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Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?

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Old 10-09-2009, 10:55 PM   #16
Woodsman
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Okay, ladies and gentlemen. The betting doors are now closed!

I replaced the motherboard and used all previous components. All is well again.

I did have a scare for about 10 minutes as the on-board NIC seemed broken. My Slackware system refused to initialize the NIC. Then I remembered I had to delete /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules --- which includes the MAC address --- to force creating a new rule.

I'm running the box right now in my office. CPU temp is 30C, MB temp is 32C. The 2.6 GHz 5050e CPU is throttled to 1GHz and the CPU heat sink fan is spinning at 1085 rpm. Vcore is 0.93v.

I'm not quite a pig in mud, but I'm happy.
 
Old 10-10-2009, 12:02 AM   #17
cgtueno
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Hmmm

Sound like it is down to either the RAM or the motherboard.
I'd suggest replacing the RAM at this stage (making sure that the replacement RAM works and is compatible). However, I suspect that the motherboard is at fault.

Just a couple of thoughts:
Have you inspected the motherboard for bulging capacitors ?
Have you checked that the max amperage of the Vstandby supply is sufficient to operate the motherboard ?

It seems most likely from the ongoing descriptions that you have dry solder joints, or track cracks, or flaky electronic components on the motherboard. Seems like a replacement motherboard is in-order.

Regards

Chris
 
Old 10-10-2009, 02:31 AM   #18
smeezekitty
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cgtueno View Post
Hmmm

Sound like it is down to either the RAM or the motherboard.
I'd suggest replacing the RAM at this stage (making sure that the replacement RAM works and is compatible). However, I suspect that the motherboard is at fault.

Just a couple of thoughts:
Have you inspected the motherboard for bulging capacitors ?
Have you checked that the max amperage of the Vstandby supply is sufficient to operate the motherboard ?

It seems most likely from the ongoing descriptions that you have dry solder joints, or track cracks, or flaky electronic components on the motherboard. Seems like a replacement motherboard is in-order.

Regards

Chris
HAHAHA read the post above.
 
Old 10-10-2009, 08:48 AM   #19
thorkelljarl
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Just in case I develop the same problem...

Your temperature reading are reassuringly low. Were they also low and stable on the defective motherboard before it began to display any symptoms of failure? Did you arrive at any explanation for the failure of the board?

You mentioned throttling; have you underclocked the CPU? I would have thought that the CPU would automatically lower its cyclic activity according to the demand load of the moment, regulated by Cool&Quiet in the BIOS. Otherwise, well done.

Last edited by thorkelljarl; 10-10-2009 at 09:01 AM.
 
Old 10-10-2009, 09:47 AM   #20
Woodsman
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Quote:
Your temperature reading are reassuringly low. Were they also low and stable on the defective motherboard before it began to display any symptoms of failure?
Yes, the sensor readings I shared all were the same before the motherboard failure. The 45W dual core AM2 series CPUs all run cool. Of course, when I run the ondemand cpu frequency governor, that helps a lot too.

This is an HTPC. I'm using on-board video and NIC. The only add-on board is a PCI TV capture card. In other words, the environment should run cool by design.

The system uses about 55 watts at idle. Hence the need for a PSU no larger than 300 watts. Even during the erratic first seconds of powering up the draw is less than 100 watts.

Quote:
Did you arrive at any explanation for the failure of the board?
As I shared in a previous post, all I can offer is the northbridge chip failed. That is where the video and boot systems are controlled. Without an exhaustive bench setup, there is no way for me to know. I cannot offer any reason at this point why the motherboard happens other than "sh-t happens."

Quote:
You mentioned throttling; have you underclocked the CPU? I would have thought that the CPU would automatically lower its cyclic activity according to the demand load of the moment, regulated by Cool&Quiet in the BIOS.
No I don't underclock or overclock this box. The Cool-and-Quiet feature of the CPU and BIOS is not self-invoking. The operating system kernel must provide the trigger to use that feature. In my case, this is done by loading the powernow_k8 and cpufreq_ondemand kernel modules.
 
Old 10-10-2009, 10:02 AM   #21
onebuck
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Hi,

I over looked the 'HTPC'. Even the compact design will require good cooling therefore the need for a case fan, HSF that will provide this. What about adding a chipset cooler fan since you seem to suspect the northbridge on the original MB? You would not want to jeopardize that new MB if it does turn out to be a heat related problem.

What chassis/case do you have for the 'HTPC'?
 
Old 10-10-2009, 11:26 AM   #22
Woodsman
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Quote:
Even the compact design will require good cooling therefore the need for a case fan, HSF that will provide this.
I have three fans in the box:

1. The Seasonic PSU fan, which runs at an almost silent speed under normal conditions (I have to place my ear next to the PSU exhaust grille to hear the fan. The PSU fan is located at the bottom of the PSU housing and draws heat from the case.

2. The CPU cooler fan, which using Q-Fan in the BIOS and a fancontrol script I wrote, runs at about 1035 rpm under normal conditions and is inaudible outside the case.

3. A S-Flex SFF21E 1200 rpm chassis fan that with my fancontrol script, runs at about 568 rpm under normal conditions.

As I shared in a previous post, my CPU, MB, and HD temps are quite low. I think I have sufficient cooling.

Quote:
What about adding a chipset cooler fan since you seem to suspect the northbridge on the original MB?
I have thought about the idea. The chip set does have a built-in heat sink that runs hot but I can touch the heat sink with my fingers. Thus, hot but not terribly hot. Nonetheless, a fan focused directly over the heat sink might help. Too bad there are no sensors in the chip set to monitor temps.

Quote:
What chassis/case do you have for the 'HTPC'?
Unlike many people who choose horizontal cases, I chose a larger Antec Solo case. The case uses a piano black finish which looks nice in the living room. The primary reason I chose that model is almost all of the horizontal models provide only one external drive bay, which is intended for the DVD player/burner. I wanted flexibility for removable hard drives. I figured that although my video collection today fits comfortably on one 640 GB hard drive, eventually that collection would grow. I did not want to be running additional hard rives in the box months at a time when I seldom watched most of the videos. By using a mobile SATA hard drive bay and several spare trays, I can insert "library" hard drives and watch those seldom watched videos without wasting lost of energy in between.

The Solo case is large with respect to how most people perceive an HTPC project, but my TV stand has open side shelves that allows me to place the system there without being an eye-sore. Another nice thing about the larger size is better heat dissipation. Yeah, I know, sounds contradictory after a failed motherboard, but at this point I'm willing to shrug off the event as "just one of those things." Motherboards do fail.

You can read more about my HTPC project here. The project is on-going and I have two more journal entries in the queue to publish. I also will be posting about the failed motherboard. As you will discover if you read the articles, this project has been overly challenging and often frustrating to the point of cuss words and tears. Hopefully the information will help others to avoid those emotional roller coaster rides.

Last edited by Woodsman; 10-10-2009 at 12:22 PM.
 
  


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