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 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.
>   


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