I hope Gene Alexander is a subscriber on this list. I didn't think it
relevant as an eComStation group post.

I've just been thinking about my experience with AMD chip motherboards. My
first exposure to them was with Socket 7. These seemed to work well in their
day. I had and have several, and other than some trouble with memory
recognition on one (ASUS, but with SiS chipset), they've been pretty reliable
even until now.

OTOH, every socket 462 board I've purchased for myself or for others has
died, except for:

1-A Soyo KT-400 Dragon Ultra (bought new), which sometimes will not POST
without cycling the power at least once
2-An Asrock with KT880 chipset (bought new), which is less than 6 months old,
purchased cheap to make use of memory and chip vacated by a dead Dragon Ultra

The failures:
1-Soyo Dragon K7V KT266A (IIRC)(bought new). This may have been a lightning
damage situation. Power supply, CPU and motherboard all came to me dead
somewhere around age 24 months. I was able to resurrect the board via swollen
cap replacement.
2-Soyo Dragon KT333 Platinum (bought new). Several failed caps around age 30
months. I've not yet attempted cap replacement on this.
3-Soyo Dragon KT-400 Ultra. Bought used on eBay, supposedly good, but refused
to POST after less than a year of use. No swollen caps.
4-Soyo Dragon KT-400 Ultra (bought new). Refused to POST after less than 2
years of use. No swollen caps.
5-Biostar M7NCD NForce2 (bought new). Details lost to manufacturer's forms
that don't include CC via email. Some kind of death at age 7 months.
6-Biostar M7NCD Ultra NForce2 (warranty replacment for M7NCD). Flaky BIOS
since new, but until total failure at age 13 months, I thought it just a
quirk of the BIOS that it would refuse to recognize changes in PCI or storage
devices without first clearing CMOS. Refuses to complete POST, and refuses to
respond to attempting to clear CMOS. Only 1 year warranty, but I'm hoping to
get it to replace without charging the $45 out of warranty repair fee, and
can live with it even if it refuses.

Too many Soyos? I guess, but it can't happen again. Soyo quit making
motherboards. The KT333 didn't die until long after the KT400s were
purchased. The eBay board bought used was thought a fluke that didn't
indicate replacement of same unwarranted. The other new KT400 was actually
bought by my nephew, but only after consultation with me and others, while
the other was bought to make maximum use of the originally bundled
accessories, and to minimize the shock to the Windows registry and the
configured RAID.

I've had a bit better luck hardware-wise with AMD boards that I did not buy,
which came to me as trades or gifts. But, making OS/2 or eCS work on them has
been another matter. Quite some time back I quit buying AMD boards for use
with OS/2 or eCS due to problems that at this point I just don't remember
details about. What little I remember is about attempts to boot the OS that
just never finished.

OTOH, on Intel boards I've had almost nothing but good luck. Two days ago the
first bad luck I can remember came to me in the form of one failed cap on a
775 board used in my main eCS system. Today I successfully replaced that bad
cap and its siamese twin.

A friend works at a place that replaces their Dells every 4 years. I get a
lot of those from him. All so far have been Intel, and all have been
functional when received, though often with parts like CD drives, floppies,
or HDs either missing or dysfunctional. One of those Dells I sold did come
back to me dead, but after sale it had been subjected to standing water while
powered on after a major roof leak. Another came back dead, but it had been
subjected to a failed overloaded UPS.

FWIW, I've done cap replacements on 6 boards. On one, it didn't work. The
other 5 are in current operation. For replacements I always buy Nichicon low
impedance caps online from Mouser Electronics.

For anyone still using some relic with eCS and fearful of buying a new system
that won't work with eCS, I recommend as an option to a new system, hunting
down a used or refurb P4 Dell be considered. I've yet to find a bad cap on
one of them, and all I've tried have been OS/2-friendly and decent performers.
-- 
"Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry."
				Ephesians 4:26 NIV

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/

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