Ok. It has never happened that boot up failed with a blank screen, and it took 4 seconds to power off - it always powers off immediately when boot up fails. I been through that many times. So I don't know why you are saying that if the tech fixed the SB, and then he found it booted to a blank screen...

Both chips... So the SB won't cause a hang after the computers already up and running? Considering all the stuff it controls, that surprises me. I would expect the turn-off delay after the computer successfully started. At $60 for two chips reflowed, I could get a board for around that price from E-...

@poshgeordie: Yes, it turns off immediately when I push the power button on a failed start up. However, if the computer freezes while it's already on and Windows was happily running, then there's the normal delay (4 seconds?) before it turns off. Who would you recommend in the US to reflow the SB?

Someone on another forum thinks the Southbridge can't be the only problem. "I've seen a bad SB freeze the machine at the splash screen, but not before that. I don't believe it's possible for that to happen, given the way hardware is loaded from the BIOS." When it doesn't start up, the hard drive lig...

Thanks. I knew the SB caused a USB problem like this, but I didn't know if the SB would also lock up the computer, but I read the GPU problem would. One chip to get reflowed... I didn't mean the SB could get static damage while taking it out, I was referring to the design flaw where plugging in a US...

Two months ago my USB ports degraded to 1.1, and I started getting the message about devices working faster in a 2.0 port. This was two weeks after I tried someones MP3 player, when they said it wouldn't work in their computer, and I got a message that the device was drawing to much power, and the U...