I recently bought a motherboard on eBay which the seller had listed as "taken out of a working machine".

I can't get the damn thing to display a pic, not from the on-board video, or the AGP slot.

After a few hours working with it, I noticed that one of the components appeared to be damaged (see pics). Im not quite sure what it is, possible a voltage regulator (somebody please correct me), but could this be the reason it refuses to do anything other than power up?

Also, I noticed that around 70% of the time I power it up, the CD drive and HDD seem to be getting no power whatsoever.

Ive tried different PSUs, and eventually tried a different mobo to verify the HDD and CD drive were ok, which they were.

And also, would a fully working machine power up and display a picture without any RAM plugged in? Just want to try to isolate the problem.

Thanks guys

Attached Thumbnails

   

Quote: Originally Posted by Dex I recently bought a motherboard on eBay which the seller had listed as "taken out of a working machine". I can't get the damn thing to display a pic, not from the on-board video, or the AGP slot. After a few hours working with it, I noticed that one of the components appeared to be damaged (see pics). Im not quite sure what it is, possible a voltage regulator (somebody please correct me), but could this be the reason it refuses to do anything other than power up? Also, I noticed that around 70% of the time I power it up, the CD drive and HDD seem to be getting no power whatsoever. Ive tried different PSUs, and eventually tried a different mobo to verify the HDD and CD drive were ok, which they were. And also, would a fully working machine power up and display a picture without any RAM plugged in? Just want to try to isolate the problem. Thanks guys

w/o ram i would think it would boot up some how, and display an error er sumthin.... but its sounds grim for that mobos future

Don't know what the IC is, Dex... but that's usually not too hard to find out... if you know the
make, type & revision number of the MoBo, downloading a full manual could clear things up...
Those are readily availbale on the 'Net...

Speaking of that IC... it seems to be damaged using "brute force"... it doesn't look "scorched" but
rather "shaved off"...

TDR

btw.. judging from the color, is it an MSI mainboard?

All I have to say is..

OWNED!

Its a voltage Regulator, Im guessing its for Vmem.

EDIT- At first look, I thought it looked like someone shot a bb gun at it or something...

Yep, it looks blown to me. I'd gripe to the seller and try to get your money back... if you can.

Unless you have access to some industrial grade desoldering tools I wouldn't try replacing that regulator. A regular soldering iron will probably damage to the motherboard. Contact the seller and try to sort things out. That mobo looks like a lost cause.

That board was NOT pulled from a working system. It was a dead board the dude sold on eBay. Time to start trying to get your money back.

Thanks for all the input guys, thats what I feared BA.

Not too bothered, just bought another mobo on eBay from a reputable seller

It's the curse of the dreaded student loan

Heh, yeah being a student sucks, but I manage it. I never buy something on eBay without selling something to cover at least half the cost of the new thing.

Picked up another PC Chips mobo, this time garunteed to work, with a 1Ghz Athlon, 256mb RAM, on board sound, ethernet, vga etc... for about $50.

Gonna build it into this nice little Aspire x-Q pack cube case I have sitting here for a nice little LAN rig. Coupled with a 4200Ti it should play most older games like Quake 3, Call of Duty, AoE2 etc...

Good plan. I thought of doing something similar , but my mum needs a pc as the 300 mhz p2 isn't cutting it and i recently chucked a duron that would've been perfect for a multi os / ye olde gaming rig. So the spair sempr0n has gotta go to her. He says....

What type of pc chips board is that? I used to have a m848alu that rocked.