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This is my K7-Pro repair and comparison
page. Below, you will see two pictures of
the K7-Pro by MicroStar, one before the
modification (a good board that I keep as a
spare) and the actual board after the
modification was done. If you look close
enough at the after pic, you will notice all
D-LEDs are green, as this picture was taken
while the machine is running. This is to
prove that the board is actually
operational. |
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Here, circled in red, you
can see that the heatsinks are making
contact with each other. The one in the
middle is really the one to watch. I don't
really think the other two would matter so
much, as they are both already in electrical
contact with each other (through their
common bus on the motherboard). The two on
the left share a common bus, as do the two
on the right. However, the two busses are
180 degrees out of phase, and will short out
if contact is made between the second and
third heatsink. For this reason, there is a
strip of tape between the two heatsinks.
But is this enough? In most cases, yes.
However, there are times when it isn't, and
for this reason, I have done the following
modification (below). |
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| Here, in the green
box, you will notice the 4
regulating transistors, blown up for
better vision. Note that, in the
red circles, the heatsinks appear to
be "damaged". This is where I
modified them in order to prevent
the short. I insulated all 4
heatsinks from each other when I did
this, but as I noted before, it is
only necessary to do this for the
center. You will notice in the
center above (small red circle),
that there is an air gap between the
two heatsinks, as well as some more
resilient tape. In the big red
circle to the left, you will notice
some of that tape that was applied
to the heatsink there. The fins on
the heatsinks were purposely bent
inward in order to ensure that there
would be no contact between them.
This mod does require removing
the transistors from the board. |
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| Anyways, this is what I did to bring
back a dead MSI K7-Pro motherboard back in
September of 2000. It is now the end of
May, 2001, and this board continues to plug
along in my LAN server, with that pictured
"AMD-K7 Engineering Sample", a 650MHz unit
made in Week 34 of 1999. I have two more of
these motherboards (including the one that
lent itself to the picture on the left) in
case I get more slot Athlons, because it is,
in my opinion, the best Slot A motherboard
ever made. Yes, even better than the ABIT
KA7! |
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See the white circles on the left?
These are the points on the back of the
mainboard where you will have to do the
soldering, both to remove, and replace, the
transistors and heatsink mounts (they are
soldered to the board, too.).
Be very careful if you do this. I cannot
be held responsible if you slip up and
damage your board beyond repair. You should
know what you are doing, and be skilled with
a soldering iron first. If you should
decide to do this, then good luck! It
worked for me, and I would like to share
this with you. |
This page, and all graphics contained herein are
copyright 2001-2008, 'silicon212'. If you want to
use an image, please download and place onto your
server. Also, you must leave any identifying marks
in the image.
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