Replying to a message of Ed Durrant to All:

 ED> Perhaps the Intel based systems (up until this latest capacitor
 ED> failure)  have had a better quality of build to the  Soyo boards  and
 ED> can stand  the spikes better ?

Decades ago the NCR mainframe (yes, NCR used to make them) would occasionally
fail with a failure code of (hex) DEAD.  Really.  System diagnostics didn't tell them
anything, so NCR sent 3 systems guys from CA and 3 hardware guys from OH to
figure out what the problem was.  After a couple of weeks they tracked the problem
down to one capacitor on one of the boards in the machine - it was the wrong value.
The local CE changed that capacitor for one of the proper value and the machine ran
fine, 24x7x365, until it was un-installed (in favor of IBM) a couple of years later.


 ED> Oh yes and for the record my current system (which I am very happy
 ED> with)  is built using an ASUS M2V-TVM AMD64 X2 motherboard and all
 ED> components  on it are supported by eComStation.  Sorry -  it's not a
 ED> current board  any more so it's hard to source.

 ED> Cheers/2

 ED> Ed.


 ED> Ed Durrant wrote:
 >> Hi Felix,
 >> 
 >>   It sounds to me that your complaint is with the motherboard 
 >> manufacturers rather than with AMD ?
 >> 
 >>   Perhaps as AMD processors are normally cheaper than Intel ones, they 
 >> are attractive to motherboard suppliers who are trying to build to a
 >> low  price rather than a quality level and for that reason they are
 >> using  cheap capacitors and other components on their boards ?    I
 >> have never had specific problems more on AMD, Intel or even Cyrix 
 >> systems (remember the Cyrix processors ??). In general I chose AMD
 >> over  Intel in an effort to support the smaller company, perhaps also
 >> a reason  why a lot of us support OS/2 rather than Windoze, although
 >> IBM is still  a far larger company than Microsoft, just in the PC OS
 >> arena they are  dwarfed.  Cheers/2  Ed.  Felix Miata wrote:   
 >>> 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

--- FleetStreet 1.19+