looked very suspicious was that this green light around
the power switch was on as soon as the power cord was inserted into
PSU. It seems that before it was 'on' only while the computer was
really 'on'. Then I opened the box and measured voltages on a free
connector. They were 4.88 and 12.2. That made me think that PSU was OK.
I disconnected FD, HD, CD, DVD, removed DIMM - still the same. The last
step was to remove CPU. Still no any sounds. I also reseted CMOS with
the jumper (just in case) - nothing worked for me. For me it looks like
the motherboard problem but I am not an expert in PC hardware and I
would appreciate any knowlegeable opinion.

I too wonder about the motherboard but am not sure of it.

My PSU is 250 W max. It has 4-pin connector, though it was not in use
by L7VMM2. Does it mean that I can use modern motherbords with this
PSU?

In theory, yes. What are the ratings of amperage per each
voltage? In general having the 4-pin connector means it was
supposed to be able to provide a fair amount of 12V power,
but then that makes it sub-optimal for a motherboard that
does not use this 12V power for CPU. This inconsistency is
puzzling, moreso on a 250W PSU than a higher capacity as
lower wattage PSU will tend to have one of the power rails
stronger for the CPU support- either 12V amps or 2-3 times
as many 5V amps per board voltage used for CPU, with the
other rail being suitable only for secondary consumers like
drives and (motherboard, depending on which voltage rail it
was).

I was little bit surprised to learn that I need to load something from
restoration CD to BIOS.

It's not that it loads things, rather the restoration CD is
deliberately designed to only work on an eMachine (as far as
I know), and does so by checking that the system it's
running on, has an emachines bios. It simply reads a value
from the bios and if acceptible value, proceeds.

I hoped BIOS on a mobo should be smart enough
to detect most setting automatically and the rest could be configured
through setup. Do I have to reinstall Win XP even though I keep the
original HD?

With a different motherboard chipset it is likely you would
perform a repair install... that's with an XP installation
disc, not a restoration CD. Sometimes XP will be able to
plug-n-play a new motherboard without doing this, more often
if the original board were using the standard Windows IDE
driver and the new one can as well. The more different the
two boards are, the more potential for some issue requiring
the reinstallation of windows.

If I buy a new motherboard with all supplied software, do
I still have to restore Windows from EMachines CD?

If you buy an eMachines board, the restoration CD will work.
If you buy a non-eMachines board, the restoration cd will
not work and the "software" coming with the new board is
mostly drivers for it, perhaps some supplimental
applications like an audio player software and system
hardware temp/voltage/etc monitor, maybe a bios image and
flasher. It won't contain any of the generic windows
installation files you "might" need.

This issue is one of the primary reasons why it's good to
get a system that comes with a regular XP OEM CD rather than
only a restoration CD. It's possible you might be able to
borrow an XP OEM CD from someone if you need it, and you'd
use the license key from your system. if your license key
does not work, you don't have the right XP version and would
have to find another XP CD. The selection process would be
to get one that is XP Home, OEM, and same service pack
level. If you don't know the service pack level, trial and
error may be needed... given the age of the system I'd
assume it is SP1 or pre-SP1.

 

[lenja]

I replaced the PSU with a one from a working computer. The same story.
Now I am pretty sure about the motherboard. It is also clear to me that
the problem requires a bit of time to solve. Thanks again for helping
me.