Continuing over from my last post about that crazy sound issue - Good news, and bad news. The good news is I finally found out what was causing my system instability! After weeks of tweaking the OS, checking the RAM, and virtually trying to narrow down the culprit while losing my hair, I finally checked where I would have least suspected to check: the MB itself. The bad news is that it's blown capacitors on the MB. Several of them, in fact. Apparently this is not a new issue with this Gigabyte model. My hubbie claims he's a pro with saudering and volunteered to replace the caps for me. However, I've read this isn't as simple as it might seem to be due to layering, and then it's better off to buy a new MB. My question to you wonderful people is this: What kind of warranty is offered on this model? I didn't buy the MB, it was given to me. Is there any way I can get the manufacturer to replace what apparently was a bad technical issue on these models? If not, should we go ahead and see if we can't replace the capacitors? And finally, if my best option is to buy a new board, what would you recommend swapping this out with? I'm looking to stay at 100$ or under, and newegg is a great site. But I want to replace this the easiest and make sure the new board fits my old hardware, not to mention i'm wary to purchase another GB model. Any suggestions? Thank you!!
There was a widespread, industry-wide problem with bad capacitors in 2003/2004 timeframe. I know Dell has a good warranty replacement program (expires in 2008) for motherboards and power supplies that were built in that time frame. I have also ?heard? that several other manufactures have programs as well but the time on them is running out as well. I couldn?t find anything about a program specifically from Gigabyte but that?s not surprising. I had to literally pull it out of Dell and that only after two calls. I would definitely not try any home repairs till after calling the tech support site to see if they have an active program and if you qualify. As far as self-repairs to your motherboard go, it can be done if you have good skills and experience working on commercial electronics plus the equipment to match. If you go that route I strongly recommend you have a reliable backup of all your data just in case your repair does more harm than good. Also be aware that a bad repair job could result in damaging other components such as CPU, memory, disks and other peripherals. You should balance that against the fact that new motherboards range in price from $40 on up. Good luck.
Posted on Jul 13, 2007
541 views
Usually answered in minutes!
×