Another 2000s leaky motherboard (EpoX 7KXA Slot A/KX133 in this case) got a new lease of life through capacitor replacement yesterday; I've been putting it through its paces today in the bench with 750MHz Pluto, 2x128MB 133MHz SDR and Voodoo 3 3000 and it is stable as a rock!
Posted by WingedGundark@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 13 comments
THEtechknight@reddit
Whered you get the fan attachment for the Voodoo card?
WingedGundark@reddit (OP)
Check the previous post and my reply.
THEtechknight@reddit
Ahh I see... Sorry it was all the way at the bottom so I didnt see it initially.
WingedGundark@reddit (OP)
No probs!
canthearu_ack@reddit
Ah, you are lucky, my Slot A motherboard needed most of it's PCI slots replacing for whatever reason (they just didn't work)
That was a major job!
WingedGundark@reddit (OP)
That sure is. These multilayer boards are much slower to work with compared to older two layer boards. They tend to suck the heat alot especially to ground plane. And there are quite a few pins to desolder on a PCI slot.
That is quite a rare issue you encountered, I’ve never heard of multiple slots being broken before on a same board.
canthearu_ack@reddit
Yep, Never seen anything else like it, before or since.
PCI slots are pretty hardy ... it is unusual to have pci slots that you can't get working with a bit of contact cleaner and some perseverance.
WingedGundark@reddit (OP)
Fully agree. It is even stranger considering that most likely most of them weren’t used. I mean, how many users back in the day had anything else than a sound card installed on those? And perhaps NIC or modem?
Only thing that comes to my mind how most of the slots are busted is that someone tried to install something else than a PCI card on those. It didn’t work in the first slot, so he tried next one and so on. But then again, one would think that it would easily break something else on the board too, such as frying the south bridge etc. If system was powered on.
NightmareJoker2@reddit
If they weren’t used, it’s easy for dust buildup of the right type to form an insulating layer on the pins. Nothing a few repeated reinsertions of the expansion card or cleaning with liberal amount of isopropyl alcohol and a toothbrush can’t fix, though. Desoldering probably wasn’t necessary at all. If there had been expansion cards in the slots, the contact surface would not have been accessible to any dust and airborne particles.
canthearu_ack@reddit
This was from a "garage" system ... overall condition of the system wasn't great.
It was really weird, but happy I could fix it. Haven't seen anything similar in dozens of retro systems since. Just one of those unsolved mysteries of life.
WingedGundark@reddit (OP)
Yeah, it extremely satisfying when you get these vintage systems running again in their former glory. In fact, this is the best part of this hobby for me. Often there is zero economic sense repairing these conponents, but it is fun to work with them and not only slapping them to a case and installing software. And after you’ve speng several hours of effort and even some money to replacement parts and you are finished, you know that there are many good years of fun to be had from the system or component you’ve repaired or restored.
Aaylas@reddit
Did you 3D print the fan bracket for your graphics card?
WingedGundark@reddit (OP)
Yes. Not my design though, model can be found in Thingiverse. Just search with Voodoo 3.