Decent board, I would recap it.

Just recap the board, I'll never understand why people are so fast to just throw everything away even when they are very easy to fix then again I see people doing the same to each other these days.

Recap from a well known quality brand and you got a good board again plus these higher end boards are getting a little on the rare side.

nforce4max wrote:

I'll never understand why people are so fast to just throw everything away even when they are very easy to fix

Same here. I hate to throw anything away, but I also hate to put time/effort/money into something that ends up being unsalvageable. I'm optimistic in this case, though.

nforce4max wrote:

plus these higher end boards are getting a little on the rare side.

I know, that's why I nabbed it 😀

Too bad it's not an A8N32-SLI. I was also hoping to find a higher-end Athlon 64 X2 CPU on it, but alas, it's only a dual-core 3800+.

definitely worth recapping it. thats one of the best, most fully featured and stable 939 boards out there. and they're quite rare due to the original price which meant that not all that many were sold (not that 939 was popular anyway). plus 939 enthusiasts seem to be grabbing them. have a look on ebay, they're pretty pricey.

Still for a more successful and longer lasting fix you should not only replace bulged caps, but all others with the same brand and uF values.

Don't throw it away, it would be a complete waste.

I'm all for recapping that board. And yes, it is usually a good idea to switch out all caps instead of just the bad ones.

Go for the recap but take care not to destroy it in the process 😉

I finally got around to working on this project, but I'm having trouble desoldering the bad capacitors. I tried mixing the old solder with new... no luck so far. Anybody have some tips on how to do this?

I've desoldered things before, but never had this much trouble.

When they get stubborn I use the hot air part of my SMD rework station to heat up the board around the capacitor legs, then attack with my soldering iron & desoldering pump. In my experience a high quality board will prove harder to desolder through-hole components from than a cheap one, due to the thicker board wicking more of the heat away.

not only can you re cap it you can possibly do a "poly mod" for possibly better overclocking/endurance/reliability.

What is a poly mod. Other caps?

Poly mod is replacing electrolytic caps with polymer caps. There's a science to it though, so it shouldn't be done indiscriminately.

Excuse me, mockingbird, but aren't you a member over at badcaps? 😀

... I'm having trouble desoldering the bad capacitors ...

Have a look at some videos showing the technique:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xZ7DIkXJPg&t=2m05s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tgPgo9EYFs&t=4m00s

What I do when desoldering tools are not available is heat one leg and wiggle/pull it from the top and then heat the other leg and wiggle/pull it from the top
and work and back and forth until it is fully out.