3 newbie questions

dow · Post by **dow** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 12:21 pm

Hi

Does anyone know where you can order a new BP6-bios chip?
My cat found the bios-chip while I had it out of my box, and decided that the chip was a public enemy and "took care of it" ;P

I know I've seen a link somewhere on this forum, but after searching for 2 days Im about to give up

Also, the (in)famous EC10 cap:
I have two BP6 mb's; One with a black/white small EC10, and one with a Green/Yellow EC10. Currently Im running the board with the latter, and Im experiencing lockups (not reboots, as been said by many others that have had ec10 problems) of the system, once every 24-50 hours.
Im constantly running the box with 2 seti-processes, I've got 256+64 Mb ram, and its running Freebsd. The temp is stable at 38/39/45 C(cpu1/cpu2/sys).
All caps looks great, no bulging whatsoever, and Im running the system @ 2x 466 Mhz (no oc).
I have a crappy harddrive, in a ATA33 slot (no HPT666) wich might be causing the problems.

Does my lockups sound like an EC10 problem, or is it a bigger chance that its something else?

And my 3rd question: If replacing the EC10, what uF value am I to replace it with?

Thanks alot.

Dave Rave · Post by **Dave Rave** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 7:32 pm

I have 5 bp6
only one has needed the ec10 replaced.
the others have a wide swing on the VTT, but it's not caused probs.
the one replaced, the TV repair shop put in a 1000uf. it's better and not problematic now.
it's 'supposed' to be 1500uf, but some more is better than 100uf.

davd_bob · Post by **davd_bob** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 12:30 am

recomended is...1500uf, 6.3v, 8mm, ESR aluminum.
you wont get one off the shelf anywhere but as try get close on the ratings. ESR aluminum is the most important followed by what Dave Rave said about "anything is better then 100uf."
6.3v wont be found but you can use 16v which are pretty common. lastly the diameter of 8mm wont be found. dont worry about diameter, just make whatever you get fit.
BE CAREFUL to get the polarity correct though when you put the new cap on.

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 2:31 am

Hmmm. There is this one component that does cause instability in many systems and I am surprised that it isn't mentioned more here in these forums. That component is the power supply.

If your voltages are swinging wildly then that will be a problem (very often caused by bad power supplies). Also make sure that your PS is capable of delivering! I would not recommend using something like a 230W or 250W power supply with the BP6, especially if your CPU's are running at constant full speed.

My BP6 runs 2 533MHz Celerons overclocked to 576MHz. I got one harddrive, Geforce2 MX grapics adapter and I am using a 340W PS on it. The EC10 cap is still the small, faulty one but the board is stable nontheless.

What type of PS do you have in your box? Are you monitoring your voltages?

dow · Post by **dow** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 1:18 pm

Im using an Aopen 300W PS, and have one harddrive, 2 network cards and a (basic) graphics card connected. I've used the PS for years, and it has never been any problems with it.

The board is v1.0
Im running consolehm for freebsd, wich gives me

VCore: 1.89 - 1.90
Vit: 1.46-1.48
Vio: 3.21-3.23
+5: 4.9
...

im running the CPU's at 1.9V, I've tried running them on 2.0 but that didnt solve my problem.

As I said before, this doesnt have to be because of the BP6, it might aswell be the harddrive (wich is a bit old), but I thought that I should check with you guys first.

BCN · Post by **BCN** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 6:25 pm

I had exactly the same problems and they were solved adding another PSU, or in other words, get some decent powerfull PSU and get you 3.33V line up to status and not at 3.23V... then it get to 3V at one moment you are locked...

dow · Post by **dow** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 3:58 pm

Ok, It looks like I'll have to try a diff PS then

but back to the other 2 questions;

1) Does anyone know where you can buy a new BIOS chip? (not reprogram it, buy a *new* - I know Ive seen a link somewhere ;P)

2) Even if Im not experiancing any Voltage problems with the EC10 capacitator - is it still a good idea to change it? Will it matter?

What Ive found odd is that on my old BP6 mb (v1.0) I have a small black/white EC10, while on this new board (new for me, its a version 1.0 board bought from ebay) its a large green/yellow (same as the otherones that arn't black/white).
Im not at home atm, so I cannot check the values of it, ...I dont think its changed (didnt look like it + the seller didnt announce it). Is it only the black/white cap that needs to ber changed, or are they equal?

Thanks for all answers!

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Sun Jun 13, 2004 7:37 am

dow wrote:1) Does anyone know where you can buy a new BIOS chip? (not reprogram it, buy a *new* - I know Ive seen a link somewhere ;P)

http://www.excaliberpc.com/product_info ... cts_id=569

Someone sent an email to ABIT about a new BIOS chip and they sent him one in the mail. I try to find more information about this.

2) Even if Im not experiancing any Voltage problems with the EC10 capacitator - is it still a good idea to change it? Will it matter?

What Ive found odd is that on my old BP6 mb (v1.0) I have a small black/white EC10, while on this new board (new for me, its a version 1.0 board bought from ebay) its a large green/yellow (same as the otherones that arn't black/white).
Im not at home atm, so I cannot check the values of it, ...I dont think its changed (didnt look like it + the seller didnt announce it). Is it only the black/white cap that needs to ber changed, or are they equal?

Thanks for all answers!

If your system locks up randomly, you may want to consider replacing the EC10 capacitor.