Burned out chip, warranty void, board safe to use?

Caporegime
Joined
29 Jul 2011
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In acme's chair.
Is the board ok to use in its current condition? What is that chip for? I can't afford a new board... If the chip was for the usb, then they surely wouldn't work..? They do work... Is it to do with firewire? That's the nearest header... I have never used it though, the cap has remained over the header since day 1. This won't affect anything else on the board will it?

I remember reading a thread a little while ago where someone asked a question that was something along the lines of 'should i still use my motherboard with this blown chip?' It was quite a sizable chip up near the RAM slots on an Asus Crosshair motherboard (a socket 1366 one) and every single person said 'if it works fine then don't worry, if it has been ok this long then it should be ok' because he had been using it for a long time before he noticed. Ive been using my board for a lil while since i noticed, and everything seems OK... the error display thingy with the two digits on it (i forget what it is called) doesnt halt on any errors, it just runs through the usual checks and then goes blank when the onboard speaker beeps once to signify that everything is A-ok.

The only thing i'm nervous about is trying to use the firewire header or the header or the infared header. I dont think i will ever touch either of them, so in my mind i'm safe... but its best to ask i suppose.

I have an old pentium 4 rig with burned out chips on the motherboard, a graphics card that was once over-overclocked so much that it partly melted, a cpu which has a cooler attached with no thermal paste, which is often pulled apart and shoved back together again on a regular basis just as a teaching tool i suppose you could say. The system works absolutely fine with the exception of the ethernet port which no longer works.

This gives me hope that computers are stronger than we think.

tom15150
 
Try it if it works then you got lucky. It certainly isn't ideal to use but it won't exactly burn your house down. A chip that regulates power I think to something has died so you will i imagine lose the 1394 port but it may be something else.
 
tbh i wouldnt worry about it, especially if you have never and wont ever be using those ports

i would have a good look at the traces from the chip to make sure that it is those headers that they go to :)
 
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