Switching Motherboards

[Chris Bruyere]

Hi All, I'm running Mandrake 9.0 on a Gigabyte GA-7ZXE motherboard with a
AMD Duron 1300 chip. I've had some problems with the computer suddenly
rebooting or turning off and it looks like because my chip is running
way too hot. I replaced the heatsink and still same problem. A tech
showed me one of the capicators near the chip has swollen and he
said it is only a matter of time before it bursts and this could be
my problem.

So, my first question is this:
Does this warrant a new motherboard? If so, will I have to reinstall
Linux and Windows, etc ?

My second question:
I haven't had any problems, until now, with this Gigabyte board.
What about an ECS K7S5A V3.X or V!.x ? will that be ok with Mandrake?
And, is that even a decent board?

Thanks a lot for all your help, if I am missing some details, please
let me know

Thanks again
Chris

 

[crashtech]

Swollen caps are bad news. Someone who is handy with a soldering iron
could replace them for you. I've done it on an Abit board. How hot is
too hot? Your BIOS should tell you the CPU temp. As far as the K7S5A
goes, they are decent cheap boards that take DDR and regular SDRAM,
so they are a good transitional option. The driver CD I have here for
the K7S5A does not seem to include Linux drivers, so you'd have to
check their site for availability.

 

[Charles Sullivan]

Hi All, I'm running Mandrake 9.0 on a Gigabyte GA-7ZXE motherboard with a
AMD Duron 1300 chip. I've had some problems with the computer suddenly
rebooting or turning off and it looks like because my chip is running way
too hot. I replaced the heatsink and still same problem. A tech showed me
one of the capicators near the chip has swollen and he said it is only a
matter of time before it bursts and this could be my problem.

So, my first question is this:
Does this warrant a new motherboard? If so, will I have to reinstall Linux
and Windows, etc ?

My second question:
I haven't had any problems, until now, with this Gigabyte board. What
about an ECS K7S5A V3.X or V!.x ? will that be ok with Mandrake? And, is
that even a decent board?

Thanks a lot for all your help, if I am missing some details, please let
me know

Thanks again
Chris

I have NO idea whether your problem is related, but there were a number
of stories on the web about 6 months-1 year ago about premature capacitor
failures. It appears that a formula for capacitor electrolyte was stolen
and sold to a couple of Asian capacitor companies. But the stolen
formula was incomplete and a large number of electronic boards using these
companies' capacitors were failing due to ruptured capacitors.

 

[Walter Mautner]

Chris Bruyere wrote:

....
Ouch to your MoBo. Will you receive a refund?

So, my first question is this:
Does this warrant a new motherboard? If so, will I have to reinstall
Linux and Windows, etc ?

Windows - most probably you will have to do a "repair install".
First, make damn sure you have no encrypted filesystem (XP) or at least the
key exported to a floppy.
2nd, prepare for a nasty re-activation procedure by phone (XP).
3rd, start linux and do a
dd if=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 of=/dev/fd0 (and insert a empty floppy) to
save your bootsector.
Then swap mainboards.
Do the windows repair install first. It will overwrite your lilo mbr, so
then put in the prepared floppy and start from that. It should boot lilo as
usual, start linux, let it detect the new hardware and run lilo to
reinstate the bootloader on harddrive.
Disclaimer: since you don't change the harddrive, it _should_ work. But
there is no warranty both controllers agree about drive geometry.

My second question:
I haven't had any problems, until now, with this Gigabyte board.
What about an ECS K7S5A V3.X or V!.x ? will that be ok with Mandrake?
And, is that even a decent board?

As long as it doesn't use the most recent nvidia (nforce) or intel (ich5)
chipsets for which Mandrake 9.0/9.1 doesn't yet have proper support, you
should be fine. I use a msi kt4 ultra here and it works fine.

 

[kony]

Hi All, I'm running Mandrake 9.0 on a Gigabyte GA-7ZXE motherboard with a
AMD Duron 1300 chip. I've had some problems with the computer suddenly
rebooting or turning off and it looks like because my chip is running
way too hot. I replaced the heatsink and still same problem. A tech
showed me one of the capicators near the chip has swollen and he
said it is only a matter of time before it bursts and this could be
my problem.

So, my first question is this:
Does this warrant a new motherboard?

Yes, or if you're able to repair that one...

If so, will I have to reinstall
Linux and Windows, etc ?

Don't know.

My second question:
I haven't had any problems, until now, with this Gigabyte board.
What about an ECS K7S5A V3.X or V!.x ? will that be ok with Mandrake?
And, is that even a decent board?

LOL, they are decidedly problematic, not only capacitor isues but memory
bugs and other misc. problems. K7S5A wasn't very good until the "Pro"
version, at least that's what I'm hearing about the Pro but I wouldn't
touch it either, not with all the other possibilities out there, why risk
it?

 

[dmbkiwi]

Hi All, I'm running Mandrake 9.0 on a Gigabyte GA-7ZXE motherboard with a
AMD Duron 1300 chip. I've had some problems with the computer suddenly
rebooting or turning off and it looks like because my chip is running way
too hot. I replaced the heatsink and still same problem. A tech showed me
one of the capicators near the chip has swollen and he said it is only a
matter of time before it bursts and this could be my problem.

So, my first question is this:
Does this warrant a new motherboard? If so, will I have to reinstall Linux
and Windows, etc ?

I just installed new mobos on two machines running mdk9.2. The only thing
changed was mobo and cpu. I just set harddrake to run on boot before
replacing the mobo. After new mobo was put in, I restarted the boxes, and
it was as if nothing had changed. MDK booted without complaint, and that
was it. As for windows, who knows. Haven't used windows at home for 3.5
years.

My second question:
I haven't had any problems, until now, with this Gigabyte board. What
about an ECS K7S5A V3.X or V!.x ? will that be ok with Mandrake? And, is
that even a decent board?

Thanks a lot for all your help, if I am missing some details, please let
me know

Thanks again
Chris

Matt

 

[silv]

LOL, they are decidedly problematic, not only capacitor isues but memory

bugs and other misc. problems. K7S5A wasn't very good until the "Pro"
version, at least that's what I'm hearing about the Pro but I wouldn't
touch it either, not with all the other possibilities out there, why risk
it?

Well, I have one of the first releases of K7S5A. Definetly not Pro. It works
pretty good with SuSe Linux 8.2 . No problems with Windows either. Lucky me?
)))


silv

 

[larrymoencurly]

I'm running Mandrake 9.0 on a Gigabyte GA-7ZXE motherboard with a
AMD Duron 1300 chip. I've had some problems with the computer suddenly
rebooting or turning off and it looks like because my chip is running
way too hot. I replaced the heatsink and still same problem. A tech
showed me one of the capicators near the chip has swollen and he
said it is only a matter of time before it bursts and this could be
my problem.

Why didn't the technician simply replace them? It's easy for them to
do.

In this picture from Gigabyte:

www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_EnlargeView_GA-7ZXE.htm

the capacitors most likely to fail are to the south and west of the
CPU, near those 1/2" square black plastic blocks (two pairs) and donut
coils. If you haven't done any desoldering and don't want to
practice, cut those capacitors off on top to separate the pins, and
then desolder the pins individually. This is actually a lot less
drastic than trying to unsolder the capacitor in one piece. The new
capacitors have to be rated for at least as much voltage & temperature
and for high frequency use, and most parts places won't have them but
www.digikey.com and www.mouser.com will.

 

[kony]

Well, I have one of the first releases of K7S5A. Definetly not Pro. It works
pretty good with SuSe Linux 8.2 . No problems with Windows either. Lucky me?

Maybe lucky, or maybe if you opened your cases you'd see 5-10 capacitors
vented... particularly the large turquoise G-Luxons (to the left of the
CPU socket) on those were subject to failure. Your revision might also be
one that has the memory issues, especially 2 x PC133 or less often 2 DDR
modules may cause errors... hope you ran memtest86 on it.

 

[Wes Newell]

Hi All, I'm running Mandrake 9.0 on a Gigabyte GA-7ZXE motherboard with a
AMD Duron 1300 chip. I've had some problems with the computer suddenly
rebooting or turning off and it looks like because my chip is running
way too hot. I replaced the heatsink and still same problem. A tech
showed me one of the capicators near the chip has swollen and he
said it is only a matter of time before it bursts and this could be
my problem.

So, my first question is this:
Does this warrant a new motherboard? If so, will I have to reinstall
Linux and Windows, etc ?

You could have it repaired, but it's not worth it IMO. Windows, probably.
Linux, probably not.

My second question:
I haven't had any problems, until now, with this Gigabyte board.
What about an ECS K7S5A V3.X or V!.x ? will that be ok with Mandrake?
And, is that even a decent board?

If you want a SIS chipset board, get an ASrock K7S8XE+. The K7S5A is real
old and limited. If you want to use your old PC1XX ram, then I'd suggest a
VIA board just because you have a VIA Kt133A chipset now and might not
cause as many problems as switching ot another chipset maker. There's a
few KT266A boards that support PC1xx ram. Here's one.
http://www.bzboyz.com/store/product2003.html

Personally, I'd go with the ASrock and new ram.

 

[Sooky Grumper]

Hi All, I'm running Mandrake 9.0 on a Gigabyte GA-7ZXE motherboard with a
AMD Duron 1300 chip. I've had some problems with the computer suddenly
rebooting or turning off and it looks like because my chip is running
way too hot. I replaced the heatsink and still same problem. A tech
showed me one of the capicators near the chip has swollen and he
said it is only a matter of time before it bursts and this could be
my problem.

Could be. How's the case airflow? What about the video card fan, if it
has one?

So, my first question is this:
Does this warrant a new motherboard?

I won't use faulty hardware even on play systems. This includes hardware
that's going to imminently fail. If I were you, I'd check your warranty.
Gigabyte might do three year warranties. I've had to RMA 1 of my several
gigabyte boards, and although it took a while to get back, I still got a
new board. If worst comes to worst, you can buy a board to use now, and
when the gigabyte board replacement comes in, you can just sell it and
get some of the money back that you spent on the new board (and make
someone that's looking for an older gigabyte board happy in the process).

If so, will I have to reinstall
Linux and Windows, etc ?

I would, but then again I've also swapped motherboards without
reinstalling windows (XP home that is). I booted with the cdrom and went
in as if I were going to reinstall windows (not the repair console).
Eventually it detected that there was a previous XP installation, and
offered to reinstall/repair or some such. It worked, but took a while.
That was changing from a celeron/intel chipset to an athlon/via chipset,
so it was a big change. I have not done this with linux, but IIRC
mandrake's kudzu should automagically detect the new hardware and
install for you.

My second question:
I haven't had any problems, until now, with this Gigabyte board.
What about an ECS K7S5A V3.X or V!.x ? will that be ok with Mandrake?
And, is that even a decent board?

It's a popular board for an inexpensive desktop system. Got decent
reviews in its day at Tom's Hardware, too. I always buy gigabyte,
though. ASUS is another brand I like, but tend to be more expensive for
the same features.

 

[Xanadu]

Hi All, I'm running Mandrake 9.0 on a Gigabyte GA-7ZXE motherboard with a
AMD Duron 1300 chip. I've had some problems with the computer suddenly
rebooting or turning off and it looks like because my chip is running
way too hot. I replaced the heatsink and still same problem. A tech
showed me one of the capicators near the chip has swollen and he
said it is only a matter of time before it bursts and this could be
my problem.

That's not so good...

So, my first question is this:
Does this warrant a new motherboard? If so, will I have to reinstall
Linux and Windows, etc ?

Windows, yes. Linux, no. Maybe recompile your kernel if you're using one
specific to your hardware that you have built.

 

[Richard Brisbourne]

Hi All, I'm running Mandrake 9.0 on a Gigabyte GA-7ZXE motherboard with a
AMD Duron 1300 chip. I've had some problems with the computer suddenly
rebooting or turning off and it looks like because my chip is running
way too hot. I replaced the heatsink and still same problem. A tech
showed me one of the capicators near the chip has swollen and he
said it is only a matter of time before it bursts and this could be
my problem.

So, my first question is this:
Does this warrant a new motherboard? If so, will I have to reinstall
Linux and Windows, etc ?

My second question:
I haven't had any problems, until now, with this Gigabyte board.
What about an ECS K7S5A V3.X or V!.x ? will that be ok with Mandrake?
And, is that even a decent board?

Thanks a lot for all your help, if I am missing some details, please
let me know

Thanks again
Chris

I've done this twice in a few months. Dual boot MDK 9.1 and Windows ME.
Mandrake was a doddle the first time- it just worked. Second time it had
some trouble recognising some very new hardware and I needed a kernel
upgrade. Windows was a nightmare. Repeated reboots, the video card
(GeForce 2) wasn't recognised, even though it was never changed just
plugged into a different board. I'd still just suck it and see (after
backups of course). Of course if you do reinstall Windows if it's on the
same drive you'll have the usual problem of overwriting the boot sector- it
can be restored of course but it's one more hassle.