ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Hi,
My BM5 recently gave up, seems to be the main board. Has never been replaced, so I guess it has lasted quite a long time (500GB version).
Has anyone tried to replace the main board with the standard VIA EPIA-EX board? This main board only have a 1,5GHz processor compared to the B&O one that have a 2,0GHz processor. If you do this, do you have to flash the BIOS in order to get the BM5 to work?
Regards/LANO
Yes and No.
The Epia EX board will not fit easily into the casing of the BM5. The original EX has sockets which are not present in the BM5. Like digital audio out.
It will partly work. You will have to flash the B&O Bios in the EX, But you need the B&O servicetool to copy the serialnumber in the BIOS. Otherwise you will not get any updates. The Epia flashtool isn't capable to flash the serialnumber.
The reason I think many B&O boards fail, is that they run the processor on 2.0Ghz, instead of the normal 1,5Ghz. That's causing more heat, and there is't an active cooler on it.
I checked the price of the motherboard a few years ago (out of curiosity) and if I recall correctly it was in the region of 400 to 500 GBP.
As Beobuddy mentioned, there are additional sockets on the stock Epia EX board although you should be able to desolder these (or perhaps even snip their legs off) to make the board fit.
As long as the bios chip on the original board is still working you may be able to simply swap it out to the new motherboard and avoid the need for the service tool.
I did remove the bios chip from my BM5 a while ago to take a backup copy of it (using an EPROM programmer) and it is my intention at some stage to have a play with the linux flash tools to see if I could flash a stock EX motherboard accordingly without resorting to removal of the chip, but it's one of those tasks on my todo list that is unlikely to happen until a motherboard failure in my BM5 forces it higher up the list!
Martin.
riverstyx: I checked the price of the motherboard a few years ago (out of curiosity) and if I recall correctly it was in the region of 400 to 500 GBP. As Beobuddy mentioned, there are additional sockets on the stock Epia EX board although you should be able to desolder these (or perhaps even snip their legs off) to make the board fit. As long as the bios chip on the original board is still working you may be able to simply swap it out to the new motherboard and avoid the need for the service tool. I did remove the bios chip from my BM5 a while ago to take a backup copy of it (using an EPROM programmer) and it is my intention at some stage to have a play with the linux flash tools to see if I could flash a stock EX motherboard accordingly without resorting to removal of the chip, but it's one of those tasks on my todo list that is unlikely to happen until a motherboard failure in my BM5 forces it higher up the list! Martin.
Hi, I order a standard mainboard and changed it. Didn't boot normally at first. Then I made a system recovery and now it is working fine.
BUT, I can not get any software updates (stuck on very old version, like 4. something). I guess it is because the serial has not been updated to the new mainboard.
Is there any way to force the software update?
which board did you get as I have a dead motherboard and this might be a good option to get my BM5 up and running again
I bought a EPIA-EX 15000G (like this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-EPIA-EX-EX15000G-MINI-ITX-LOT-/231438416575?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35e2cdfabf).
I had to pull of the coaxial S/PDIF connector by cutting of the leads/legs (the board will not fit else).
Next I gently pull up the optical S/PDIF connector and cut of the three pins in the back as high up as possible (a connector from the ML bord should be filter on these three pins).
Then I removed the original board according to the service manual.
After that I moved the Bios chip from the original board to the new one (it can be pulled up with a small screw drive or simliar, two of the corners have space to get in below the chip).
Finally I moved the memory card from the original main board to the new one and mounted all back.
It have been work fine this evening, time will tell how long t will last.
Thanks,
Just ordered a new board, lets hope it can get my BM5 back to life.
Thanks
Toby
lano:I moved the bios chip from the original main board to the new non B&O one. It seems to work fine so far. Software updated and B&O logo present when booting. I have no idea if this will cause any other problems down the road, anyone with experience from similar operations?
I have no idea if this will cause any other problems down the road, anyone with experience from similar operations?
That's really good news. I don't envisage you having any issues - my only concern was whether the B&O specific BIOS had support for processor speeds other than the 2GHz originally fitted in the BM5. I felt it was unlikely that the BIOS would have been modified significantly from the stock version but until someone was able to try this it was always an unknown so it is great to have confirmation that this works.
Do you have a BS5 connected to your BM5? Please let us know once you had more time to use the newly repaired unit whether the reduction in processor speed has a noticeable impact on performance and usability.
badgersurf:Just ordered a new board, lets hope it can get my BM5 back to life. Thanks Toby
It would be worth ordering a PLCC extraction tool (search on ebay) if you don't already have one as they are very low cost. As lano mentioned, you can prise the BIOS chip out with a small screwdriver but there is much less risk of damaging the chip using the correct tool.
On a separate note - if either of you intend to dispose of you original broken motherboards and/or the unused BIOS chip removed from the replacement please let me know as I would be interested in whether the original processor can be reballed or even transferred to a stock EPIA motherboard and in taking a dump of the stock BIOS to compare with the B&O one.
Kind Regards,
lano:Next I gently pull up the optical S/PDIF connector and cut of the three pins in the back as high up as possible (a connector from the ML bord should be filter on these three pins).
do you mean you need to solder a special connector for the masterlink socket to the 3 pins? In this case did you buy the connector or did you take it from the old board?
lechatsurletoit:Hi, do you mean you need to solder a special connector for the masterlink socket to the 3 pins? In this case did you buy the connector or did you take it from the old board? Thanks
I haven't really experienced any major performance issues with my BM5/BS5 although some have reportedly improved responsiveness with an SSD (assuming you can find a large enough one that will boot reliably in the BM5 - see the BS5 SSD discussion for details of the issues people were having when attempting this swap).
Obviously with the replacement motherboard, the raw CPU speed will now be around 75% of what it was originally and that may cause be the cause of any sluggishness you are experiencing. Not sure if you reinstalled or just swapped the motherboards over, if you reinstalled then may be that the BM5 is busy re-analysing your audio files for MOTS and that can make the system feel slow.
Either way, the reduction in processor speed should not be causing crashes / reboots. I would start by trying to rule out a fault with the replacement motherboard. MemTest86 is excellent software for testing your RAM and will often reveal any general stability issues with the motherboard / CPU at the same time, so trying this would be a good place to start. I would also check the event log to see if there are any clues there as to what might be causing the instability.
Please do keep us updated on how you get on.
By the way, how did you know the motherboard was broken, and that it was not coming from something else.
cheers,
Ik heb een BM5 die is gestopt. Het moederbord werk niet meer. Ik krijg geen enkel beeld, ook niet op een extra monitor.
Voedingspanningen zijn OK. Volgens mij is hij te warm geweest en daardoor defect.
Nu zie ik dergelijke boorden op Ebay. die kan ik bestellen.
Dan heb ik ook wel een servicetool die ik op een Stick kan zetten.
Mijn vraag is gaat dit werken. Het afhalen van enkele extra aansluitingen is geen probleem.