IBM ThinkCentre M50 Mainboard Repair!!

The amazing IBM ThinkCentre M50 is back on the bench - what a great sight! In our last video on the M50 we discovered some 'not so friendly' capacitors just waiting to cause some trouble. In this video we will take the system completely apart and give it the love it deserves!!
#retropc #vintage #nostalgia #ibm #pcrepair #pentium4 #thinkcentre #pcs #computerrepair #computer #retro

[@billoverson2263]

Great video! The vacuum desoldering guns are sooo much nicer than the old solder suckers.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yup!!! It's hilarious, I couldn't think of the name when recording.. I said screw it, leave it in lol!

[@ncdave4life]

​@@TheRetroRecall, what is the make & model of your vacuum desoldering gun?

[@TheRetroRecall]

It is a Hakko FR-301

[@MajenkoTechnologies]

I do love those early 2000s IBM aesthetics. They remind me so much of the old AS/400 mainframes and mini computers. ❤❤❤

[@TheRetroRecall]

You are right, they are nice systems!

[@IBM_Museum]

Especially when you run Client Access green-screen on them to connect to an AS/400...

[@maxtornogood]

Congrats on a successful mainboard repair TRR! While you probably could get away with just replacing the 'obvious' bulging caps others can go out of spec without obvious signs. Removing possibly suspect caps is a good move if you have the time.

[@TheRetroRecall]

100%. If one is going, You never know when the next one is going to :).

[@rmcdudmk212]

Love the black design athetic of IBM towers from this era.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes, and I actually loved their beige counterparts as well!

[@rmcdudmk212]

​@@TheRetroRecalleven thou it needed to be recapped it's a solid board with some good explanation capability.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Absolutely. Lots of potential. Glad we were able to save it from any damage!

[@rmcdudmk212]

​@@TheRetroRecallyep. Now it's time to play some Doom. 😂

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahaha classic!

[@branscombe_]

you took extra care of that board and that commendable! which made the posting (24:30) so much more satisfying! great work TRR!👌🏽🥳💙

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you!! It always feels good to restore these systems and keep them going. I may not use it everyday, but it feels good knowing it has many years left :) I hope you are doing well!

[@Rangerman9404]

I used to work in electronic assembly in the late 80's up until 92, so I did my share of soldering, but I never could seem to master the solder sucker for desoldering, I usually end up using solder wick. I've built, repaired, or modified every computer that I have ever owned, but never did repairs on an actual motherboard, but I've used my soldering skills to repair a microwave that my neighbor threw out, (bad transformer for the control board, I replaced it), replace power supply caps in my DVD recorder, (it died again, but I digress), and I am planning a full recap on a post war AM/shortwave table radio I own. I uses a lot of wax and paper caps, and looks to be all original, so it needs a full recapping, but it does work, oddly enough, and no hum from the ancient electrolytics in it.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice!! Yeah I think the art with the desoldering gun is adding flux or additional solder based on how stubborn the old stuff is. Sometimes flix paste is better than the flux pen I was using in the video. The second factor of course is the temperature balance of the desoldering gun itself. Not too hot to burn the pcb but hot enough to melt the solder :). Great work on the restorations you have completed! Keep it up :)

[@MaskedGEEK]

Define anxiety: pressing the power button for the first time after building a new PC or repairing/maintaining a current PC. No matter how confident one is, that moment of hitting the button still has little doubts swimming in your mind hoping you've done everything correctly, and it doesn't ease until the OS has finally booted up. Congrats on the ThinkCentre rescue and repair. Loved it.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahaha yes, so true and thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed!

[@jasmijndekkers]

Nice IBM computer system and a great job you did. Greetings from Steven from the Netherlands

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you!

[@JawCrush]

Old black computer cases are beautiful! No need for retrobrighting or anything lol

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha so true!!! I'm laughing as I never thought about that before lol.

[@Pulverrostmannen]

Changing bad caps is my regular thing these days, Some fun or maybe useful facts about it too, Capacitor plague caps more often leaks out the top rather than the bottom but they also tend to swell like a lot, even at the bottom when it gotten worse enough but they typically also dries up after they erupt the internals at the top. it is actually more common for caps from the 80s and 90s to silently leak out the bottom without even bulging causing damage to the board. I also found that most capacitor plague caps have the crosshair style mark on the top, it is less common to find caps with a different pattern like the " K " pattern or " |< " style ones to swell up and leak as often as the crosshair ones. it is also a good idea to check the ESR of questionable caps when you test them, these caps may look fine but still have terrible properties. bad caps often gets both high capacitance and high ESR at the same time, Capacitor plague can drop capacitance when as they dry and even short out. In a short answer, never trust capacitors even if they look good visually. They will always get to your stuff eventually

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you, great info!! So basically recap EVERYTHING 😂😂😂

[@Pulverrostmannen]

@@TheRetroRecall yes, almost like that. Remember that the power supply is also build in the same time and may have bad caps too. I am generally taking the extra steps to replace most caps if it is a system I use all the time. I mean, if you go about and change every cap you find every time they add up to your bill very fast plus a lot of work. Caps is a very hard topic to decide what to change or not. But I generally trust Rubycon and Panasonic caps but some might actually be built by order like in Xbox 360 where you can find Rubycon branded caps that fail because it was made by Microsoft demand to be cheaper. I actually make so many things to check caps before I decide it is hard to describe. I look for brand, model. I test the caps for both Capacitance, ESR, leakage current, bulging, electrolyte leakage in seal. Age, purpose. I compare to similar failing caps. What I plan to use it for. I usually always replace with the best caps you can get if I plan to use it a lot. I am a capacitor lunatic by default after all the things I seen been killed by them until now

[@TheRetroRecall]

Makes total sense and great call out about the PSU. I forgot to even look at that! I shall be doing some further testing, thank you!

[@Pulverrostmannen]

@@TheRetroRecall no problem :) good luck

[@MIJ-Tech]

I'm anticipating a similar repair on a Socket AM2 system, a Gateway prebuilt. It suffered quite badly from the capacitor plague.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes, it's very unfortunate. I wonder how many of these systems are rotting away. So sad. Thankfully for us one by one gets saved!

[@Knaeckebrotsaege]

Chemicon KZG and KZJ are a universal "replace every single one in sight" kinda deal. They had a faulty production run despite being a reputable japanese make, and they've later discontinued both series, substituting them with others with similar ESR/ripple characteristics. Capacitance, voltage and date range don't matter for these. They *always* fail, doesn't even matter if powered or not. Similar story with Nichicon HM and HN series with datecodes prior to 2004, though Nichicon fixed the formula and continued producing them. Post-2004 datecode ones are fine. Datecode format on the sleeve for Nichicons is xYYWW, with the X placeholder being a letter referring to the production plant (not relevant in most cases). Also, if you have an ESR meter (or one of those generic GM328 parts testers) you can actually catch chemicon KZG/KZJ before they pop even if they still look fine, as their capacitance will skyrocket way past any tolerances as they break down internally and pressure slowly starts building up. For example, I've had 6.3V 3300µF KZGs measure way beyond 4200µF despite still being perfect visually. If left for a couple more months, these would've no doubt popped on their own as well

[@TheRetroRecall]

This is a lot of great info thanks for this. I don't have an ESR tester, but something I'm sure I should have. As for the caps, I suppose you are correct as they go bad even when they don't look bad. Maybe I should be recapping the entire MB when I go to tackle a few. I've been replacing them with Panasonic caps.

[@laurencejohnson4106]

Well saved once again!👍👍

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks!!

[@branscombe_]

just quickly commenting before I watch in full later tonight: LOVE THAT CASE

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha!! I was lucky to get it.

[@jeremiahmiller6431]

Oh man, those solid steel monstrosity IBM cases. I transplanted a system into one of these one time, you could beat a horse to death with the case and never scratch it.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahahaha true!! (and poor horse...).

[@youtubasoarus]

I have the desktop (pizza box) version of that series and I think it too had/has bad caps. It's long since been in a box somewhere. I might have to tackle caps on that one one of these days just hasn't been a priority. The results of your work look great there! Nice job!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you, much appreciated!! Yes, take a look to make sure all is well, if not try to replace before any real damage occurs. I always feel really good saving and preserving these older systems.

[@fra4455]

Great video✌

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks!

[@fra4455]

@@TheRetroRecall thanks too

[@Natures_Intentions]

Great video I have replace a lot of CAPS on the P4 boards

[@TheRetroRecall]

It seems to be mostly P4's that I tend to have to replace for sure.

[@Natures_Intentions]

@@TheRetroRecall yeah that has been a trend for me as well

[@nushnume]

Really nice soldering job,whoever would look at that board won't even know it was even serviced before!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you!! Much appreciated!!! I'm very happy this system is back up and at full strength again. :)

[@Strikedarkness]

man do i miss ibm machines.... IBM made some of the best computers and had some of my favorite case designs.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Agreed! Anytime I can get my hands on one, it goes into the collection :)

[@georgez8859]

Nice job on the motherboard repair. those desoldering guns are the way to go

[@TheRetroRecall]

Absolutely!

[@thetechsavvy01]

Man, I would love to set up a server workstation in my bedroom with old tech like this

[@TheRetroRecall]

It brings back so many great memories working with this old tech!

[@thetechsavvy01]

@@TheRetroRecall yeah. I am a high school so I am barely old enough to remember windows XP, but my grandparents gave me an hp desktop they bought in 2005 and I played the heck out of it until I Frankensteined it with another 2005 gateway and tried to make a better computer running windows 2000 on a pentium 4. Until the motherboard died and a replacement motherboard came in.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahah that's neat, unfortunate that it stopped working, but it sounds like you got it working again. I did a video on an HP Pavilion from 2004/2005 running Windows XP Media Centre Edition, check it out :)

[@thetechsavvy01]

@@TheRetroRecall specifically an HP Pavilion a1213w which supports operating systems as low as Windows 98. It came with Windows XP Service Pack 2 before I added a 200 gig drive and put Windows XP Delta Edition and Windows 2000 SP4 with all the trimmings and bug fixes. You know what? I'm just glad I am not the only one with a special fondness for old crap like this. And it makes me feel good to communicate with someone that feels the same way too, man.

[@TheRetroRecall]

100%!! Glad to have you on board and that you are enjoying. Stay tuned for more! :)

[@PiercedJedi]

only thing I dislike about systems like this is the angles, like the drive bays are mounted at an angle to match the font bezel, otherwise though pretty solid systems

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes for sure. I personally think it's neat, but again only if it is limited to this system and not the standard :)

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

Don’t forget to use low impedance caps for power.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for the tip!!

[@mariushmedias]

United Chemi Con (the manufacturer of the KZG series capacitors) is not one of the companies that fell to that capacitor plague issue, because they didn't use that bad stolen formula of electrolyte. It's just a coincidence that this particular series (and KZJ series from them) from them has issues, it uses a very aqueous electrolyte that gives them very good technical properties (very low esr) but which degrades over time, even when motherboards are sitting in the boxes, unused.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Good to know, thanks!!

[@christopherdecorte1599]

Pleasing looking system

[@TheRetroRecall]

They really made nice looking systems back in the day!

[@Kundalini12]

Good job 👍 I have a Dell XPS 730 which was unstable and I wasn’t sure why, it would lock up or randomly restart for no apparent reason. Then I noticed that the capacitors by the 24 pin power connector seemed to have some residue on the top so I replaced them and it seems to have solved the problem. The system doesn’t seem to have any stability issues anymore.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's awesome news! Yes something as seemingly subtle as a capacitor can cause so many random issues. I did a repair on a GeForce video card in one of my other recent videos that had the intermittent issues as you had described. A few caps later and fully stable!!! Great work to you, thanks for watching!

[@Tretus]

I still need to recap mine, but mine is a smaller form-factor from the one you have here. It's a beautiful computer!

[@TheRetroRecall]

It really is. I love the systems from this era, such great memories! Get recapping and preserve your beautiful machine :)

[@Tretus]

@@TheRetroRecall I've been thinking about starting to document my own process with all the projects in my collection, sadly this channel I've had for years was built off of... memes. Not sure I'd have an audience anymore if I switched to a topic I actually like.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I just checked out your channel. I think you could reinvent yourself, take a more supportive & educational approach to your videos walking viewers through your experience and expertise. Then adapt as the views, feedback and analytics come in :)

[@hugosimoes5119]

Nice. I'm still before the middle of the video but I would look the power supply caps as well. I know people that had bad PSU with bad caps and they connected it to a good motherboard. With time, the motherboard simply got sick and having also bad caps.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Great call out! I'll be taking that apart as well to confirm everything.

[@hugosimoes5119]

Well, I meant any PC you may be getting in the future and those you have now need a look inside of the PSU. Caps maybe bulging but yet the PSU still works. Inside the PSU, caps are subject to dust and warm air coming from the motherboard and other components and makers also put glue over them and that can trap heat generated from the cap itself. The caps near the output colored wires are the ones that suffer from bulging. I also noticed that PSUs that output hot air from the near have high probability of having bad caps in coming years.

[@RuruFIN]

Now it just needs a capable AGP graphics card :)

[@TheRetroRecall]

Agreed!!!

[@mealot7613]

Recapped a bunch of boards even ones with nice japanese caps, like United Chemi-Con that were bad. Boards like asus p5p800 and msi k7n2 delta 2 platinum.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I never know what brand is bad or good anymore at this point lol. I thing age is kicking some of these capacitors to the scrapyard.

[@mealot7613]

@@TheRetroRecall Probably the amount of heat they had to endure during operation. Even good ones can handle only so much of it.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Agreed!

[@ChrisJackson-js8rd]

nippon chemicon kzg series electrolytic caps.... the worst of the capacitor plague if it says kzg on the side just pull them and replace no matter how fine they look

[@TheRetroRecall]

Good to know, thanks!

[@BilisNegra]

I have a Pentium 4 NetVista desktop in my storage space from just a bit before that name was dropped in favor of ThinkCentre. I wonder if the caps in it have given up the ghost, too. That would be certainly bad news as I have no soldering practice. Will I ever try my hand at it? who knows.

[@TheRetroRecall]

You never know until you try. Certainly worth learning to save these old systems :). I did a video on a NetVista restoration, check it out you may enjoy it!

[@2xtreem4u]

i own a original nutdriver made in usa for the metric system

[@TheRetroRecall]

This is just a generic amazon purchase :)

[@2xtreem4u]

@@TheRetroRecall mine is from a flea market

[@Bkrzduzn]

Does this motherboard have a standard m atx hole pattern?

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes, I believe it does.

[@gothiccomputerbuilds....5308]

How did you manage to get doom3 to work on a Pentium 4?

[@TheRetroRecall]

Min sys req is P4 1.5ghz :)

[@jetersonalvesdeoliveira2729]

I really need to update the bios of this mobo to support the pentium 4 550 3.4ghz, I can't do it. Could you help me where can I find the flash bios and the room file?

[@TheRetroRecall]

Check out The Retro Web. They have this motherboard on file and I believe they have the BIOS upgrade there as well.

[@jetersonalvesdeoliveira2729]

@@TheRetroRecall thank you

[@TheRetroRecall]

Anytime :)

[@GGigabiteM]

Those brown crap stain capacitors are made by United Chemi-Con. Their KZG series has 100% failure rates due to a bad electrolyte formula, they always need to be replaced. Their KZE series also has extremely high failure rates. They don't always have visible signs of failure, other common failures are them shorting, becoming electrically leaky (effectively turning into a resistor) or going high ESR. These failures generally don't show up with physical symptoms. Recapping just the motherboard is not enough, the power supplies in these machines have the same crap capacitors. Don't power them on with anything you care about, when they have bad capacitors, they'll put out dirty power and can damage/destroy stuff plugged into them. I've recapped hundreds of those IBM machines from that era. The only thing they do for me looking at them now is give me heartburn from remembering all of the crap I put up with them back then. Don't forget the infamous deathstar hard drives, those machines had those as well. So not only was it capacitor failure, they also ate all of your data when the drives packed up.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for this info. A lot of what you have mentioned has also been noted in other comments and well received. Thanks again for this and for everything you have done to keep these machines alive! I plan on ' going back in' and tackling these scenarios with this system and others in the future. You rock!

[@pepiivanov4337]

Made video about you faces review what Is your real name and esetora

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha some day :)

[@dj_noxxie]

I would replace all of them because they probably have the stolen formula

[@TheRetroRecall]

Possible for sure. Not a bad practice either as some caps can leak and not show the obvious visibile signs.