Finding a MOBO replacement, Socket 7

Glad to have these forums back!

Recently, my computer stopped booting entirely. All I got was the hum of the processor fan and a constant nonflickering HD light with a lovely blank black screen. I was told my motherboard was fried.
The system is a Pentium One 233, Epox mobo model EP-5BVPXB socket 7. It has one slot for DRAM, and no AGP's. I've searched for an exact replacement, but to no avail.
My question(s): What would be a good similar replacement board? It would be nice to have more DRAM slots, maybe an AGP or two.
How would I know if it would fit in my case? What is the terminology for size and layout of motherboards. The case is 14" high by 16 1/2" deep.
If I went with a different but similar motherboard, would I also need to replace the power supply?
Any other issues I should know about?
Thanks in advance.

 

If you can find one, an Asus P5A or an Asus P5A-B. HTH

 

What is the make and model of your machine? Is it a home built, or factory built pc?

 

I guess it would be a factory built machine. It says "Protek" on the front of the case...unless they're just the case manufacturer.
It came with a Seagate 2 gig hard drive, 32 megs of RAM, 32x CDRom. I mail ordered it from Fingerhut, of all places, in October of 98.

 

mobo replace

Try This site Pricewatch.com

 

Thanks for the replies so far. The Asus P5A boards look good....but how do I know if it fits? How can I tell if I need an AT or an ATX or if I have a tower or mini-tower? My motherboard's manual makes no mention of such things.

 

The Asus P5A is ATX only, the P5A-B can handle both. As far as the board size, contact the vendor for the measurements.

You could also try HERE for a Manual.

 

Judging from the speed of the processor, it is probably an AT as opposed to ATX. Any AT board will fit any AT case. Any ATX board will fit any ATX case; but, I doubt your is ATX.

If it is atandard AT or ATX, you will be able to use the same power supply--provided it is good.

Frankly, as cheap as Socket 7 processors are, I would go with an AMD K6 550 for whatever board you get. 550-MHz Socket 7 processors can be had for about $30.

 

You power supply tells you AT/ATX. One long white power plug=ATX. BTW your prob could be your power supply, $25 any comp house.

 

I've got your board up on my screen right now. You can download the manual for it at:
http://www.epox.com.tw/motherboard/manual/via/vpxb.pdf

It measures 220mmx210mm (it's tiny!). It's definitely AT architecture. It's got an AT keyboard connector and all the IDE, serial, and parallel connectors are all jammed together in a tiny space.
Brings back memories - look at all those jumpers! I've been using Epox for the last 3 years - excellent boards. My extended family still has 3 AT boards in service but I'm not ready to upgrade them quite yet.

I think ebay would be your best bet for a Socket 7 board. Just make sure it's AT-Style. Keep in mind that this might be a good time for you to take the leap to Socket A. The mainboard I'm using (ECS K7S5A) cost $57 and Duron's are dirt-cheap. My board even takes SDRAM (besides DDR)! Of course, you'd need a new case/power supply and chances are you'd need new memory.

 

Socket 7

We still have to source an occasional one and I've fitted a couple recently that were almost bang up to date, udma 66, fsb upto and past 100, usb etc. No joking.

I cant remember what they were offhand but I'll try to find out who made them, remind me in a couple of days if I dont get back to this post and you want to know

 

Hi MeanJim,
I think the question that needs to be answered is, how much do you want to spend? Here's a board that should do the job for $39+shipping. It doesn't have any of the upgrades you're looking for but it is relatively cheap.http://www.myaopen.com/apmotonwit30.html
Alex's suggestion is a good one. You would be looking for a "super 7" board to support that processor and the one's I found a http://www.pricewatch.com were around $60. Add the cost of the cpu and you're near $100.
Another possibility would be a used/refurbished machine. For example a shop here in Atlanta had an add this past weekend for PII 450, 64MB ram, 6Gig HDD, CDrom, floppy, keyboard, and mouse for $169.

Tin

 

You guys kick ass

Thanks very much to everyone who replied.

I wasn't really looking for an upgrade, but since I can't seem to find a simple replacement with at least one DIMM and 233MMX support dirt cheap, I think I'll go for the P5A-B with a K6 550. Compared to what I had, it would scream.

This all depends on whether it's the MOBO or the power supply being the problem.......and I'm borrowing an AT ps tomorrow to test it.

I'm running a "new to me" Sony Pentium II 233 now with 128 MB RAM with a TNT2 32MB card, and it's an awesome upgrade from what I had. I want to put my old puter back together for a test system, something I can play with so the wife doesn't kill me! She just loves it when I ***** things up enough to format!

Thanks again! You guys rock!

 

Sorry

It seems the boards I was referring to have gone out of production, the ones we had thru recently must have been end of stock, pity.

They were eqs PM-VMV3B-OOO (AT - mvp3 chipset) and eqs PM-VMV4M-AV7 (ATX - mvp4 chipset) - I'd really recommend getting a cheap atx case and getting the atx one if you get the chance. In fact I'd recommend getting an atx case and board anyway for future upgradeability.

If you can get your hands on one of those eqs boards you should find them real cheap.

Their site is http://www.eqscompouters.com and heres a pic I found of it http://www.master.co.uk/eqs/micro atx/ma-pm-vmv4m-av7.htm