How easy would it be to replace the power suppy connector?

James He · Post by **James He** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 1:59 am

The power connector on my BP6 has suffered some severe "burns" on a couple of the pins. The Male connector from the power supply has the same damage. Basically parts of the male connector have been cooked off and are stuck inside the female connector. It's absolutely amazing that the board even works in this condition. I have no idea how long it has been like that, I noticed it a few weeks ago.

I was thinking maybe it might be as simple as de-soldering the connector from the back and pop it off, then replace it. It's working now (sort of - long drawn out ordeal i'll post below) But I'm stuck with this cheap 300 watt supply. The Male and Female connectors are literally married to each other, a different connector won't fit! I'm just glad I can get them abart actually. There is no other visible damage on the board.

I just updated the bios to RU. The flash went well, but when I enabled ACPI, and then tried to reinstall windows 2000, all hell broke loose. I've had to clear the CMOS 8 times today. Luckily I still had an old install on a different disk and was able to just boot into that. I guess I will leave well enough alone for now. I would like to be able to shutdown without having to hold the power button down for 3 seconds, and to go into standby. I've lived without for years, I guess I can make it.. lol.

Holodeck2 · Post by **Holodeck2** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 2:05 am

welcome to the world of computer moding, and murphy dominates this relm. everything and anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Try XP it works a little better with the BP6, in my case.

Good luck and remember, crap happens, just gotta deal with it

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 7:21 am

Welcome to BP6.Com, James He !

The "burnt connector" could be due to bad capacitors on your BP6. Have you checked the condition of the larger capacitors? Especially, the ones around the CPU sockets.

davd_bob · Post by **davd_bob** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 12:27 pm

James He,
Welcome aboard.

surely check the caps first.
here is a thought on the ATX connector. maybe you could permanantly solder in the connector then splice the wires a little higher up and install the replacement connector there. you would get credit for a MOD if it works, but you may loose the board if it doesnt.

James He · Post by **James He** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 5:15 pm

The capacitors seem fine. There dosen't appear to be any "bulging"
But I'm not really sure what to look for.

I've considered adding a second power supply to power the IDE devices and floppy. Could this possibly help? I have an ancient 230W supply that I could use for that. I dunno if it would make much difference, but it would be easy to pull off. Currently I have 4 drives a CDR and floppy.

Could switching to the RU bios possibly cause to board to need more power? Seems unlikely. I've thought about reverting back to NJ to see if things get more stable. Things are workable right now, but the board randomly fails to post.

James He · Post by **James He** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 5:35 pm

Taking a closer look, there is one capacitor that is buldging very badly and is in fact leaking! one of the TAYEH 1500u uF 6.3 V (what ever that means

) Well I'm glad I found the culprit. (possibly) The others look fine. Guess I'll need to do a little research. Where can I find the part?

davd_bob · Post by **davd_bob** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 7:07 pm

if one bad cap...probably all of the same need to be replaced to be safe.

Holodeck2 · Post by **Holodeck2** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 7:54 pm

various sources for caps come to mind, jameco and digikey are my main sources, you might want to check radioshack too. Check the article section of this website for instructions on how to replace them

Good Luck

Holodeck2 · Post by **Holodeck2** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 7:56 pm

Oh yeah forgot one more thing. The day before and the day of when you're going to replace the caps. don't drink any caffine or else your soldering iron will be all over the place on the board

BCN · Post by **BCN** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 6:01 am

BCN · Post by **BCN** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 6:13 am

BTW, what wattage iron should I use for caps and what for the regulators.

I have 15Watt iron ready

Holodeck2 · Post by **Holodeck2** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 9:51 am

15w is perfect, don't use those massive 100w guns. oh and a grounded iron is good too. and use a resin core 50/50 or 60/40 solder

BCN · Post by **BCN** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 10:35 am

I do not have a grouded iron. what do you suggest for grounding it?

Holodeck2 · Post by **Holodeck2** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 11:37 am

uh... wrap the metal part and plug it into the middle socket? Gettofied

na, I wouldn't worry about it, just don't be trying to solder while wearing a wool sweater, durning a dry day, and after shuffeling your feet on carpet

BCN · Post by **BCN** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 4:44 pm

got it! so no wool or syntetics around and I should not worry, cause I live like 100m from the seashore

Right?

davd_bob · Post by **davd_bob** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 8:57 pm

pretty much what holodeck2 said is ok except when desoldering the old caps you will need more wattage on some of the "legs" I had a great deal of trouble with the ones that are on a large gounding trace. My 15watt couldn't melt the solder wo i got a 25 watt at RadioShack which was just barely enought heat. Most of the traces were easy to work with.

Holodeck2 · Post by **Holodeck2** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 9:57 pm

DOH! yeah davd_bob right, forgot about that
I think they use a different mixture of solder that requires a higher tempature to melt at the factory. I'm stuck with an el cheapo radioshack 20-40w radioshack soldering iron here in the dorm
40w to melt and push the pins out, just alternate heating them up and push a little at a time, or whatever clever technique that you come up with. and then use a desoldering braid to make sure that you have holes that aren't covered up with solder after you pull the cap out.
then put the new ones in and solder away

hugoc · Post by **hugoc** » Thu May 06, 2004 11:56 pm

Funny that I was just reading this thread. I got given an MSI 6163-Pro motherboard and a PIII-550 for free the other day, and when I got it I found out why it was free.

About 15 of the caps on the board are bulged and/or leaking from the top. The power supply connector is scorched black around pins 6 and 7 (that's a +5v and a ground pin) and the toroidal inductor (the donut-shaped object) next to those pins is charred black.

Since I don't lose anything if it dies (probably dead anyway, or at death's door, I haven't tested it yet) I thought I'd take a crack at fixing it. I'm sure I can find suitable caps since I'm also into DIY audio, but does anyone know where a replacement mobo ATX connector can be found, or what spec that toroidal inductor is and where I can get one? Audio inductors are invariably air-core, not ferrite-core, so the usual suppliers can't help here.

Holodeck2 · Post by **Holodeck2** » Fri May 07, 2004 12:31 am

ATX connectors at jameco.com
the inductor, you can either get the core same size or reuse the old one (make sure you count the number of turns first before you unwind it)and also get the same guage insulated magnetic wire about 18-14 I think and make your own

just make sure you're doing the same number of turns
I think jameco has the core too

hugoc · Post by **hugoc** » Mon May 10, 2004 1:06 pm

Thanks for the link. They have the ATX connector I need there, but I can't find any toroidal inductors on their site and I have no idea what the spec is of the burnt one. I could clean the core and wind a new one with fresh wire but I have no idea what gauge it is. I hate winding cores! They always end up with lousy tolerances compared to machine-wound ones.

I guess I need to measure the gauge of the wire.

BCN · Post by **BCN** » Mon May 10, 2004 3:18 pm

just take the wire to your nearest shop and ask for the exact one and then ask which size it si

hugoc · Post by **hugoc** » Mon May 10, 2004 3:43 pm

My nearest shop is Radioshack. In fact, it's just about the only electronics shop in 50 miles. They'll just look at me blankly and try to sell me a cellphone.

I'll email MSI and ask them. They probably won't have a clue, but you never know.

Holodeck2 · Post by **Holodeck2** » Mon May 10, 2004 4:37 pm

BAH radioshack (you've got questions, we got blank stares)
Uh grab your caliper and measure the diameter then plug in to here
just unwind the old one and make sure you have the same length and start winding, you're gonna have to nudge here and there to get it on there
take a picture and try to reproduce it, same direction, length, spacing, yadda yadda yadda.
that should get you closer to the orgional
since you do audio stuff I'm gonna assume that you have access to enamel insulated wire
making inductors is an art

davd_bob · Post by **davd_bob** » Tue May 11, 2004 12:49 am

Holodeck2 wrote:BAH radioshack (you've got questions, we got blank stares)

hahahaha
im with ya holodeck2. radshack is only ok if you know what you need and also what is close but WON'T WORK that they offer.
on grounding yourself, that "blank stare" guy might recomend to wrap aluminum foil around your entire body before touching anything on the board.

BCN · Post by **BCN** » Tue May 11, 2004 7:04 am

yeah, its like when you are asking at which lower voltage would this fan start to spin and they say: Oh, i don't know, I think it is deteriorating to the motor if it is not working at its designed voltage, you know, they design it for that...

hm...