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Motherboard gradually loosing northbridge functions and then goes on to loose sound too

Tags:
  • Dual Channel
  • Biostar
  • Motherboards
Last response: in Motherboards
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October 1, 2014 11:27:17 AM

I have a Biostar GF5070-M7 motherboard that first refused to boot unless not in dual-channel, yet worked with two different sticks for a while. When I say "worked" I mean it does it's job except it freezes every hour or so ever since, but I am still posting from it now. Then after a while it stopped booting unless I took out one of the sticks. Then a few weeks later I had to remove the external video-card to get it working... and today I lost sound.

As far as I understand the first things that had issues had to do with the northbridge and the newest which is sound is the south - with lan and sata still working for now.

Somehow something gradually eats away at my mobo... north to sound... and maybe someone might be able to tell me what exactly could be culprit or where to look for answers. I could get a replacement but I'd rather get my hands dirty with solder if possible. Any ideas ?

edit: it's not the PSU. and I can't see swolen capacitors either.

update: it seems that the northbridge and southbridge are one and the same chip for this board.

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a c 168 V Motherboard
October 1, 2014 3:06:33 PM

I think I would replace thermal compound on the northbridge and look over the motherboard for any leaky or swollen capacitors (those are about the only thing somewhat easily replaceable). Other than that, check your PSU's voltages and look for damaged/burnt traces on the motherboard (likely that wouldn't be repairable)

Afterthought edit: I'm going with the PSU's 3.3V being bad
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October 1, 2014 4:14:38 PM

Unfortunately it's not as simple. I checked for swallen capacitors already and even changed the PSU. Both PSUs are fine - at least the values I've seen in BIOS are more than ok - I'm not sure if that's idle or being under load would be different, but as I said, I tried two.
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October 1, 2014 4:26:37 PM

Also thank you for pointing out that the northbridge needs cooling. I just didn't think about it yet. How does that explain sound though ?
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a c 95 V Motherboard
October 1, 2014 4:51:08 PM

That old motherbd is from the era of leaky caps and I would recommend replacing them all anyways but for the price of the caps you can still purchace a more modern motherbd compatible with your current processor and also allow you to upgrade the cpu down the road.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... if your interested.
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October 6, 2014 1:56:36 AM

Nothing's leaking, but I heard they might have dried up actually. So could it be that simple ? Capacitors ? Will I gain my sound back after ? I could actually get my hands on another defective board just like this and replace them.

Thank you for your suggestion, but I'm afraid I gave you a short name of the MB. Apparently, there's an extra string or two, and that makes mine Intel based. But for suggestions I might open another thread.

What I'm really curious about is if anyone out there has a clearer idea of what's going on with my mobo.
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1 minute ago

it seems that the northbridge and southbridge are one and the same chip for this board. That's why sound died too. I replaced the thermal compound on the chip and it lasts longer between reboots.
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