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
We had a power failure and now when I plug in my Beomaster/Beosound5 I get the following message for a few seconds and then the little red light in the upper right hand corner of the display just keeps blinking and nothing ever starts up. The message gives instructions on up and down arrows and F8, but arrows or the OK button on the Beosound 5 do not change anything.
Help!
Please select the operating system to start:
Beomaster 5
Beomaster 5 Recovery
Use the up and down arrow keys to move the highlight to your choice.
Pres ENTER to choose.
Seconds until highlighted choice be started automatically: 10
For troubleshooting and advanced startup options for Windows, Press F8.
Hi Rkopf,
I had the exact same issue with mine after a power serge.
Check the Beomaster5 main boards (motherboard) capacitors around the CPU. For mine, the first capacitor had blown in the sequence of four. These capacitors are rated at 6.3v/1500uF and cheap and easy to get a hold of.
If you're handy with the soldering iron, it's quite an easy fix. Or alternatively, you can get it replaced at a computer repair shop.
Thanks
Andrew
Hmmm,
I have it on it's own surge protector and I also have a whole house surge protector which did not record an event of a surge.
Could there be anything else you can think of?
perriama:Check the Beomaster5 main boards (motherboard) capacitors around the CPU. For mine, the first capacitor had blown in the sequence of four. These capacitors are rated at 6.3v/1500uF and cheap and easy to get a hold of.
Hi Andrew,
I have the same problem. How do you recognize defect capacitors? I looked at the motherboard and capacitors carefully, but didn't see anything unusual, but I certainly don't have an expert eye.
Any suggestion would be welcome. Thanks
Guy
Hi Guy,
Blown capacitors are quite easy to spot. The top of the capacitor has a cross pattern cut into the alloy and if the capacitor is damaged in any way, the cross opens up and lets out what looks like insulation material. In my case, it was only opened a tiny fraction, but this indicated that something wasn't correct.
Luckily, I only had one blown, but as a future precaution, I replaced all four. The hardest part of the whole operation was dismantling the interior, so would advise taking a few photos to ensure that all components and cables are replaced correctly on re-assembly.
Just for your info, mine was also on a serge protector, but as this appears to be a bit of a weakness with the design of the main board, age and usage also have a factor in the failure. I've heard people speculate that because the main board was supplied with a 2Ghz processor that was essentially overclocked by B&O from a 1.5Ghz, it remains an Achilles heel of the unit.
perriama: Hi Guy, Blown capacitors are quite easy to spot. The top of the capacitor has a cross pattern cut into the alloy and if the capacitor is damaged in any way, the cross opens up and lets out what looks like insulation material. In my case, it was only opened a tiny fraction, but this indicated that something wasn't correct. Luckily, I only had one blown, but as a future precaution, I replaced all four. The hardest part of the whole operation was dismantling the interior, so would advise taking a few photos to ensure that all components and cables are replaced correctly on re-assembly. Just for your info, mine was also on a serge protector, but as this appears to be a bit of a weakness with the design of the main board, age and usage also have a factor in the failure. I've heard people speculate that because the main board was supplied with a 2Ghz processor that was essentially overclocked by B&O from a 1.5Ghz, it remains an Achilles heel of the unit. Thanks Andrew
Dead caps on mainbords are quite common, just do a google search, a lot of people are replacing caps on their MB's.
The cap does not need to be open on top, to be dead, if they bulge in any way, other than almost going inwards a bit on top, they are prone to cause problems. I normally change 8 caps on the BM5 MB's, I have not seen any MB's with totally opened caps yet, but they start bulging on top, and this causes reboots, and if left running, they will bulge more and more, and open up like you say.
But the de-soldering of these through-hole caps, multi-layer PCB's can be a pain, it requires a lot of heat very fast, my first MB was with a standard "hobby" soldering iron. It took forever, and I was afraid I ruined stuff because of the amount of heat. I also tried with heat-gun, this I could not get to work safely also, so I use a large flat soldering iron that is big enough to heat on both legs at the same time, and then add a lot of clean solder to lower the melting point of the original solder.
/Weebyx
Thank you both for the advices. Will have a close look at the motherboard.