Another thought - how clean is your mains supply ?

All of the problems you report could have been caused by mains spikes.

I have my systems powered via a cheap UPS but even a line filter may be 
a help.

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

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

Cheers/2

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 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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