Southbridge is a functional controller known as I/O Controller Hub (ICH). Presented as bga chip, soldered to the motherboard that connects peripherals to the CPU via the Northbridge, such as keyboard, touchpad, USB, COM, LPT ports, etc.
Why did the south bridge of the laptop burn out?
The southbridge often fails. And the most common symptoms southbridge burnout this is:
- The laptop does not turn on, but the power indicators light up, but there is no image
- when the laptop is turned on, the indicators light up, but the hard drive is not detected, and the screen does not display an image
- laptop won't boot, image is there but windows won't boot
- laptop freezes while working
- keyboard, mouse, toychpad, USB ports not working
- laptop freezes, overheats and shuts down
- a few seconds after turning on, the laptop itself turns off or instantly goes to reboot
- the laptop can only be turned on after several attempts
- The battery either does not charge at all or is not fully charged.
- incorrect information about the total charge level is displayed
- no sound signal or problems with audio playback when the drivers are correctly installed and the speakers are turned on
- wi-fi or network card not working
Main reason laptop southbridge failure- this is an incorrect use of the laptop's USB port. For example, connecting devices from unknown manufacturers, devices with high power consumption, unsafe removal, etc.
Of course, do not forget about mechanical damage. A typical and very common example is a laptop falling on the floor. Spilled water that got inside the case or just direct physical contact are all reasons that can also have a negative impact on the motherboard and your laptop.
Since it accounts for the highest voltage, overheating a laptop can also disable it in a fairly short time. This can be avoided through prevention, namely: timely prevention,.
Independent repair of the south bridge
If you decide to repair a failed microcircuit on your own, you will need the following tools:
- hair dryer with good hot air flow
- stencil
- calibrated balls
- screwdrivers
- Soldering Station
- solder paste
Disassemble the laptop and removing the southbridge chip, you can find that there are no contact balls on the chip. At first glance, the task is simple - it is to restore a good southbridge contact with motherboard. First, prepare the stencil, lubricate the chip with flux and fix the chip between the stencil plates. Since the stencil corresponds to the construction of the southbridge chip, it will not be difficult to add the missing calibrated contact balls.
Next stage - heating with a hairdryer. The hair dryer must be powerful enough to melt the calibrated balls. After the balls are melted, we pull the chip out of the stencil and clean it from the flux.
Prepare the motherboard must be very carefully and carefully. "Piglets" must be cleaned and aligned to a horizontal position, since the correct installation of the south bridge on the motherboard depends on this. If you use a soldering iron, then try, carefully, not to touch the protective coating of the board, remove the remaining solder.
The other day I encountered such a problem - the computer turns on, but does not start, there is no image on the monitor (the indicator flashes), all the diodes on the front panel of the system unit are on, the system unit does not beep (i.e. the BIOS does not boot), the hard drive and others drives will not start. When disassembling the system unit and inspecting and "feeling" it turns out that the south bridge is terribly heated (the third largest microcircuit on the motherboard after the processor and the north bridge) - it heats up in 2-5 seconds so that the finger cannot be held. These are symptoms of the fact that the south bridge on the motherboard "flew" - maybe completely, but maybe not. This happens, mainly from the fact that it was wrong, the USB flash drive was pulled out “hot” or some USB device “short” - in general, a short circuit over USB. You should not try to turn on / off the PC many times in the hope that it will come to its senses and work - this does not happen, such inclusions with overheating of the southerner can drive the unfortunate microcircuit to the grave completely.
The problem, of course, is unpleasant, but still you should not throw out the motherboard - there is a possibility that the south bridge can still be saved or replaced. As an option - "annealing" USB ports, but this is not always an option, because. without USB, a specific machine is not needed at all (as in my case), another option is to replace several southbridge power mosfets - this often happens due to their malfunction, and the last option is to completely replace the southbridge chip - this is if the bridge is completely dead, but at the same time, one should not forget that the bridge itself is not to blame - there are still elements that will have to be replaced.
Of course, how to do all this - I will not write here, because one post will not cover everything - for such purposes there is an interesting, and in my opinion, the best Russian-language site - http://www.rom.by. There is a lot of information on repairing motherboards, power supplies and other very useful materials. It is also worth paying attention to the resource http://monitor.net.ru, there is also a lot of necessary and useful information - a forum where the issues of repairing a huge amount of equipment are discussed, it seemed to me very useful there - the "Files" section, from where you can download the fundamental device diagrams necessary for subsequent repairs. In order to download this or that scheme - during registration you need to answer 4 questions from the field of electronics and electrical engineering. This is to weed out non-professionals.
And finally, a warning - you should not climb into the jungle of microelectronics yourself and repair something yourself if you are a non-specialist, have no experience in such repairs or do not understand such issues at all - as an option: read manuals, manuals, textbooks (regular textbooks on electrical engineering and electronics), learn the basics, etc. or - give the broken piece of iron to a specialist, otherwise - either you will bring the half-dead device to the grave completely, or spoil your own skin, or maybe both.
And here is the materialchik for you, so to speak, food for thought.
ICH5 south bridge burned out - repair WITHOUT soldering!
Material from ROM.by is the best motherboard repair site!
Southbridge failure is the most common problem on boards using i845/i865/i848-series chipset sets. The main reason is the burnout of the USB controller built directly into the south bridge. However, the purpose of this article is not to search for reasons, but ways to "return to life" such boards.
In the event of a failure due to the "dying" of the USB controller (in the south bridge), the following main behaviors of the motherboard are possible:
- The board starts but hangs at POST code 25 (for Award BIOS 6.0) or D0 (for AMIBIOS8).
The board does not turn on (forced start gives zeros on the postcard), the south bridge is already warming up from the standby power supply. The board starts but hangs at POST code 25 (for Award BIOS 6.0) or D0 (for AMIBIOS8).
1. Restoration by the method of "annealing"
The first case is especially typical for Asus P4P800 series boards. With this option, you can-need to use the "annealing" method. What does "anneal" mean? This means that in order to prevent shortening of the power supply of already burned parts (inside the south bridge) - they are deliberately "burned" voltage until they finally burn out, thus ceasing to interfere with the functioning of all the others, which, as a rule, remain perfectly serviceable , blocks inside the chip.
"Annealing" the standby power
We check if the duty 5V and 3.3V are sagging.
We supply standby power and check if the standby 5V and 3.3V are sagging. If so, we apply "power" 5V / 3.3V to them and turn on the PSU for a short time (with a jumper on PS_ON). We remove all jumpers, check the duty voltages. "Rise" - good, did not rise - we try again, and a few more times, it does not work - we leave the "power" jumpers and move on.
"Annealing" the load of capacitors connected to the outputs of internal standby sources
We are looking for three capacitors on the board connected to the outputs of internal standby 1.5V sources (VCCSUS1_5A, B, C) - at least one of them has sagged to 0.2..0.4V (as a rule, this is only VCCSUS1_5A) and "anneal" its load. To do this, first we supply 1.5V (it is possible with Vcc of the installed processor, it is possible with Vmch / agp). If it doesn’t help, we make several short circuits to 2.5V of the memory supply or, in extreme cases, 3.3V. Burning out with five volts is dangerous - there is a possibility that the south bridge will die for good. If 2.5V does not help - before applying 3.3, it is recommended to try 3.3VSB first (as a relatively low-current source). If as a result the voltage rose to the required 1.5V, then the operation was successful! (The temperature of the south bridge should drop by 15-20 degrees compared to what it was before the "annealing").
2. Recovery by flashing the BIOS
The second case is typical for Gigabyte 8IPE1000-series motherboards. In this case, it may be, in general, that just flashing the "correct" BIOS is enough.
Using ProBIOS
To check for the possibility of reviving boards with such a problem (stop at the 25th postcode for Award and D0 for AMI) - you can-you need to use the "probios" (tested bios). ProBIOS is a special BIOS suitable for most motherboards based on i845/i865/i848 + ICH4/ICH5 logic. It contains the initialization of only the "vital" parts of the board (which allows it to be used as a test and for all "other" cases - just a repair), including the omitted procedure, which in the "standard" (normal, "native") bios board and freezes.
3. Result
So, as a result, at the output we usually get a decrease in the heating of the south bridge (by 15-20 degrees compared to the temperature before the "treatment"), as well as a fully functional motherboard. True, with allowance for the missing USB ports, however, nothing will prevent you from installing an "external" PCI USB controller and thus getting an absolutely working system.
Laptops and personal computers are very complex devices. There are so many microchips in them that an unprepared user could not even dream of. Often all these "pieces of iron" tend to fail. In service centers, they get off with the faceless wording "the north bridge of the motherboard burned down." And what kind of bridge is this and where did it come from on this very board - God knows. Severe IT people are not going to explain the device of a computer to mere mortals. But you need to know this, since the problem is very serious and occurs quite often. That's what we'll talk about now.
What is northbridge
The northbridge is a controller on the motherboard, which is responsible for the performance of some of its very important nodes. Often this bridge is paired with an integrated graphics core (especially in laptops). This is not surprising, because the bridge is responsible for the operation of the video adapter, central processor, RAM and other critical computer components. It is by his grace that the entire multicomponent system works. It is named so because of its location. But not because of the temperature.
A paradox, but much "colder" than the northern one. This is due to the fact that the northbridge is in close proximity to the processor and video card. This affects its temperature in the most negative way. Therefore, it is supplied with an additional cooler or cooling radiator. In addition, this bridge is usually installed in the upper part of the body. And hot air, as you know, rises. Hence the additional load on this element. Is it worth mentioning that it is this component of the motherboard that burns out first?
Signs of failure
It's pretty simple. Since the north bridge of a laptop or PC is responsible for the operation of the most important components, it is quite easy to diagnose a breakdown. It is enough to turn on the computer. The first sign will be that there will be no image on the screen. There may also be no access to the hard disk. RAM won't load either. As a result, you will hear a characteristic sound signal in the form of a nasty squeak.
Also, a cyclic restart of the computer can be a symptom. It all depends on the degree of damage to the component. Another common symptom may be that the computer turns on from the fifth or even the tenth time. If these symptoms occur, then your northbridge on your laptop or PC is seriously damaged. And you should not delay this, because you can lose all other computer components that are still working properly.
Causes of failure
There are a great many of them. Therefore, it is impossible to immediately understand what happened. The most common reason is overheating. The north bridge simply burns out due to exceeding the permissible temperature. Such a thing takes place when there is insufficient cooling of the component. Physical damage on impact is also possible. Moreover, the motherboard itself is not necessary to "pound". The controller is very fragile. He just needs a little push. The last reason is a factory marriage. It is extremely rare. Manufacturers usually warn users that there is a defective chip in the motherboard. When he flies - a matter of time.
The northbridge and southbridge are pretty finicky components. They only need a slight shake, an insignificant overheating or a power surge - and that's it, they are dead. By the way, the ingress of liquid into the computer is also a common cause of failure. It is enough for the smallest drop to get on the contact, as a short circuit immediately occurs, and the controller burns out. And without this control element, PC operation is impossible.
Repair
You can’t fix the failed north bridge with your own hands. This is a complex device that is produced by specialized robots. Such accuracy is not available to a person. Therefore, in the service centers, no one will poke around in the controller. There is only one way out - to replace the bridge. The quality of the replacement depends on the individual master. It is not recommended to give your laptops and PCs into the hands of "craftsmen", because these comrades can kill everything there. It is better to use the services of professionals.
If you have a motherboard with a deliberately faulty controller (which was confirmed by the manufacturer), then it’s better not to wait for X hour at all. The North Bridge will be replaced under warranty for free at the manufacturer’s authorized service center. But it is better not to delay this, because the consequences can be very sad.
Prevention
In order to avoid the failure of this component of the motherboard, you just need to follow not very complicated operating rules. First, you need to regularly clean the case from dust and dirt. Particular attention should be paid to coolers and other components of the cooling system. For if you let everything take its course, then the north bridge will simply burn out, unable to withstand the high temperature. You should also check the cooling system for performance at all times. If any cooler fails, it should be replaced immediately.
Secondly, never expose your laptop or PC to physical impact. This is also detrimental to this component. Third, keep pets away from laptops and PCs. Their hair clogs the cooling system very quickly. As a result - overheating and failure of the bridge. Fourth, never drink anything near a laptop or PC. One drop of liquid leaked onto the motherboard is enough for the northbridge to "play in the box".
Conclusion
Now you know what the north bridge of a computer motherboard is, what it serves for and what it is afraid of. Following simple rules for the safe operation of your computer will help to avoid the failure of this finicky component. Diagnosing a malfunction of this component of the motherboard is also very simple. If the PC does not start, reboots and there is no image, then with a high degree of probability we can say that the north bridge has died. It cannot be repaired, only changed. Still, it's easier to replace it than the entire motherboard. Treat your computer with care, and you will never have such problems.
Southbridge failure is the most common problem on boards using i845/i865/i848-series chipset sets. The main reason is the burnout of the USB controller built directly into the south bridge. However, the purpose of this article is not to search for reasons, but ways to "return to life" such boards.
In the event of a failure due to the "dying" of the USB controller (in the south bridge), the following main behaviors of the motherboard are possible:
1. The board does not turn on (forced start gives zeros on the postcard), the south bridge is already warming up from the standby power supply. The board starts but hangs at POST code 25 (for Award BIOS 6.0) or D0 (for AMIBIOS8).
2. The board starts but freezes at POST code 25 (for Award BIOS 6.0) or D0 (for AMIBIOS8).
Solution methods:
1. Restoration by the method of "annealing"
The first case is especially typical for Asus P4P800 series boards. With this option, you can-need to use the "annealing" method. What does "anneal" mean? This means that in order to prevent shortening of the power supply of already burned parts (inside the south bridge) - they are deliberately "burned" voltage until they finally burn out, thus ceasing to interfere with the functioning of all the others, which, as a rule, remain perfectly serviceable , blocks inside the chip.
"Annealing" the standby power
We check if the duty 5V and 3.3V are sagging.
We supply standby power and check if the standby 5V and 3.3V are sagging. If so, we apply "power" 5V / 3.3V to them and turn on the PSU for a short time (with a jumper on PS_ON). We remove all jumpers, check the duty voltages. "Rise" - good, did not rise - we try again, and a few more times, it does not work - we leave the "power" jumpers and move on.
"Annealing" the load of capacitors connected to the outputs of internal standby sources
We are looking for three capacitors on the board connected to the outputs of internal standby 1.5V sources (VCCSUS1_5A, B, C) - at least one of them has sagged to 0.2..0.4V (as a rule, this is only VCCSUS1_5A) and "anneal" its load. To do this, first we supply 1.5V (it is possible with Vcc of the installed processor, it is possible with Vmch / agp). If it doesn’t help, we make several short circuits to 2.5V of the memory supply or, in extreme cases, 3.3V. Burning out with five volts is dangerous - there is a possibility that the south bridge will die for good. If 2.5V does not help - before applying 3.3, it is recommended to try 3.3VSB first (as a relatively low-current source). If as a result the voltage rose to the required 1.5V, then the operation was successful! (The temperature of the south bridge should drop by 15-20 degrees compared to what it was before the "annealing").
2. Recovery by flashing the BIOS
The second case is typical for Gigabyte 8IPE1000-series motherboards. In this case, it may be, in general, that just flashing the "correct" BIOS is enough.
Using ProBIOS
To check for the possibility of reviving boards with such a problem (stop at the 25th postcode for Award and D0 for AMI) - you can-you need to use the "probios" (tested bios). ProBIOS is a special BIOS suitable for most motherboards based on i845/i865/i848 + ICH4/ICH5 logic. It contains the initialization of only the "vital" parts of the board (which allows it to be used as a test and for all "other" cases - just a repair), including the omitted procedure, which in the "standard" (normal, "native") bios board and freezes.
So, as a result, at the output we should get a decrease in the heating of the south bridge (by 15-20 degrees compared to the temperature before the "treatment"), as well as a fully functional motherboard. True, with allowance for the missing USB ports, however, nothing will prevent you from installing an "external" PCI USB controller and thus getting an absolutely working system.
Quite often, in service centers, owners of computers and laptops hear a disappointing verdict: "The north bridge needs to be replaced." There can be a lot of reasons for this, but most often the temperature becomes the "culprit" of the breakdown. Prolonged overheating adversely affects the operation of the entire computer as a whole, and also reduces its performance. In the case of motherboard controllers (north and south bridges), the problem manifests itself most noticeably: both chipsets get very hot, the temperature of the north bridge in working condition can reach 50-60°C. And a few extra degrees can break the bridge once and for all.
What is a northbridge in a laptop?
Separate elements of the motherboard are hidden by the laptop keyboard, and the northbridge is no exception. It is responsible for the connection of the video adapter (video card), processor and RAM. The northbridge ensures the interaction of the above elements, and also determines the speed of their work. In many laptops, the video card and the northbridge are one, which is why the control of the video adapter bus also falls on the "shoulders" of this controller. Due to the high operating temperature, the northbridge usually uses a passive heatsink or an active cooling system.
Why is a southbridge needed on a motherboard?
The prerogative of the south bridge is "slow" operations. It is responsible for the operation of the SATA, IDE, LAN, USB, BIOS, audio and northbridge interfaces. Several more buses are connected here, including SM and PCI. The south bridge also has a second name - the I / O controller, because. all connected peripherals communicate with it directly. The temperature of the south bridge is much lower than that of the north bridge. the speed of the operations performed also cannot be compared. Cooling is much less common here. In order for the bridge to work properly, regular cleaning of the laptop is necessary. Otherwise, you will have to contact laptop repair.
What to do if there are problems with bridges?
If your north bridge burned out, only replacing it can solve the problem. This is a rather complicated procedure that can be performed by the professionals of our service center. The alternative solution is to replace the entire motherboard and it will cost much more.
When the south bridge is warming up, you should think about cleaning the laptop, which can solve almost all problems with this controller. The replacement of the south bridge is necessary only in the most critical and neglected situations, and it is carried out by analogy with the north one.
