Quote from: lightfoot on January 09, 2014, 03:18:51 AM

On another side note I finished reviewing a blown board that was given to me which had a complete blow-out of the 1 volt FETs due to a short.

Micro-summary: It's destroyed. Not because of the FETs; I got those off easily and cleared the shorted 1 volt lines. It's the fact that the whole 3.3 volt line is shorted as well; I was trying to figure out where that went bad and found out there was a nice bubble in the board by the chips. Apparently the 1 volt line not only shorted but it burned inside the board, shorting the 3 volt supply to ground.

Not good :-) So if you blow the FETs, repairs would require board-level digging, not something I would do for a $200 part. I may fiddle with it some more, but for the moment I will classify this as "toast". :-)

C

Getting to the real cause of all the problems, board traces not heavy - thick enuf for the extra amps even if the chips can deal with it,
I noticed alot of MBmakers went to heavy coppertraced boards a few years ago, when OC became the norm.

I wanted to know if you have made any progress on finding replacement chips at 80-100a or so (what ever would still have some headroom for what is on it and adding 8 chips.
But hell, if the boards are to thin....

Maybe they can sell you fresh PCB's ? or evenmake better ones ? They would not be interested - they must be tired of fixin em by now tho .
Or make you and friends a official repair center

Lots to ponder, thank you

freddy